STEM vs. liberal arts majors

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The Ellimist
Alright what is your substantive take on their comparative benefits?

dadudemon
This LMGTFY link has some great answers in the first 5-ish choices (this is not a trick or joke):

http://bfy.tw/HxaY

dadudemon
WTF? Wrong thread. Ignore the above post.

Putinbot1
Well, @OP liberal arts majors will be able to write some excellent poetry about what the world was like before Global warming gave us desertification. They will probably have just enough time before the AI's and Bioweapons wipe everyone still around out.

cdtm
STEM is obviously more important from a quality of life standpoint.

I'd prefer both my media and my cure for cancer, but if I had to choose one, I know which I'd take.

The Ellimist
mmm

Kurk
The liberal arts (including B.A chemistry and biology) are a HOBBY. We need to first ask ourselves why people traditionally went to college.

This documentary highlights pretty much all of the flaws with higher-education (those that aren't ivy league lol).

This snipit of it best explains why people traditionally flooded towards higher education after WWII

https://youtu.be/BcxDVYo2wH8?t=57m9s

In a nutshell, FDR signed the G.I bill which allowed all of the servicemen returning from the war to pursue higher education at minimal cost to them. Before this, only elitist upper class Americans could afford to go (because they were going for this "hobby" of learning the liberal arts/become well-rounded; not to gain market value). Pell grants in the seventies allowed the poor to attend university with 95%+ of costs covered by the government.

So now you have a bunch of middle & lower-class people obtaining a degree that was previously unique to the upper class. For a while, this looked good to employers and college became a guaranteed route to the middle-class lifestyle.

Then the state & federal governments cut financial aids/grants b/c of the "college grads make 1 million+ over their lifetime" bullshit; assuming that the grads could handle the cost themselves. It began to not make financial sense to pursue a worthless lib arts degree with the market already saturated with college grads.

So now you have a bunch of sheep who are still following the trend from the middle of the 20th century hoping to find a pot of gold on the other side of the rainbow.


If you have $XX,000 to blow on a liberal arts degree because you find it "interesting to learn about" then more power to ya. It's your hobby after all. But, I would never advise those in the lower-middle class to pursue one, going into substantial debt, for nothing guaranteed in the end. Those individuals are better off going to trade/vocational schools to become financially stable. If you want to further your education after that, go ahead.

The only reason why anyone should pursue a liberal degree:

1. You have money to blow on a hobby
2. You have some kick-ass social skills that will land you a cushy internship→job by the time you graduate.


Otherwise please pursue some smart STEM field or maybe a finance/business/accounting degree if you have any hopes of not being a debt slave until you're 50.

Putinbot1
The Ivy League, they are the Universities which are comparable with the Russell Group amirite. smile Although of course Oxford and Cambridge, MIT and Caltech for stem are in a league of their own. As a Russell Group Graduate, I agree Ivy League and Russell Group Colleges are different from others.

https://russellgroup.ac.uk/news/the-world-university-rankings-2011/

Putinbot1
Why Russell Group and Ivy League Graduates have doors opened for them?

https://universumglobal.com/insights/ivy-league-russell-group-students/

It's still true.

Rockydonovang
stem helps preserve life, creative expression makes life worth protecting.

Putinbot1
Originally posted by Rockydonovang
stem helps preserve life, creative expression makes life worth protecting. Fair comment, except for Global Warming, The Atom Bomb etc. But no one can tell the future as history is not deterministic. It is a type 2 Chaotic system.

Kurk
Originally posted by Rockydonovang
stem helps preserve life, creative expression makes life worth protecting.
Interesting food for thought.

A better comeback for Putinbot1 rather than mocking us would've been to point out that two things I value dearly, Star Wars and Raven, are forms of creative expression.

As for science being used for malevolent purposes...that's not unique to it. Humans have always been capable of being irresponsible. Science is simply a type of power, and must be wielded responsibly.

Putinbot1
Originally posted by Kurk
Interesting food for thought.

A better comeback for Putinbot1 rather than mocking us would've been to point out that two things I value dearly, Star Wars and Raven, are forms of creative expression.

As for science being used for malevolent purposes...that's not unique to it. Humans have always been capable of being irresponsible. Science is simply a type of power and must be wielded responsibly. Actually from about 1750 Science has been directly linked to empire. An Interesting story would be Cooks voyage to Australia, Cook had decided to prove the theory Fruit stopped Scurvy, he did so successfully and thereby the British, my people were able to completely eradicate the people of Tasmania who had lived in Isolation for 10.000 years, the last few committed suicide to avoid the "European Scientific World" well-meaning missionaries were trying to teach them about, because it was not a world they wanted to live in.

Surtur
Originally posted by Kurk
Interesting food for thought.

A better comeback for Putinbot1 rather than mocking us would've been to point out that two things I value dearly, Star Wars and Raven, are forms of creative expression.

As for science being used for malevolent purposes...that's not unique to it. Humans have always been capable of being irresponsible. Science is simply a type of power, and must be wielded responsibly.

I'm not even sure why global warming and the atomic bomb are being put on the same list. The atom bomb was invented via science. Global warming wasn't created by scientists lol. It was an unintended side effect, not something created by science that someone decided to use for evil.

And one could easily argue the atomic bomb does help preserve life. Yes obviously a nuclear explosion kills people, but the only reason we haven't been nuked is because we have nukes lol. And people can't even weasel out and say "well the US started it all", since nah...it's not like if we didn't create it..it never would have been created. And it could have been someone legitimately evil who ended up running the country that would first create it.

Putinbot1
Originally posted by Surtur
I'm not even sure why global warming and the atomic bomb are being put on the same list. The atom bomb was invented via science. Global warming wasn't created by scientists lol. It was an unintended side effect, not something created by science that someone decided to use for evil.

And one could easily argue the atomic bomb does help preserve life. Yes obviously a nuclear explosion kills people, but the only reason we haven't been nuked is because we have nukes lol. And people can't even weasel out and say "well the US started it all", since nah...it's not like if we didn't create it..it never would have been created. And it could have been someone legitimately evil who ended up running the country that would first create it. Because History is not deterministic, it will be Ironic if our quest for power leads to the end of us be, it by accident or accident by design. If people are around to look back on us in the future the outcomes of the resent world turmoil, the rise in temperature, the advent of new ways to kill ourselves, AI etc will have perhaps been worth it although there is no true way to gauge success of an organism beyond proliferation and that in itself is flawed. If no one is around to look back... Well as an organism Homo Sapien will just be a forgotten footnote in the History of this planet.

Surtur
Originally posted by Putinbot1
Because History is not deterministic, it will be Ironic if our quest for power leads to the end of us be, it by accident or accident by design. If people are around to look back on us in the future the outcomes of the resent world turmoil, the rise in temperature, the advent of new ways to kill ourselves, AI etc will have perhaps been worth it although there is no true way to gauge success of an organism beyond proliferation and that in itself is flawed. If no one is around to look back... Well as an organism Homo Sapien will just be a forgotten footnote in the History of this planet.

Neat! When you feel like attempting to negate any points I made feel free to do so.

The Ellimist
lol @ the 4d counter trolling

Surtur
Society benefits from both STEM and the arts.

If I live a long life that allows me to take in all kinds of art in its various forms...that will have been 100% because of science.

Surtur
"She blinded me with artwork".

Yeah, just doesn't have the same ring to it.

-FIMvSp01C8

Kurk
Well art is a means of stimulating our creativity which in turn is important to the application of science and technology.

It's a proven fact that one's spatial-temporal reasoning abilities increase after listening to classical music, which is quite important in understanding parts of mathematics.

I'm a musician, but I pursue it because it's a means to an end for science & math; not because I want to become a professional orchestral member.

There is a place for the arts, but it's not above the advancement of humanity by discovering and tapping into new technologies.

Putinbot1
, recent lol must be tired

Rockydonovang
Scientific progress is double edged. Whether we use it to progress ourselves or destroy ourselves is based on our identity which is what art nurtures and expresses. "Art"(which i'm defining as basically anything creative like writing, music, ect.) is essential to human society. It's the engine that drives the machine. Soceity has gotten better because of

A. Scientific progress
B. Cultural progress ensuring that the scientific progress is used for improvement

And you cannot have cultural progress without the expression of ideas, aka art.

Putinbot1
Our identity is only in the now. As is our dominant culture which in language and most aspirations was created in northern Europe 200 years ago and lensed through the US and other lesser ex colonies. Who is to say the rise of China will give future generations a culture we see as our own?

Wonder Man
I started on Stem in highschool and at college went into Liberal Arts to expand my mind. It worked for me. In advanced college you get to select your speciality and that can wait until you achieve it.
The old adage about finishing college before work is still effective.

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