Are humanity subjects genuinely useless?

just fyi if you're even mildly interested in a career in STEM i think you should check out some university entry requirements cuz you might need more than just half-science-half-humanities at A levels, so may be limiting yourself anyway.

regarding 'useless degree' advice, tbh you need to take it with a grain of salt on here and be mindful that chances are just as good it's coming from someone who hasn't even had a career before and have based their opinion on rumours and hearsay. there are just as many jobs - if not more - that you can do with a humanities degree including anything to do with law, social work, policing, civil service, politics, teaching, journalism, economics, marketing, banking and entrepreneurship to name a few.

STEM degrees open up more opportunities, but if the job you want doesn't fall into that category then it doesn't matter if you do stem or not.

Agreed. But if the goal is to understand the world around us, humanities are essential. Plus - if we are looking at the skills you develop, critical thinking, analysis of ideas, team working and self-motivation are all achieved through study of the humanities.

i think youre overestimating what a degree actually teaches you thats useful in real life

I think you equally underestimate the employability skills people gain at university. The trouble is, no one bothers to tell students that they are learning said skills and as a result their CVs do not do them good service. Even in school, students gain all manner of useful skills. For example, in my classes, I actively encourage problem solving, collaborative working, resilience, initiative etc etc. The "stuff" they learn is kind of irrelevant. It is the fact they can learn it and their ability to recognise the skills they have used in order to learn it that matters.

But regardless, having a rounded knowledge of the world around us is essential to being part of a civilised society. To dismiss the social sciences as irrelevant is to be ignorant to the extreme.

I'm aware this is probably going to get quite heated, but it needs to be asked.

I've been looking around TSR, and there seems to be a lot of STEM superiority / badmouthing about humanity subjects. One thing I've noticed being said quite a lot is that non-STEM graduates are not employable or will end up at McDonald's. I don't think it's true, but I was wondering why people say that. What about those who genuinely work hard, go to good universities and end up in high positions?

As somebody who's currently deciding their A level options, it's significantly impacted my thought process behind the subjects I choose. I'm debating between going down a full humanitarian route or splitting half and half between STEM and non-STEM, for fear of being "unemployed" in the future.

I want a career that's fulfilling and rewarding, not one that gives me bucket loads of money but makes me unhappy. I don't know what to do anymore, I'm so fed up of seeing threads about "useless" humanity degrees.

I knew something was off when you said that humanity degrees are essential to understand the world... now it all makes sense, you're a teacher, and probably in humanities.
no student would ever say what you have just said.

the skills you listed that are learnt in humanities, like team working, critical thinking etc.. are learnt much better doing an actual job.

Yes, I am a teacher, but not of the humanities. I am right at the heart of STEM thank you very much.

But I recognise that life isn't just about doing stuff. It is about thinking and understanding and the humanities play their part, just as language, music, drama, PE, art, food tech and any other "non-essential" subject does. It is called being a rounded individual.

I find it sad that we having this discussion. The working class of yesteryear recognised the importance of the world around them, expressing it through brass bands, art clubs, poetry, debating and philosophy clubs. It isn't STEM vs. humanities. It is STEM and humanities that are important. STEM gets you a job. Humanities and the arts make you human.

you're talking about humanities in real life with clubs, bands etc, you can still go to those clubs if you did or are doing a stem degree. I agree that humanities in terms of what it actually represents is very useful, but I was talking about humanities as a degree. I don't think a humanities degree is necessary to have any of those qualities you mentioned. an understanding of humanities, yes, but you don't need a degree for that and id go as far to say that a lot of the time you don't get a proper understanding of humanities with some humanities degrees.

I get you. Well, I suppose you could argue that for all subjects. Why does anyone need a degree in anything when if you are intelligent, you can pretty much learn whatever on the job? Does that mean universities or the studies you appear to be deaming as pointless are worthless? I think if you only see university as a means to serve a future career I think you don't understand university or the value of education for education's sake. University is not and never was primarily about getting a job.

But equally, what about all the academics, geologists, historians, sociologists, meteorologists, oceanographers, artists, musicians and more besides who make massive contributions to society having studied the humanities.