To think that the sciences are taken more seriously than the arts?

[toptramp]

I did love science at school. Well Chemistry and Biology but my maths was shite so decided to drop Chemistry at a-level and took Biology a language and English. I now have a degree in the arts but I think I would be taken more seriously and earn more if I had stuck with Chemistry a-level and got a science degree instead. I do love Biology but I love my degree subject so much taht I'm glad I did it.

I guess scientists and related professions do a great service to humanity(generally but not always) so they should be rewarded. But the world would be a poorer place without the arts.

I did BSc and DH a BA in Peace Studies. I used to rib him and call it "Piece of Piss Studies" but I couldn't tell whose degree was easier because he worked his arse off and I didn't.

Also, his Phd looked pretty hard won to me. In order to do the research he needed to do he had to learn Russian and then travel to the Russian speaking country and live there for four months. The country he traveled to was not a very cushy place to be either.

The forensic science service is being closed and the big Pfizer site in Kent is now closed, so science hasn't been taken so seriously in recent years.

All I'm getting at is, there are so many variables to consider (are sciences taught badly, so it's harder to achieve good grades? Do candidates self-select, so clever people are more likely to do whichever subject? What bearing does economic demand have? Does teaching at primary school bias students one way or the other - on this issue, btw, I think the answer is yes!), that it's not really possible to work out objectively which subjects are 'harder' than others. Students, IME, will compete like mad to show theirs is the easiest subject, the one with the fewest demands on their time ... a few years later they will complete just as hard to insist nothing could have been more rigorous. Which is true?

My problem is with the degrees that pretend to be useful training and are not. I think it is really unpleasant that students who're less well-placed to realize what they're getting into can end up wasting three years on a course that isn't what it appears to be. This can happen as easily with Bsc degrees as BA degrees.

Ah yes Ella

Two big culprits atm in my areas (fair few unis here): anything religion & philosophy absed unles syou wish to teach, even then numbers are being cut hugely; and forensics. Massively disproportionate numbers of grads to jobs.

Damn you CSi

Yeah, I was thinking of forensics! Funny that.

Mathematics is an art that underpins the whole universe.

True Nancy though had the universe been left to my mathematician ex we'd all be long gone . And whislt it migt underpin it, somehhow I think we should still value the Arts educated terrorism/ fundamentalism expert I mentioned earlier- before someone compeltely negates the needs for further research and underpinning of any kind.

Swings, roundabouts and the occasional see saw innit?

I'd rather have a cure for cancer than 2 crows nailed to the wall of an art gallery.

But that's just me.

Tiggy not all arts are- art

YY to cure for cancer but equally it's quite handy if person with cancer has a charioty worker or otehrwise to help them emotionallya nd financially too, and loads fo those have BAs (used to work for Macmillan LOL, though in admin / fundraising, no angels to see here)

Back to the park rides of my previous posts then....