Hierarchy of Subjects

[JamesGold]

<p>From what I can gather, the University of Liverpool conducted a poll among students in the UK asking them to rank school subjects in terms of prestige. Here are the results:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.liv.ac.uk/tqsd/national_student_survey_results/JACS_Hierarchy.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.liv.ac.uk/tqsd/national_student_survey_results/JACS_Hierarchy.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>If you're too lazy to click it, they were:</p>

<p>1) Medicine and Dentistry</p>

<p>2) Subjects Allied to Medicine</p>

<p>3) Biological Sciences</p>

<p>4) Veterinary Sciences</p>

<p>5) Agriculture and Related Subjects</p>

<p>6) Physical Sciences</p>

<p>7) Mathematical Sciences</p>

<p>8) Computer Science</p>

<p>9) Engineering and Technology</p>

<p>10) Architecture, Building, and Planning</p>

<p>11) Social Studies</p>

<p>12) Law</p>

<p>13) Business and Administrative Studies</p>

<p>14) Mass Communications and Documentation</p>

<p>15) Languages</p>

<p>16) Historical and Philosophical Studies</p>

<p>17) Creative Arts and Design</p>

<p>18) Education</p>

<p>I don't agree with this list. I think math, physical science, engineering, and computer science should be up at the top, followed by medicine, veterinary and biological sciences, and business should be much lower. Law could go up a few notches as well. But I'm heavily biased towards math and science, because quite frankly, only the highly intelligent can contribute to those fields, while the other subjects are more or less open to whomever wishes to participate. This is just my opinion, and take it as such.</p>

<p>What's your opinion?</p>

[icedragon]

<p>that you're takeing this too seriously...</p>

[JamesGold]

<p>Oh, come on, it's all in good fun! It's 2:16 AM and I'm looking for ways to procrastinate sleep.</p>

[AtlanticJumper]

<p>Teachers always get shafted. Haha.
Actually I read an article a few weeks ago that in the US teachers really are at the bottom of the totem pole for probably one of the more important fields. They interviewed this woman who came over to teach from China and she was appalled about how much disrespect US teachers got. Like in China the teachers would be #1 on that list...or at least not last.</p>

[Deker87]

<p>I am not surprised Art and Design majors is second to last on the list. We are always passed over for study aboard programs and internship opportunities at fortune 500 companies. The business and biology/premed and prelaw/sociology majors are always waited on hand and foot.</p>

[reesezpiecez103]

<p>I'm also sad that such a small value is placed on education - I think teaching is one of the most important jobs there is, and to place it absolutely last speaks volumes about the education system itself. I know this is from the UK, but I have a sneaking suspicion that it would probably hold true in the US. How would we pass on the other "prestigious" subjects if it weren't for teachers?</p>

<p>That being said, I think it's kind of funny that basically all types of science are the top few categories. I'd agree with that for the most part, but I also think that math and engineering should be higher, and business should be lowerl.</p>

[KMad]

<p>xkcd:</a> Purity</p>

[MonkeyKing1]

<p>I think it's absolutely absurd to rank subjects/academic fields of study in order of 'prestige'. Society in our modern would fall apart just as quickly with a lack of engineers as it would with a lack of lawyers and businessmen, as fast with a lack of scientists as with a lack of civicly-educated (social sciences/humanities not including economics) humans. </p>

<p>In my opinion, it's absolutely absurd. What needs to be looked at is;</p>

<ol>
<li>If the study is a legitimate field of study that's useful for mankind (Y/N).</li>
<li>The difficulty of the subject.</li>
</ol>

<p>Does that affect prestige? That's debatable. </p>

<p>And also, don't forget prestige is in the eyes of the beholder. Of course scientists and other such professions will say "oh wow you majored in a science/math/engineering? So much more impressive than a social science or humanities" while there are plenty of other people who will be like "wow you majored in a science/math/engineering? You must lack any care about the world or passion/knowledge about the human race.". Plenty of people respect humanities/social sciences/business/law over math/sciences/engineering, and of course many do vice versa as well.</p>

<p>In the end I believe it's all pointless. They are all legitimate fields of study that have their jobs and their contributions to human society.</p>

[maea]

<p>This link has NOTHING to do with prestige ranking!! JACS is a system of classifying different majors/concentrations by number. These items are not even in any significant order!</p>

<p>Learn more about JACS:
[url=<a href="http://www.campus.manchester.ac.uk/planningsupportoffice/PSO/MI/JACS/%5DJACS%5B/url"&gt;http://www.campus.manchester.ac.uk/planningsupportoffice/PSO/MI/JACS/]JACS[/url&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;/p>