Reply to Old (2019) NYT article—“In the salary race, Engineering majors sprint, but English majors endure”

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Why are many here continually making the assumption that kids are being pushed into CS by their parents? Our public school district has been laser-focused on touting the importance of competency in STEM skills since my now-HS kid was in kindergarten.

Additionally, if a kid shows a preference for and aptitude in math and science over social studies, language and literature, doesn't want to be a doctor or lawyer but wants to make a fairly decent living, engineering/CS etc. seem to be one obvious answer for them. [/quote]

I have know idea whether it's parental pressure or response to the STEM drumbeat, but the number of math majors has exploded.  I don't teach but I've heard from a lot of people who do, and math course are more unpleasant than ever.  The students that are taking classes because they like math are now very much drowned out by the people who hate the classes, hate the major, but think it will pay the bills.  It didn't used to be this way, but every field gets over run from time to time.[/quote]

College is not a place to continue your hobby paying shit ton of money.[/quote]

Nor is it the place to fail classes over and over in a subject you both hate & suck at, that you only picked because you thought it was the golden ticket. [/quote]

I don’t know where the failing classes part is coming from, it’s totally possible to get a stem degree with no skill beyond sit-on-your-butt. [/quote]

Yes, an environmental science degree.[/quote]

A math degree.[/quote]

It is not possible to get a math degree “with no skill beyond sit-on-your-butt.”[/quote]

It absolutely is, I know so many examples. Short of actual disability, anyone could get a math degree. I don’t know where this reverence comes from.[/quote]

I don’t think any idiot could get a classics or a philosophy degree either.

But I am truly confused about your assertion that one needs no skills to get a math degree.  I think most of us with average to high average IQs could handle the math that goes into engineering. But higher level math does require a certain type of mind.  Not saying those people are “smarter” but I truly don’t think anyone could do it.  [/quote]

Producing advanced math sure,[b] completing a math degree absolutely does not require skill beyond sit-on-your-butt. [/b] It's a lot more fun if you're the sort that just naturally loves it, but you can say that about any field.  Point is this is exactly what's going on in math departments right now, people are plodding through math degrees like other people plod through econ degrees.  (There are people who love econ, there are plenty who don't but get by all the same.)[/quote]

This is what idiots say who have never completed a math degree.[/quote]

Nope, the opposite.  I would guess it's mostly proud parents and people in other fields who are pushing back.  (An engineer who grudgingly competes the math for their degree *is* someone in another field.) I'm saying it and I have a math degree.  I bring it up here because I'm hearing it from people who have fancier degrees than mine, and are teaching this influx of students.[/quote]

I have a math degree and you're full of sh*t. Nobody can grind it out without skill and intelligence. Any "plodding" people get weeded out sophomore year and driven into other majors. [/quote]

Or, the degree you hold is evidence they aren’t weeded out. Just saying.[/quote]

lol no I saw the weeding out happen. Sounds like you got a fake degree from an online program, just saying.[/quote]

Or, you saw people unwilling to sit-on-their-butt because a math degree wasn’t worth it to them.  Now people believe there are jobs for math majors and that law schools, medical schools value the training.  Things have changed. I do know people with math degrees who just stuck it out, it’s always been possible. The difference is now it’s becoming common place.[/quote]

It’s fascinating to me that there is a poster who keeps insisting that anyone can finish a math BS. [/quote]

It’s curious to me that a field that throughout history was just one of the subjects an educated person studies, has now been walled off as requiring special genius. I think the disrespect English majors get around here is wrong, but the reverence for math majors is weirder still.  I was math/physics married to a math major parent of a math major and a history major, child of two English majors (including one who managed hundreds of engineers as a technical director and did very well without an advanced degree, just a stint in government).[/quote]

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