Attending college is always an achievement; A pathway in the journey of life. Earning a degree is always an accomplishment, or at least it should be. As a high school senior, college is something I’ve thought about hundreds of times, willingly and unwillingly. My major is something I’m undecided about, and I know I’m not the only one. As I’ve been reflecting on this, I’ve seen a lot of things about college and majors on social media recently; there’s this one topic in particular that I’ve been stuck on: The STEM vs. Humanities debate.
With the advancement of science and rise of technology, STEM is the future; where the big bucks are. So logically, why wouldn’t you major in it? That seems to be the question in most videos of these debates I see. Art degrees are useless, what job could you find with those? What good-paying jobs at least. An art degree is a dead end. Not nearly as many opportunities as STEM. Arts are hobbies, STEM is a career..right?
Art is the backbone of society, it is the reason why we have movies, paintings, video games, shoes, makeup and everything in between. Why is that the most valuable things to us are always undermined? Personally I love the arts. I write poetry and short stories as a hobby. If money wasn’t something I was concerned about, I’d probably major in creative writing or theatre. However, money does play a big factor in what I want to do for a living, which is why I’m writing this article.
According to the New York Times, the advantages STEM majors have over liberal Arts majors in terms of salary dissipates by age 40. Not to say STEM isn’t important, because it absolutely is, but to emphasize the importance of both.
STEM majors are taught skills that are more specialized and specific to their workforce, whereas liberal arts majors are taught a wide range of skills that can be transferred across fields. Such as critical thinking skills, social skills, and problems-solving skills.
To anyone afraid to major in liberal arts because of this “stigma,” know that both fields are equally valuable and create many different pathways!Both fields are equally valuable and create many opportunities!
