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Engineering vs. Liberal Arts: Who’s Right—Bill or Steve? (wadhwa.com)
4 points by mbm on March 26, 2011 | hide | past | favorite | 4 comments


I think it comes down to what you have planned for the future. I can think of several people who bit the "liberal arts" bullet, to get a well rounded education, worked in a random industry, then ended up going back to a graduate school/law school/etc due to lack of opportunity. From random sources I've read, the average salaries for a science degree are simply higher.

Here's a comparison by Worcester Polytechnic Institute I found: http://www.wpi.edu/academics/Majors/LAE/bavsbs.html. They emphasize that the BS option would be more for "hardcore" science.


I would be very interested to see a similar survey done of Asian tech execs. Is anyone aware of such a study? The hypothesis would be the proportion that's technically educated is greater but I could be wrong.


Is there even an equivalent to liberal arts education in Asian universities? I honestly don't know, but it would be strange as liberal arts originally developed in Western universities as a kind of finishing school for upper-class gentlemen. I don't see why societies without a connection to classical European culture would find the liberal arts style of curriculum compelling.


Engineering vs. Liberal Arts is an odd debate, because most college students major in neither. The most popular majors in the USA are things like business, marketing, communications and psychology.




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