Would you let your child study liberal arts?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My undergrad degree is in a STEM degree and I worked as a lab scientist and then pivoted and am now not using my degree at all. Honestly I bought into the "liberal arts = no job" thing and it was a huge mistake. I was miserable in lab all the time whereas in my liberal arts minor I was happier. I graduated just fine and got a well paying job but I was just unhappy. I gambled and went to law school and I am so much happier. Writing legal memos on obscure regs genuinely makes me happy.

Point is: no point smashing a square peg into a round hole.

I got my undergrad in EE at a LAC. I loved the honors liberal arts classes I attended in my first two years, but dropped out of honors in my 3rd year when it conflicted with my core class curriculum. I really regret that to this day. Since graduation I spent my time doing technical work but have now gravitated towards roles where I interface between policy makers and tech. I am much more interested in applying my tech background to the bigger picture and strategic decision making. If I had a do over, I would gravitate towards history or maybe behavioral science.

[Anonymous]

WTH? You either haven’t done any research or are clueless. Are you confusing liberal arts and fine arts? I went to a small liberal arts school and went straight to investment banking on wall st. Most of my friends either went to wall st, consulting or law school. We all had English, Econ, history, etc degrees. Most of the graduates I ended up hiring on wall st also had similar degrees.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Liberal arts teach you what you need to be successfully so many different situations.

Engineering, accounting, finance, and other field-specific majors teach you how to solve problems in specific areas.


I have a degree in the former. My husband has a degree in the later. It's amazing how much of what I consider a whole education he is missing. He was prepared for a certain job, but doesn't have the familiarity with literature, art, history, and philosophy that I thought was normal because all of my SLAC friends recognize those references. And he sucks at Jeopardy. lol

Let me guess who makes more money!
DH

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Liberal arts teach you what you need to be successfully so many different situations.

Engineering, accounting, finance, and other field-specific majors teach you how to solve problems in specific areas.


I have a degree in the former. My husband has a degree in the later. It's amazing how much of what I consider a whole education he is missing. He was prepared for a certain job, but doesn't have the familiarity with literature, art, history, and philosophy that I thought was normal because all of my SLAC friends recognize those references. And he sucks at Jeopardy. lol

Let me guess who makes more money!
DH

Actually my (different pp) BIL the electrical engineer astoundingly makes less than I do with my English Lit degree.
He's been laid off so many times due to company buy outs that he has been royally screwed.

Liberal arts (Mathematics, biology, English, history, philosophy...) pay off in the long run; career majors pay off in the short run. And if you are an engineer you better save a lot of that money, unless you plan to have your own company and can make it happen by the time you are middle aged.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Liberal arts teach you what you need to be successfully so many different situations.

Engineering, accounting, finance, and other field-specific majors teach you how to solve problems in specific areas.


I have a degree in the former. My husband has a degree in the later. It's amazing how much of what I consider a whole education he is missing. He was prepared for a certain job, but doesn't have the familiarity with literature, art, history, and philosophy that I thought was normal because all of my SLAC friends recognize those references. And he sucks at Jeopardy. lol

Let me guess who makes more money!
DH

How many years post graduation? Push it 10 years and it will be the liberal arts majors

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Liberal arts teach you what you need to be successfully so many different situations.

Engineering, accounting, finance, and other field-specific majors teach you how to solve problems in specific areas.


I have a degree in the former. My husband has a degree in the later. It's amazing how much of what I consider a whole education he is missing. He was prepared for a certain job, but doesn't have the familiarity with literature, art, history, and philosophy that I thought was normal because all of my SLAC friends recognize those references. And he sucks at Jeopardy. lol

Let me guess who makes more money!
DH

Nope! I make $40k more than he does.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:WTH? You either haven’t done any research or are clueless. Are you confusing liberal arts and fine arts?

No I don't think he is.

All OP is "confusing" is 6 pages (and counting) of posters with his purposeful troll.

Please don't feed the trolls.

[Anonymous]

Op either didn’t go to college or has a very poor understanding of the relationship between majors and career paths. And furthermore is likely ill-informed regarding what the liberal arts actually entail.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Liberal arts teach you what you need to be successfully so many different situations.

Engineering, accounting, finance, and other field-specific majors teach you how to solve problems in specific areas.


I have a degree in the former. My husband has a degree in the later. It's amazing how much of what I consider a whole education he is missing. He was prepared for a certain job, but doesn't have the familiarity with literature, art, history, and philosophy that I thought was normal because all of my SLAC friends recognize those references. And he sucks at Jeopardy. lol

Let me guess who makes more money!
DH

How many years post graduation? Push it 10 years and it will be the liberal arts majors

This. Not surprised the liberal arts DW now makes more than her professional degree DH. It's what happens.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Liberal arts teach you what you need to be successfully so many different situations.

Engineering, accounting, finance, and other field-specific majors teach you how to solve problems in specific areas.


I have a degree in the former. My husband has a degree in the later. It's amazing how much of what I consider a whole education he is missing. He was prepared for a certain job, but doesn't have the familiarity with literature, art, history, and philosophy that I thought was normal because all of my SLAC friends recognize those references. And he sucks at Jeopardy. lol

Let me guess who makes more money!
DH

How many years post graduation? Push it 10 years and it will be the liberal arts majors

This. Not surprised the liberal arts DW now makes more than her professional degree DH. It's what happens.

+1 in our family. Plus, about 2/3 of the engineers I know ended up hating their careers. The only route up is often into management and they suck at it. And the technical stuff gets repetitive for some. The thing about those who major in a liberal arts know they are never going to get a job in Literature or History or whatever so they make career moves/advancement on what they like/are good at in jobs, not in school. The schools provides a base in writing, research, argumentation etc.--and a credential.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:WTH? You either haven’t done any research or are clueless. Are you confusing liberal arts and fine arts?

No I don't think he is.

All OP is "confusing" is 6 pages (and counting) of posters with his purposeful troll.

Please don't feed the trolls.

Just because a troll starts something, doesn't mean others don't find the conversation about liberal arts vs. career-oriented degrees useful. If the troll wants to gloat over the page count emerging from the post, let them have their simple pleasures.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:WTH? You either haven’t done any research or are clueless. Are you confusing liberal arts and fine arts?

No I don't think he is.

All OP is "confusing" is 6 pages (and counting) of posters with his purposeful troll.

Please don't feed the trolls.

Just because a troll starts something, doesn't mean others don't find the conversation about liberal arts vs. career-oriented degrees useful. If the troll wants to gloat over the page count emerging from the post, let them have their simple pleasures.

OK, that's fine... just like it did a few weeks ago and will again in a few more weeks. It's bad form on a forum, IMHO. Agree I am powerless to stop it.

Also, there is a gigantic flaw in your "liberal arts vs. career-oriented degrees" dichotomy as they are not mutually exclusive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:WTH? You either haven’t done any research or are clueless. Are you confusing liberal arts and fine arts?

No I don't think he is.

All OP is "confusing" is 6 pages (and counting) of posters with his purposeful troll.

Please don't feed the trolls.

Just because a troll starts something, doesn't mean others don't find the conversation about liberal arts vs. career-oriented degrees useful. If the troll wants to gloat over the page count emerging from the post, let them have their simple pleasures.

OK, that's fine... just like it did a few weeks ago and will again in a few more weeks. It's bad form on a forum, IMHO. Agree I am powerless to stop it.

Also, there is a gigantic flaw in your "liberal arts vs. career-oriented degrees" dichotomy as they are not mutually exclusive.

I'm not saying there's a dichotomy, it's more the proposition that OP troll set up. I thought the conversation around it was mildly interesting--people mainly expressed that it's not a dichotomy.

[Anonymous]

I have a liberal,arts degree and support myself designing, dancing, painting and teaching. I would be a miserable doctor or lawyer and am happy to have a career that allows me to bring artists and writers together, travel to photo shoots, design beautiful books, create works of art, perform on stages, and motivate others to be creative and active. I can’t imagine doing anything else with my life. So, yes, I would definitely let my children go into the liberal arts and/or the fine arts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Liberal arts teach you what you need to be successfully so many different situations.

Engineering, accounting, finance, and other field-specific majors teach you how to solve problems in specific areas.


I have a degree in the former. My husband has a degree in the later. It's amazing how much of what I consider a whole education he is missing. He was prepared for a certain job, but doesn't have the familiarity with literature, art, history, and philosophy that I thought was normal because all of my SLAC friends recognize those references. And he sucks at Jeopardy. lol

Let me guess who makes more money!
DH

Actually my (different pp) BIL the electrical engineer astoundingly makes less than I do with my English Lit degree.
He's been laid off so many times due to company buy outs that he has been royally screwed.

Liberal arts (Mathematics, biology, English, history, philosophy...) pay off in the long run; career majors pay off in the short run. And if you are an engineer you better save a lot of that money, unless you plan to have your own company and can make it happen by the time you are middle aged.

Sure, Jan.
https://www.hamiltonproject.org/assets/legacy/files/downloads_and_links/MajorDecisions-Figure_2a.pdf