aibarr

Being that half of my husband's dissertation is a comparison of Bartok's and Lutoslawski's concertos for orchestra, I think I'm talking about the same sort of thing, here.

Point being, they're both tough career choices, but in different ways, and that I wouldn't say one is easier than another. They're different, and we each gravitate towards our strengths, and the OP's friend's uncle is completely wrong in ignoring the strengths of engineers.

mydegisunacred

That's true, I'm just saying music is on a different level than a lot of liberal arts majors. It's almost like a technical major with notes instead of numbers. they put in a ton of hours

mcim

I'll just answer this thread simply by saying that engineering is tougher than art history.

I assume this from the assumption that if you put engineers in Art History classes and put Art History majorers into engineering classes, engineers would do better overall in those classes than the AH's would do in the engineering classes.

And last but not least, if you had the choice of having a group of engineers or a group of AHs working for you, I think its kinda obvious the choice to make(supposing salary is the same and both groups are fairly representative of the range of skills/intelligence).

hs-student

"Yeah, I imagine he's been dealing with the kind of engineers that like engineering for the aspects of it which can be very plug and chug, and not the creative thinking, problem solving aspects most engineers enjoy about the field."

Can you please explain what you mean with "plug and chug"?

auscguy

art history is like one of the easiest major. It is pretty much all memorization, anyone can do it.

mydegisunacred

"plug and chug" refers to the sort of problems where there is a memorized sequence of steps, and you can plug numbers into the given equations with minimal thought

Citan

I completely agree with your Uncle. I mean working in Starbucks after graduation requires much more skill than working in say, Intel. Oh, btw by "I completely agree with your Uncle" I meant that I completely agree with your Uncle that he is an idiot.

vblick

I killed so many brain cells at college that I took art history just to see how good my memory still was. I got an A and took the next one since the first was so easy.

Comparing the two degrees is a joke.

DocT

For people who have talent in what they're pursuing, it is always easier and more fun than other pursuits. As an example, which do you think that Einstein would have found easier - physics or art history?

xjis

art history. no, im dead serious and i have to wonder if you are joking.



it's not like he had a mental disease that he found physics extremely easy as compared to, say, Art History.

aibarr

Yeah, that's the thing... It's easy to do art history badly and get a good grade in an intro class. It's difficult to do art history well. It's amazingly difficult to become a noted art historian. I fathom that it'd be harder for me to become a noted art historian than it would be to get to design skyscrapers, but that also might be because I've gotten to the point where they let me do the one, but not the other, so the other seems harder... I dunno.

The capacity for challenge is there... But I'd say that within certain programs, yeah, it can be a blowoff major. Someone once told me that a non-technical academic major (at Rice we called them "academs" or "slackadems") can be as easy or as difficult as you make it. I kind of tend to believe that, and I would presume that the uncle of the friend of the OP's tends to hire the ones that make it difficult.

But it's still screwed up that he won't hire engineers, because like there are different levels of gusto with which art historians attack their degrees, there are different levels of gusto with which engineers approach people-situations.

DocT

No I'm not joking - why don't you read some biographies. As a scientist who has been heavily involved in engineering for >30 years, I can tell you that if you find other subjects so much easier than engineering, you're definitely in the wrong field. I don't know anybody who has been successful that doesn't find technical subjects easier. As a matter of fact, many had difficulties in meeting their humanities requirements in college. The people I work with find reading technical material easier and far more enjoyable than reading a novel. I remember an older colleague telling me as I started on my Ph.D., (somewhat jokingly) that unless I preferred reading science to reading Playboy, I was barking up the wrong tree.

aibarr

Maybe the OP's friend's uncle doesn't hire us because we're so blindly convinced of the inferiority and relative worthlessness of a liberal arts education...

xjis

ok. i totally didn't say liberal arts education is worthless.


only thing i said is there are simply some courses/majors that are harder than others

http://www.theuniversityfaculty.corn...96/Figure1.pdf

average gpa from physics dept: 2.86
" " math dept: 2.88
"" chemistry: 2.91


average gpa from classics dept: 3.51

vossron

I'm an engineer, and the way my mind works, I agree with your friend's uncle that engineers may be a poor choice for non-engineering positions. I know others find engineering difficult, but it all depends on how your mind works. Engineers have their place, and are paid well by middle class standards, but if you want someone to be your Fortune 500 CEO, hire a non-engineering LAC graduate with an advanced degree.