Just for fun - which majors are high-brow vs. low-brow?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Undergrad nursing degree is lowbrow.

Basically the more immediately useful the coursework/the more it specifically prepares you for things you will literally be doing in your job (assuming your job is not academia), the lower-brow it is. Computer Science degree where you do a ton of theory and math: highbrow. CS degree where you get really good at coding: lowbrow.

Then we get into countersignaling, which is a whole ‘bother ball of wax.

I would agree with this, but I've often wondered, how did Engineering, Architecture, and Computer Science bypass this label?

Because nursing is a female dominated profession. Men typically pursued Engineering, architecture, CS, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Undergrad nursing degree is lowbrow.

Basically the more immediately useful the coursework/the more it specifically prepares you for things you will literally be doing in your job (assuming your job is not academia), the lower-brow it is. Computer Science degree where you do a ton of theory and math: highbrow. CS degree where you get really good at coding: lowbrow.

Then we get into countersignaling, which is a whole ‘bother ball of wax.

I would agree with this, but I've often wondered, how did Engineering, Architecture, and Computer Science bypass this label?

Because nursing is a female dominated profession. Men typically pursued Engineering, architecture, CS, etc.

Nursings also fall lower in the "status" totem pole than doctors in their workplaces. On the other hand, the top people in the architecture profession are trained architects.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Low brow: education majors. Unfortunately the teaching profession just doesn’t have respect (which I think it should.)

High Brow: STEM/pre-med

Wrong; STEM/pre-med are decidedly middle brow bc In an increasingly corporate dominated economy, you will always be a worker bee.

[Anonymous]

Among STEM , it is highbrow if you can win a Nobel Prize in it.

You can will a Nobel in Physics, you cannot win one in CS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Low brow: education majors. Unfortunately the teaching profession just doesn’t have respect (which I think it should.)

High Brow: STEM/pre-med

Wrong; STEM/pre-med are decidedly middle brow bc In an increasingly corporate dominated economy, you will always be a worker bee.

This is true

[Anonymous]

Nursing is one of the most demanding majors. Sciences plus clinicals. Most “high-brow” majors could never hack it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nursing is one of the most demanding majors. Sciences plus clinicals. Most “high-brow” majors could never hack it.

There was another thread about which major is the most difficult.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:High brow - majors that do not lead to paying jobs. Things like art history or film. Trust fund kids can do them.

Low brow - jobs that lead to employment directly out of undergrad - nursing, respiratory therapist, etc.

Middle - engineering, [b]business[b], hard sciences, math - smart kid majors that eventually lead to jobs but the path is not direct.

I tend to think of undergrad business as low-brow because business majors have pretty low GMAT scores and so picking the major is a poorly informed choice. Like how legal studies majors don't have high average LSAT scores. If a major is mostly populated with kids who want to go on a path that requires a specific graduate degree, it should be preparing them better for admissions into that degree program.

Undergrad business majors are a joke....which is why no top tier school offers them.

[Anonymous]

Classics is highbrow. Although you can major in classics without prior exposure to Latin and/or Ancient (not modern) Greek, my experience at an Ivy is that that pretty rare. And the types of high schools that offer Latin and/or Ancient Greek tend to either be private schools, magnet schools, or top publics in major metro areas.

[Anonymous]

Major that can be either extremely highbrow or extremely lowbrow--religious studies. The classes look very different at the two extremes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Major that can be either extremely highbrow or extremely lowbrow--religious studies. The classes look very different at the two extremes.

Princeton v. Liberty U.

[Anonymous]

Ethnic studies and gender studies are lowest brow

[Anonymous]

Engineering and CS and the like are elevated trades- so would be considered low brow

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Classics( Greek & Latin) is highest brow

YEY!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Classics( Greek & Latin) is highest brow

YEY!!!

Certe.