Is it good policy to give financial aid to liberal arts majors?

[KrazyHorse]

The only people I ever even saw in a physics course at or above the 300 level were physics majors, graduate chemistry students, graduate electrical engineering students and math majors.

Only the physics and math people manage to keep up. The chem and EE people ask dumb questions and fail the class.

Meanwhile, I waltzed in to a 300 level history class and got an A- with ease (only formal history class I took after high school).

[Alexander's Horse]

Some universities make all students do humanities or Arts subjects.

You can't be a top gun scientists or engineer if you can't communicate your ideas or write up your results.

[KrazyHorse]

Anybody who doesn't know how to communicate by the time they're 18 isn't going to learn how to do so in some ****ty humanities class.

[GePap]

I am sorry, but its cutre seeing the science people be so self-congratulatory.

If we assume a principle in which the market sets the rate at which people's worths are to be based, lawyers and doctors and business people, not physicists, are the kidns of people our society values most. And physics majors are not particularly significant in any of those fields.

[Ramo]

300 level = upper division?

[KrazyHorse]

And physics majors are not particularly significant in any of those fields.

Errr...wrong

[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by Ramo
300 level = upper division?

300 level = Griffiths EM, Reif stat mech, first 2 real quantum classes etc

In other words, the courses in which you start actually doing something other than sliding blocks on inclined planes and converting units...

[GePap]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse

And physics majors are not particularly significant in any of those fields.

Errr...wrong

Really?

So a huge porition of thoser hard core physics majors taking those neato physics classes that only the smart ones take end up forsaking physics and going into law, medicine, or getting MBA's? What a waste of state resources then. They should be forced to pay back for waistng state resources just meddling with physics.

I would bet a higher percentage of lawyers were english majors than physics majors.

[Asher]

Originally posted by GePap
If we assume a principle in which the market sets the rate at which people's worths are to be based

Liberal Arts ranks at the very bottom of such a list. Which I'm sure you know, being near the bottom yourself.

[Asher]

Originally posted by GePap
I would bet a higher percentage of lawyers were english majors than physics majors.

Lawyers are a plague on society. Not a good angle to work.

How many MDs have a liberal arts undergrad, by the way?

[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by GePap


Really?

So a huge porition of thoser hard core physics majors taking those neato physics classes that only the smart ones take end up forsaking physics and going into law, medicine, or getting MBA's? What a waste of state resources then. They should be forced to pay back for waistng state resources just meddling with physics.

Given that quantitative financial analysis uses many of the mathematical tools developed by physicists, you're way off track.

[KrazyHorse]

I would bet a higher percentage of lawyers were english majors than physics majors.

Might be close. Patent law and all. And the relevant statistic is average lifetime earnings of people in different undergrad disciplines, not whether you can find one occupation in which english majors outnumber physicists.

[GePap]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse


Given that quantitative financial analysis uses many of the mathematical tools developed by physicists, you're way off track.

Off track how? Its does not matter if physicists developed tools used by financial analysts. The question here is, who does society value more, and how does society make this value known.

Do physicists as a profession get paid more or less than lawyers? Or doctors? Or financial executives?

That is the question. It does not matter if physicist make tools. Hell, the desks and chairs used by financial analysts were made by factory workers. That deos not mean factory workers earn that much.

[Kuciwalker]

All of the important tools that make a financial analyst's job possible were developed by physicists/mathematicians, from the transistor to the mathematical methods.

[Asher]

Originally posted by GePap
Do physicists as a profession get paid more or less than lawyers? Or doctors? Or financial executives?

Why are you comparing (presumably) undergrad degrees with degrees on a higher level?

Compare Apples to Apples, ace. This ain't no fudgey Liberal Arts class.