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"Every other kid wants to do a liberal arts major, but how many want to do math?" Liberal arts major as such is quite different from an art major. Many kids d

by gnosis 14y ago

"Every other kid wants to do a liberal arts major, but how many want to do math?" Liberal arts major as such is quite different from an art major. Many kids do want to maybe be an English or History major and then teach. Far, far fewer want to be an art major and try to survive as an artist (or even an art teacher). As far as math goes, maybe not all that many kids want to be mathematicians, but plenty do take a fair bit of math on their way to becoming engineers, programmers, doctors, and scientists. They all certainly take far more math courses than art courses. Of course, few artists take many math courses, but there are far fewer art students than there are students of professions that rely on math and need a decent education in math to graduate. "so many americans drop in favor of studying philosophy" Oh please. There are probably fewer philosophy majors in the US who actually want to do philosophy after school than art majors (of which there are very few). There'd be even fewer overall if philosophy wasn't the number one major of students accepted in to law school. Most philosophy majors just use that major as a means to get in to law school.

tracker1 14y ago
Funny, in my late teens, I was interested in philosophy, politics, religion, and government/law. My interest in philosophy wasn't as a career path... just an interest I had.. I was also interested in art/design... which is how I wound up falling into programming (which paid a lot better, and I had a talent for).
qzxt 14y ago
"Far, far fewer want to be an art major and try to survive as an artist (or even an art teacher)" Are you discounting the multitudes that study fashion design and graphic design? The ones that pile on at RISD and New School? Julliard? At this point I feel you should specify what you consider an artistic pursuit "As far as math goes, maybe not all that many kids want to be mathematicians, but plenty do take a fair bit of math on their way to becoming engineers, programmers, doctors, and scientists. They all certainly take far more math courses than art courses." No, actually beyond basic high school math many people never touch math again. Not even calculus. You talk about the ones on their way to becoming engineers and such. That's like complaining that people at chef school take more cooking classes than astrophysics classes. You talk about engineers, programmers, and scientists like everyone's just lining up at the door to become one. "few artists take many math courses, but there are far fewer art students than there are students of professions that rely on math and need a decent education in math to graduate." See the chefs and astrophysics above. A further counterpoint is that there are more students who graduate college who take a cultural "creative" course than there are students who take math. And like you've alluded to, many who even bother to touch calculus are the ones who are required to.
- gnosis 14y ago
  "Are you discounting the multitudes that study fashion design and graphic design? The ones that pile on at RISD and New School? Julliard? At this point I feel you should specify what you consider an artistic pursuit" RISD is a very small school. Only 2,282 students total. According to [1], they had 835 admissions, with a 34% acceptance rate. If my math is right, that makes for 2,455 applicants. Julliard is even smaller (800 students), though much more selective. According to [2], they had 2,138 applicants (of which they admitted 162 -- an 8% acceptance rate). So that's 4,420 total applicants to RISD and Julliard combined. According to [3], there were 3.3 million high school graduates in 2008. That would make for 0.13% (or about 1 out of 1000) high school graduates "pile on" Julliard and RISD. While 999 out of 1000 don't apply to either school (and the overwhelming majority of those probably not to any kind of art career path at all). "No, actually beyond basic high school math many people never touch math again. Not even calculus." Ok. But how much math did they take by the time they make it through high school math? Maybe 9, 10, or even 12 years of math. Which is probably an order of magnitude more than they have years of art. "You talk about the ones on their way to becoming engineers and such. That's like complaining that people at chef school take more cooking classes than astrophysics classes. You talk about engineers, programmers, and scientists like everyone's just lining up at the door to become one." Well, let's take a look at the 10 most popular majors in 2008.[4] Biology, Business administration and management, Communications, Computer science, Criminal justice, Elementary education, Marketing, Nursing, Psychology, Political science. Of those, I'd say Nursing and the more sciencey fields like Biology, Computer science, Psychology, and maybe some Political science need math. The others not so much. Of course, out of these, Computer science is the most math-heavy. Incidentally, according to this[5], Stanford's most popular major now is Computer Science. So, that's a fair bit of math there. Not as much as you'd need to major in engineering, applied math, or mathematics itself, of course. But perhaps more than what's taught in most high schools. Now, compare that to how many of these majors need art. I would say none of them do. And none of them are any kind of art major. So, yes, I think math has a very strong lead over art as far as the most popular majors go. [1] - http://www.theu.com/admissions_ratings/rhode_island_school_of_design http://www.theu.com/admissions_ratings/rhode_island_school_o... [2] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juilliard_School#Admittance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juilliard_School#Admittance [3] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/College_admissions_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/College_admissions_in_the_Unit... [4] - http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/worklife/10/27/cb.what.major.pays/index.html http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/worklife/10/27/cb.what.major.... [5] - http://mashable.com/2012/07/01/stanford-top-major-computer-science/ http://mashable.com/2012/07/01/stanford-top-major-computer-s...

by gnosis 14y ago

tracker1 14y ago

Funny, in my late teens, I was interested in philosophy, politics, religion, and government/law. My interest in philosophy wasn't as a career path... just an interest I had.. I was also interested in art/design... which is how I wound up falling into programming (which paid a lot better, and I had a talent for).

qzxt 14y ago

"Far, far fewer want to be an art major and try to survive as an artist (or even an art teacher)" Are you discounting the multitudes that study fashion design and graphic design? The ones that pile on at RISD and New School? Julliard? At this point I feel you should specify what you consider an artistic pursuit "As far as math goes, maybe not all that many kids want to be mathematicians, but plenty do take a fair bit of math on their way to becoming engineers, programmers, doctors, and scientists. They all certainly take far more math courses than art courses." No, actually beyond basic high school math many people never touch math again. Not even calculus. You talk about the ones on their way to becoming engineers and such. That's like complaining that people at chef school take more cooking classes than astrophysics classes. You talk about engineers, programmers, and scientists like everyone's just lining up at the door to become one. "few artists take many math courses, but there are far fewer art students than there are students of professions that rely on math and need a decent education in math to graduate." See the chefs and astrophysics above. A further counterpoint is that there are more students who graduate college who take a cultural "creative" course than there are students who take math. And like you've alluded to, many who even bother to touch calculus are the ones who are required to.

gnosis 14y ago
"Are you discounting the multitudes that study fashion design and graphic design? The ones that pile on at RISD and New School? Julliard? At this point I feel you should specify what you consider an artistic pursuit" RISD is a very small school. Only 2,282 students total. According to [1], they had 835 admissions, with a 34% acceptance rate. If my math is right, that makes for 2,455 applicants. Julliard is even smaller (800 students), though much more selective. According to [2], they had 2,138 applicants (of which they admitted 162 -- an 8% acceptance rate). So that's 4,420 total applicants to RISD and Julliard combined. According to [3], there were 3.3 million high school graduates in 2008. That would make for 0.13% (or about 1 out of 1000) high school graduates "pile on" Julliard and RISD. While 999 out of 1000 don't apply to either school (and the overwhelming majority of those probably not to any kind of art career path at all). "No, actually beyond basic high school math many people never touch math again. Not even calculus." Ok. But how much math did they take by the time they make it through high school math? Maybe 9, 10, or even 12 years of math. Which is probably an order of magnitude more than they have years of art. "You talk about the ones on their way to becoming engineers and such. That's like complaining that people at chef school take more cooking classes than astrophysics classes. You talk about engineers, programmers, and scientists like everyone's just lining up at the door to become one." Well, let's take a look at the 10 most popular majors in 2008.[4] Biology, Business administration and management, Communications, Computer science, Criminal justice, Elementary education, Marketing, Nursing, Psychology, Political science. Of those, I'd say Nursing and the more sciencey fields like Biology, Computer science, Psychology, and maybe some Political science need math. The others not so much. Of course, out of these, Computer science is the most math-heavy. Incidentally, according to this[5], Stanford's most popular major now is Computer Science. So, that's a fair bit of math there. Not as much as you'd need to major in engineering, applied math, or mathematics itself, of course. But perhaps more than what's taught in most high schools. Now, compare that to how many of these majors need art. I would say none of them do. And none of them are any kind of art major. So, yes, I think math has a very strong lead over art as far as the most popular majors go. [1] - http://www.theu.com/admissions_ratings/rhode_island_school_of_design http://www.theu.com/admissions_ratings/rhode_island_school_o... [2] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juilliard_School#Admittance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juilliard_School#Admittance [3] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/College_admissions_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/College_admissions_in_the_Unit... [4] - http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/worklife/10/27/cb.what.major.pays/index.html http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/worklife/10/27/cb.what.major.... [5] - http://mashable.com/2012/07/01/stanford-top-major-computer-science/ http://mashable.com/2012/07/01/stanford-top-major-computer-s...