Why a BA Degree?
Written by Julia Yurchesyn
Thumbail and Banner Photo by Giammarco Boscaro on Unsplash
It’s the age of technology, the time of discovery and innovation. New developments such as ChatGPT demonstrate how STEM fields are all the rage and will shape our futures. When it comes to deciding what to major in, STEM disciplines are the ones that seem to be heralded as the stable option. Writers Natasha Singer and Kalley Huang point out in a NYT article that tech giants like Microsoft and Google have encouraged many to pursue careers in tech through the promise of a rewarding career, and the prestige of a tech job has led to a massive growth in the number of computer science/programming students in the US.
So, at this moment in history, what is the saving grace for humanities students?
While some STEM majors act like vocational pathways, an arts degree does not come with a specific kind of job or position tied to it. For many, spending thousands of dollars on a discipline can be difficult without additional economic assurance at the end of the road. Even the value of a BA degree is questioned—you don’t take labs or learn to create the next Facebook, and you don’t get the bragging rights of knowing how to solve difficult math problems. The words ‘easy’ and ‘interesting’ can be associated with the humanities, and while I certainly find the humanities fascinating, this article will discuss reasons why the liberal arts are still a legitimate course of study.
A term you may have heard before, critical thinking is a skill that the humanities are excellent at developing. A lot of the time, points aren’t earned by picking the right answer. Rather, the right answer is just out of reach and impossible to define. These are problems different from the ones you’ll come across in math class, but they are relevant to your interactions with others and your overall worldview. This method of thinking will affect the way you listen to others; rather than listening to respond with your own opinion, you try to understand another person’s perspective. When one is truly engaged with an education in the humanities, skills like active listening and empathy become second-nature.
I’ll use my own major to illustrate this: in English literature, the meaning of a text is an integral question, but it can never be pinned down because meaning is constantly shifting through different systems and structures, many of which are constructed by humans. When it is so easy to have access to information through things like social media, being able to understand the different meanings being conveyed within a text and then deciding whether it is something you accept is essential. Understanding how meaning is created can help you respond to the texts you’ll come across throughout your day and also enable you to communicate with others more effectively.
So, while the subjects under the humanities study different lines of inquiry, what they share is an emphasis on thinking critically regarding topics we may initially think are obvious. They empower our minds to think differently about reality, and challenge us to grow beyond our initial understanding. Humanities majors are encouraged to rock the boat to develop new ideas and ways of thinking. This, in turn, affects the world around them—those who learn, grow, and change are able to innovate and create in extraordinary ways.
Additionally, while you may not have the technical expertise a STEM major would have, the ability to think critically, communicate, and persuade are applicable to absolutely everything. As this article by Amanda Ruggeri points out, the soft skills that employers look for in applicants are nurtured quite well in the humanities.
And this is the key—as our reliance on technology grows, it’s the humanities that sets us apart and gives innovation significance. The value of these disciplines are timeless. When everything is at risk of being overtaken by AI, those who study the arts make themselves indispensable to society by offering a line of thought that is unique, yet crucial. Technology gains significance when it is considered through the lens of the humanities. As Steve Jobs said: “it's technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the result that makes our heart sing." The world needs humanities majors just as much as it needs STEM majors.
Photo by Alex Kotliarskyi on Unsplash
Let’s return back to Singer and Huang’s NYT article. Though more and more students have been choosing to study computer science with their sights set on the major companies, what they’ve noticed is that finding a stable job in the big tech industry has actually become much more difficult, with layoffs becoming more common and frequent. I mention this to demonstrate that even though there may be more demand for STEM graduates, this does not, unfortunately, make them immune to corporate pressures. And of course, as AI continues to develop and evolve, the more technical/skill-based jobs will be overrun by it.
While the BA is not the path for every university student, it is for some. And if you want to study a humanities discipline but are worried that a BA is useless and will get you nowhere, know that studying the humanities is one of the most valuable things you can do. By exposing you to different ways of considering the world, its challenges will help you to grow into an independent and innovative thinker and also change you as a person.