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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
I know you think you are funny. But those of us who have achieved highly in stem (especially in research) have dual undergrad degrees in a stem field and a classic liberal arts.  The Vice President of research at Stanford has a bachelors in English Lit and Physics.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-benefit-cost-analysis/article/private-and-social-benefits-of-double-majors/CD1696DBF93DEFE3C2D3A759D6F0895B

OP - your kid who may not know what s/he wants to do as a high school senior is bound for greatness[/quote]

Yes, double major with stem or at least minor.
Good advice.
[/quote]

So seriously the trend is 'interdisciplinary'.You often encounter this word on college applications for good schools.
Double majoring is great but with a STEM program, it's almost impossible to double major and graduate in 4 years.

My best advice is to major in something serious, i.e. STEM, then get a supplemental minor in like psychology, philosophy, english, design, art, music, etc.whatever interests you.  
If you major in [b]liberal arts[/b], try to get a minor in STEM like CS, Data science, etc.if you are capable of.
Some universities actually offer interdisciplinary or combined majors these days.[/quote]
Okay, you people all need to learn what liberal arts means before you continue to bash on it. Liberal arts includes the physical and life sciences as well as information theory/CS. What you are really intending to bash on is the humanities and social sciences (though it seems many "liberal arts"-haters think that econ is okay).

As someone with a STEM PhD, this push toward STEM as being the only useful thing is destroying society and our civic life. English, design, art, etc are all "serious" disciplines. They may be less lucrative in today's job market, but that's not the same thing as unserious. Ideally, people have a strong foundation in all of the liberal arts and more in-depth specialization in a couple of fields. We have so degraded higher education (and education in general) in this country, though, that we've lost all sense of the value of education for anything beyond what jobs a degree enables a person to get. So many liberal arts schools (especially universities) are full of students who view their distribution requirements as something to "get over with" instead of an opportunity to get a well-rounded education.

I work in a very lucrative area of STEM that many of you all would love for your kids to go into, I'm sure. The poor communicators and those that lack a broader understanding of anything beyond their narrow area of study are deeply limited in their careers. They are also, IMHO, less good at the technical work since they don't understand the context in which it will be used. The bigger issue though, is that they are less likely to understand the unintended consequences of their work which harms us all (e.g. quantitative traders destroying the world's economy, narcissists like Musk pushing for AGI when we still haven't even figured out how to manage nuclear weapons, etc).[/quote]

This is beautiful, thank you for sharing your wisdom. The tunnel vision and narrow fixation on STEM is so depressing, and not even helpful. I would wish for my child to have your experience and worldview. [/quote]

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