Reply to Why Are Most Employable Majors Seemingly the Least Popular?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Some of the reasoning behind the salaries is supply and demand.  For the less popular disciplines, fewer students study it and then there are fewer graduates with that knowledge and skill set to meet the demand of the companies, businesses, etc that need those specialists and they pay more to get the better candidates from the smaller pool.

On the debate between the liberal arts vs the hard science/math disciplines, while there is an intrinsic value to both, I think that it is easier to teach much of the liberal arts disciplines after a university setting than to teach the math and science skills.  So, when you have a college degree, if you are going into a field that will require you to write better than you currently do, improving those skills will take less time in preparation for a job than learning the math and or science skills to prepare for a job.  Frequently when using applied mathematics or sciences, you are talking about layered learning.  For example, engineering, you need backgrounds in various math studies (algebra, geometry, calculus) then basic sciences (physics) before you can get to the courses in fluid dynamics, thermodynamics, or structural physics.  This is a generalization and there are similar arguments for more advanced liberal arts disciplines (e.g. writing, history, basic political science before getting into international politics, diplomacy, etc).  But I think a greater portion of the math and science disciplines required the layered learning that is time consuming to learn.[/quote]

1) You are confusing the liberal arts with the humanities (and possibly the social sciences). The liberal arts typically  include math and the hard sciences, but not applied or pre-professional majors. This is not to say that LACs don't offer majors like engineering (Swarthmore, for example, is a top LAC, but does offer an engineering major), but that they typically require their students to take classes in the humanities, social sciences, AND the hard sciences in order to graduate.

2) Math education in the US is terrible-- that's a huge reason why Americans find the sciences so difficult.. If we had better math in the elementary and high school years, we would see more majors in the hard sciences. [/quote]

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