The poor logic of STEM fanboys

/girls/non-binary gender individuals

It's time to settle this debate once and for all: why do STEM students deride arts and humanities students for studying non-STEM subjects? It's a well known fact that more and more employers are finding it impossible to hire decent scientists/technical researchers/engineers etc with a decent level of writing ability and critical thinking. Unemployment rates for Humanities graduates are generally higher than for STEM subjects, but that's becuase STEM subjects are often directly vocational. In fact, the best subjects for employability are not traditional STEM subjects, they are vocational qualifications like veterinary science, nursing, pharmaceuticals. Meanwhile some of the least employable subjects are fine art, history, philosophy, yes, but also economics and IT. Pure sciences (especially physics and maths) are not a guaranteed ticket to a job.

More importantly: what are the employment prospects for a history student, let's say? Granted, about 10% of history graduates will be unemployed after leaving uni, but that still means a 90% employment rate! Of which at least 75% will not be in McDonalds, but working in decent graduate jobs. And furthermore, that's for BA grads. If you go on to do a Masters, your employment prospects jump massively, and you can earn some impressive starter salaries. And some humanities are actually just as likely to get you a good job as many STEM degrees, especially languages. So the myth that 'Humanities grads will never get a good job' is just not true.

Humanities are generally speaking not vocational subjects, it's true. Most grads get a job in teaching, media, HR, sales, politics or other non-related subjects. But fundamentally, humanities degrees are about teaching soft skills, not hard skills. Which is not such a bad thing, when your job is likely to be something that no undergraduate qualification will actually help you in (what's the point in doing a journalism or marketing degree when you can just do a humanities degree and get the same result: a degree which teaches you how to be creative and how to write a persuasive and compelling piece/pitch).

As well as networking of course. Humanities subjects are berated for having barely any teaching time, but you can make that work to your advantage if you are a committee member of various societies and charities, whilst building friendships and making connections instead of spending your entire life in the library doing equations. If you don't spend your time wisely (and that includes diving into extra-curricular activities and using your uni's employability services as well as building up experience) then you are going to suffer for choosing to do a humanities degree, but make an effort to do so, and you'll find you will be having a much more fulfilling time at uni and come out with, at worst, the same prospects as a STEM graduate who didn't do any of those things.

And finally, a riposte to the tired old line: "if you want to learn about history/philosophy/literature, you can go to your public library free of charge, instead of paying thousands of pounds for a humanities degree."

Very witty. But let's forget for a second the fact that unless you live in Oxford your local library is unlikely to have any decent books on history or philosophy. Or the fact that reading a book is not even slightly the same as being taught by world-class academics. Or the fact that public libraries don't tend to stock the latest research journals. Or even the fact that reading books is not equivalent to writing critical essays and receiving feedback to improve your understanding, any more than reading a biography of Einstein is the same as being able to solve physics problems.

My reply to that point is simply this: doesn't your local library have maths books? Or physics books? Or can't you buy a chemistry textbook from Amazon? Why do you all study degrees whilst telling others to learn their subjects from a book?

"A musician would not compose music but keep his own lyre untuned, nor would a choirmaster allow his choir not to sing in harmony; so why should an individual be at variance with himself, and exhibit a life not at all in agreement with his words?" - Basil of Caesarea

you sound bitter ...

I feel like you are the only one who knew there was a debate


Posted from TSR Mobile

unless you live in Oxford your local library is unlikely to have any decent books on history or philosophy.

Clearly you are new to this forum.

If by bitter, you mean pissed off at how STEM superiority is starting to gain widespread exposure beyond its natural habitat of places like TSR, then yes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tjK3wOQKOA

I am sorry about that ...

Any clue why I got banned from the Harry Kane thread, I complimented his shooting


Posted from TSR Mobile

Didn't she do her degree in Journalism at some random college in the US? She's hardly the one to talk about these things...

Only Spurs supporters are allowed ...

Now feelings are hurt, I shall go full constellarknight on the OP


Posted from TSR Mobile

Omgggg!! You're not allowed to use any logic on this thread.

I lol'd