The Student Room Group

Scroll to see replies

usainlightning
Well i unlike you do not have 20 grand to blow on university education or have the time to waste three years of my life. Therefore i want a degree with the best earning potential.

I think it's precisely this state of affairs the poster you quoted is complaining about - that you have to think seriously about long-term financial benefit due to the costs now involved with studying.

Haksa
I think the problem is the lack of folk doing engineering/sicence degrees, hence the perception that these types of degrees are more valuable. If there were a sudden increase in Engineering graduates, we'd have employers bemoaning the lack social sciences students.

Aditionally, many hold the view that degrees in Maths/Biology/Physics etc are significantly harder than a degree in Geography/History/Politics. This is not without basis IMO. I feel that I could put together a relatively sound History essay on topic X - not saying that I would get a top-grade, but I honestly do not think it would be completely unobtainable for me, even with my comp-sci background. If I were to try my luck for, say, a Physics assignment, I am certain that I would fail.

That's an interesting issue. I think that's not a particularly fair comparison because the difficulty with novices doing physics and science is that it has a high access barrier. By this I mean that the information you have to have in order to comprehend the subject matter is quite advanced. One might argue this means it is harder because it shows you need this and the ability to work stuff out within that framework, but the problem is that it isn't unique to science by any means. While you might be able to do a history essay, you'd struggle on a particularly jargon-laden philosophy paper, or a even better example, a language paper. In the latter, it has a high access barrier too - you need to be able to speak the language - but that's not lumped together with science subjects (when it is, it is usually done so for economic comparisons rather than subject similarity per se). For this reason I'm not inclined to say that your ability/inability to do a subject as a novice means much at all.
Economics is a social science.
Reply 42
Bezzler
I didn't once suggest they should be studied over science subjects! I'm not arguing that arts subjects should be placed on a higher level than science subjects at all! I'm suggesting that both provide important skills, and so neither should be considered inferior. I think you've missed my point somewhat, which is that arts degrees are of equal worth to science degrees, and not lesser.


I misphrased somewhat - what I meant by 'being studied over another subject' was from the perspective of a prospective uni student who had the choice of the two types of degrees and needed some advice to help make his/her mind up.
I see your point OP, and I get irritated too when people say 'What's the point of studying x instead of y', x usually being something like History and y being Maths and Physics!

But I think threads like these just encourage the arts vs sciences rivalry tbh :no:
lets be perfectly frank... it would never happen!
they wont be allowed to do it..
people may say this stuff but they say lots of rubbish
about certain subjects being soft etc etc, just depends how their mind works, like for me maths is amasing ! i LOVE it... i find it easy, but then people would argue that its difficult.....

I dont feel like im making much sense today :frown:

x x x
The problem with you arts students is that you don't know anything :p:. You might be great at analysing and interpreting some cartoon (history students), but we can cure diseases and build skyscrapers.
Reply 46
Tempeststurm
Do you do much science? An equivalent statement would be "Literature requires memorising grammar and spelling". It's true, but there is so much more to Literature than spelling and grammar, just like there is so much more to Maths or Science than simply memorising formulae. G.H. Hardy put it best: I am interested in mathematics only as a creative art.


I did A-level Chemistry, Biology, Philosophy and English Literature. Phil. and Eng. Lit. actually took more than memorising what we were told in class.
Reply 47
Mr_Deeds
Yes, and a lot, perhaps even most arts degrees have massive earning potential. Lawyers, politicians and civil servants for example, tend to study subject like Law, Politics and History. These occupations arguably command higher salaries than engineers, physics teachers and even doctors.


You have to be a very high level civil servant to get high salaries, you need to work your way up. my mum is a low level civil servant but one of her friends is the big boss as it were and has a 2:1 in some ****, think it may be ancient history.

And took her 10 yrs to work her way up to 60k salary, in 10yrs doctors can be earning 100k+
Reply 48
Libtolu
You have to be a very high level civil servant to get high salaries, you need to work your way up. my mum is a low level civil servant but one of her friends is the big boss as it were and has a 2:1 in some ****, think it may be ancient history.

And took her 10 yrs to work her way up to 60k salary, in 10yrs doctors can be earning 100k+


Indeed; my mum's also a civil servant but works with people who earn well in excess of £60k though. It's the same with everything - work your way up and the financial rewards can be massive. The point is, most civil servants study arts degrees but the job prospects are still great. Similarly, there are plenty of lawyers who earn will in excess of £100k; in fact there are plenty of lawyers who earn well in excess of £1m and perhaps not surprisingly, lots of them study law degrees.
Reply 49
Bezzler
I'd say the opposite is true. One of the criticisms of the Norrington Table, which ranks Oxford colleges in order of achievement based on degree classification, is that it doesn't take into account the number of students who take science subjects versus those who take arts subjects - the colleges which have a higher proportion of science students generally get more firsts because it's easier to get a first in a science, so the colleges which have lots of arts students tend to come lower in the table.


I think that's more down to the discrete nature of sciences/maths. It's either right, or it's not. The same cannot be said for humanities because of their inherently subjective nature; hence the reason that more people are able to achieve higher marks in the sciences.

That said, I still feel that most non-history University level students could write a History essay to a decent enough standard. It may not be an exemplary piece of writing, but I'd wager that most would get a passing grade. Most non-physics students, however, would probably not be able to complete a Physics assignment.
Reply 50
Xerophelistica
The problem with you arts students is that you don't know anything :p:. You might be great at analysing and interpreting some cartoon (history students), but we can cure diseases and build skyscrapers.

^^ this.

I struggle to see how arts grads will solve our energy crisis, global warming, cure diseases etc.

Just my opinion.
Reply 51
Jormungandr

That's an interesting issue. I think that's not a particularly fair comparison because the difficulty with novices doing physics and science is that it has a high access barrier. By this I mean that the information you have to have in order to comprehend the subject matter is quite advanced. One might argue this means it is harder because it shows you need this and the ability to work stuff out within that framework, but the problem is that it isn't unique to science by any means. While you might be able to do a history essay, you'd struggle on a particularly jargon-laden philosophy paper, or a even better example, a language paper. In the latter, it has a high access barrier too - you need to be able to speak the language - but that's not lumped together with science subjects (when it is, it is usually done so for economic comparisons rather than subject similarity per se). For this reason I'm not inclined to say that your ability/inability to do a subject as a novice means much at all.


That's actually a very good point (re Access barriers). However, would you not concede that, for the most part, social science subjects tend to have a lower access barrier than their scientific counterparts?
AfghanistanBananistan
Sorry but for me that is utter tripe because their courses are not in any way harder than arts or social science courses. They are simply better at different things. Yes the world needs engineers and scientists but they also need journalists, teachers, businessmen and politicians, all of which do not need a science or engineering degree. What happened to the good old days when university was about academic fulfilment and learning, not about how you can best suit your future business employer.


Hear, hear!:biggrin:
You chat ****, the top unis have AAB-AAA requirements for the top courses.

As long as your not doing pointless David beckham studies or wine tasting at uni, then your course is FAR from Pointless.
Reply 54
It's very simple. There's a lack of highly-capable workers within the sciences, and there are far more jobs suited to an intellectual with a scientific degree, than one with an arts degree.

The majority of the true blue science based degrees have entry requirements more stringent than those for the arts, at the very top universities.

EDIT: To oppose all those arts students who would call the sciences mere memory subjects; obviously because you have an A-level in some science, in which you only learnt to do the exam, that clearly means that university sciences, and beyond, just involve this rote regurgitation of facts... :rolleyes:
Reply 55
Xerophelistica
The problem with you arts students is that you don't know anything :p:. You might be great at analysing and interpreting some cartoon (history students), but we can cure diseases and build skyscrapers.


That's great but you're looking at a small part of the bigger picture; you can't just invent pharmaceuticals and hope willy nilly that they'll cure a diseased population. What about everything else that's involved in that process; the legal, political and economic side of it?

Similarly, you can't just put up a sky scraper anywhere - do it in my back garden and I'll give you a personal lesson in the need for lawyers. What about the planning that goes into developing towns and cities and the bureaucracy that's involved in putting up buildings?

Mitch92uk
I struggle to see how arts grads will solve our energy crisis, global warming, cure diseases etc.


Those issues are inherently political in nature; whilst science can do a lot to solve these issues that's completely impossible without children having a balanced education, strong and level headed politicians, fair laws and good lawyers. The fact that scientists think they can save the world from flooding single handedly is one of the major reasons why we're in this mess already.
Please don't just call Geography a social science - it depends on which side of Geography you specialise in. There are physical, human and multidisciplinary geographers. The physical side of Geography is scientific in the traditional sense, whilst human geography is a social science.

Sorry for being pedantic there, but I do agree that there shouldn't be discrimination based on the subject. I think that we need to do more to encourage a larger number of people into engineering, mathematics and the sciences [whether they be biological, physical, earth or other], but I don't believe that it should take the form of discrimination against other subjects. 70% of graduate jobs don't require a specific degree - they simply require the broad range of skills that individuals who are educated to degree level have obtained. Geography, for example, usually doesn't lead to a geographically-related job, since it fosters a very wide general skillset that can be applied to most careers regardless of whether they're grounded in Geography or not.
Reply 57
Mr_Deeds
,


Tbh Deeds I take your point, I was on about more hardcore arts subjects rather than law/politics etc.
Aphotic Cosmos
Please don't just call Geography a social science - it depends on which side of Geography you specialise in. There are physical, human and multidisciplinary geographers. The physical side of Geography is scientific in the traditional sense, whilst human geography is a social science.

Sorry for being pedantic there, but I do agree that there shouldn't be discrimination based on the subject. I think that we need to do more to encourage a larger number of people into engineering, mathematics and the sciences [whether they be biological, physical, earth or other], but I don't believe that it should take the form of discrimination against other subjects. 70% of graduate jobs don't require a specific degree - they simply require the broad range of skills that individuals who are educated to degree level have obtained. Geography, for example, usually doesn't lead to a geographically-related job, since it fosters a very wide general skillset that can be applied to most careers regardless of whether they're grounded in Geography or not.


Normal people know this, but those who get offended by ridiculous wide reaching statements don't, or just love to be offended.
Reply 59
Aphotic Cosmos
Geography is scientific

:rofl:

Latest

Trending

Trending