Hearing bad things about Arts

reindeerarmy

I've been reading about arts here and talking to some people who are saying arts is a waste of time some subjects at least if i do it i plan to do 4 of History, Politics, English, Sociology, Philosophy, Folklore
Would appreciate some feedback on these
Dont know much about folklore especially

partyguinness

Whether or not it is a waste of time really depends on you and what you do afterwards.

Every course has the potental to be a waste of time if you want them to be or have no game plan.

That is the thing about University, there is nobody to hold your hand and check up on you to see if you are doing the course work or guide you along.

It is entirely up to you and what you get out of it will depend on what you put into it..:)

KeyLimePie

Don't forget that it's all depends on what you wanna end up as ! Career first course second

Skapoot

Hey OP. Don't listen to people when they put Arts down. Any college course is tough and challenging. Its called the waster course because people apply for it thinking it will be a doss and realise they have to do actual work! Then they drop out.

Yes, I agree, any course would be a waste of time. But if you want to do this course and have a gameplan for afterwards e.g if you want to be a teacher? Then you're set. It won't be a waste of time for you.

Alternatively, if you want to do Arts but dont have a plan for afterwards, I'd say do arts and by the time the 3 years are up you'll know what you want to do and there will be postgrads for you to do./

Chin up. You're going to hear a whole lot of crap said about arts once you start college. Mostly from Nobs who chose their college course on the basis that it had the highest points. If you're one of those lucky few who actually know what they want then go for it!!

robp

reindeerarmy wrote: »

I've been reading about arts here and talking to some people who are saying arts is a waste of time some subjects at least if i do it i plan to do 4 of History, Politics, English, Sociology, Philosophy, Folklore
Would appreciate some feedback on these
Dont know much about folklore especially

I'm going into third year folklore next September. It’s a very interesting subject but the classes do get very small after first year. In many ways it resembles Anthropology more then just the study of Folklore. It’s a hard subject to fail if you put the work in but very difficult to do really well in. Have a look at the course handbooks on the depts website. That should give you a better idea what its like.

Steviewonder

reindeerarmy wrote: »

I've been reading about arts here and talking to some people who are saying arts is a waste of time some subjects at least if i do it i plan to do 4 of History, Politics, English, Sociology, Philosophy, Folklore
Would appreciate some feedback on these
Dont know much about folklore especially

hi reindeerarmy,

just after finishing 1st yr arts..
picked four subjects-
English-good lectures ,support,handy podcasts aswell..

History-interesting i would recomment it. lecturers are sound out,must do 3 essays throughout the whole year!

Greek n Roman-lectures can be boring,two class tests worth 25 and 50 end of year exams.tests not too difficult to be honest,lecturers are appproachable..

Celtic Civ-Stay away,completely mind boggling!!! ha

Sorry if im not more help..

Steve

captainspeckle

hi op!

i too just finished first arts and did english, history, psychology and sociology. it is true to say that there are a whole pile of wasters in arts who are doind it just to enjoy the whle college experience, but it is an amzing and broad course that you can really make the most out of if you put the work in. i met so many people who never went to lectures or handed in assignments or even turn up to exams! it made me pissed off that it was these people who were giving all arts students a bed name, even the ones who put so much work and dedication into theri course work. the reason arts really has so much wasters is down to law of averages!! there is just over a thousand in first year.. hence lots of wasters!! its the same with ony other big course, i.e. biological and chemical sciences.

anyways... back to the subjects!!

loved loved LOVED history, so interesting and has the nicest department ever. english was enjoyable too but pretty tough if you dont keep up with reading and study throughout the year. psychology was just a filler subject for me and one had one piece of continuous assesment which was ideal. also very intersting.. as for sociology.. hmm.. what can i say? met no-one who liked it! but very easy to get good marks in so wouldnt totally disregard it as a filler.

i hope some of this was helpful, and please dont jst forget about arts because of what others say. they dont realise the amount of efforts that actually goes into the course as all they usually see are the wasters drinking lattes in the coffee dock all day!

itsallaboutheL

captainspeckle wrote: »

hi op!

i too just finished first arts and did english, history, psychology and sociology. it is true to say that there are a whole pile of wasters in arts who are doind it just to enjoy the whle college experience, but it is an amzing and broad course that you can really make the most out of if you put the work in. i met so many people who never went to lectures or handed in assignments or even turn up to exams! it made me pissed off that it was these people who were giving all arts students a bed name, even the ones who put so much work and dedication into theri course work. the reason arts really has so much wasters is down to law of averages!! there is just over a thousand in first year.. hence lots of wasters!! its the same with ony other big course, i.e. biological and chemical sciences.

anyways... back to the subjects!!

loved loved LOVED history, so interesting and has the nicest department ever. english was enjoyable too but pretty tough if you dont keep up with reading and study throughout the year. psychology was just a filler subject for me and one had one piece of continuous assesment which was ideal. also very intersting.. as for sociology.. hmm.. what can i say? met no-one who liked it! but very easy to get good marks in so wouldnt totally disregard it as a filler.

i hope some of this was helpful, and please dont jst forget about arts because of what others say. they dont realise the amount of efforts that actually goes into the course as all they usually see are the wasters drinking lattes in the coffee dock all day!

Effort is relative good buddy

kob29

The problem with arts is that most come out of it trained to do nothing except write essays and there are no job ads looking for someone to do that and i have yet to see a job ad looking for someone with an arts degree. Several of them dont have any work experience built in, so theres another disadvantage when applying for work compared to other degrees.
Most careers will require a postgrad to actually train you to be able to do something that people value and need.
We all know TONNES of people who did arts because they didnt know what they wanted to do or heard you'd have 136 hours free per week and they lived the life of riley in college but have to play catchup at the end of 3 years.

So if you're doing arts pick your subjects carefully and be warned!

Amtmann

KeyLimePie wrote: »

Don't forget that it's all depends on what you wanna end up as ! Career first course second

Hmm. Not sure about that. Concentrate on the task at hand would be my mantra. When I went into First Arts I never envisaged that I'd end up with a big fat PhD scholarship and the possibility of an academic career. I envisaged the civil service or teaching. But no: a whole host of other options I'd never considered are open to me, all because I concentrated on the course and did my best to excel at it.

Arts can go either way. I'll say it again: it's easy to glide along, get a mediocre degree, and be indistinguishable from thousands of other Arts graduates. Or, you can excel. To do this, read, read, read. And read some more. Speak to your lecturers to get feedback and advice. Call to their office, get to know them, and let them know you're passionate about your subject.

If you rise to the top of your class, fairly lavish scholarships and opportunities to travel abroad open up to you.

The bottom line is that Arts can be great, or it can be the epitome of the mediocre. It's up to you.

My advice:

1) Choose the subjects that interest you. Don't do something you're not fond of. If you are about to start Arts, and you think you want to be a teacher afterwards, don't choose your subjects on the basis of: "I want to have four teachable subjects." This is A MISTAKE. Choose two main subjects and two others that you will find interesting and then ultimately drop.

2) Don't be afraid to do a Single rather than a Joint. You can do a Joint in second year and switch to a Single in third year. If by the end of second year you much prefer one subject, then do a Single in it. This maximises your chance of getting a First Class Honours, which in turn makes you very attractive for postgraduate scholarships.

3) Read, read, read.

4) Read, read, read.

5) Work on your writing skills.

6) Stay on top of assignments - DO NOT wait until the last minute.

7) Get to know your lecturers. By this I don't mean that you should be obsequious and kiss up to anyone. I mean if you have a problem, or need guidance, or want to discuss a topic that interests you, then make use of their office hours and call to see them. DO THIS!

8) Listen to people. Don't go into any topic with your mind already made up. Listen to other perspectives. Don't label yourself as ideologically one way or the other. You are there to LEARN.

9) Enjoy the course!

Amtmann

Just to add to my post above, I'm re-posting something I put up here a while ago. Some of it repeats what I wrote above; some of it doesn't.

RE Arts in general, I could offer some advice.

1) Seriously consider not doing Arts if you don't like reading.

2) Seriously consider not doing Arts if you are poor at writing - i.e. grammar, punctuation, syntax. These are all vitally important if you want to do well. It is easy to pass Arts; it is not easy to do very well.

3) Don't do Arts if you don't have any curiosity about the world - about politics, history, animals, places, things. If your idea of an 'interest' stops after soap operas, big brother and movies, then Arts isn't for you. To do well, you need to be a curious person.

4) Choose your main two subjects carefully. Try to make sure you'll like studying them for three years. And remember, these subjects are nothing like their secondary school equivalents - they're much more challenging, and are different methodologically and epistemologically. Take history: in school, the subject called history mostly concerns knowing about what I call 'events'. In third level, history concerns argument, analysis and interpretation.

5) You will end up dropping the other two subjects, so don't be afraid to try something new here, such as folklore. Contrary to the rumour you'll no doubt hear, just because you take two subjects in first year does not mean you can teach them to junior cert. That is bogus.

6) Don't go in with a closed mind. Don't categorise yourself as liberal or as conservative. Try to weigh all viewpoints in a detached way. As the lecturer once said in the first class of the Globalisation module, "If you're one of these people who thinks that Globalisation is all bad, get out now. I don't want you here." That said, some subjects (I'm looking at you, geography and sociology) tend to be dominated by left wing lecturers who, in my opinion, are more activists than scholars. Just be aware of that.

7) If you opt for a Joint in second year, be aware that you can switch to a Single in third year.

8) Do read some of the works listed in the bibliographies your lecturer will give you. Rather than reading whole books though, try to find academic articles on JSTOR instead. (I realise this means nothing to the opening poster at this point, but it will when s/he gets into UCC.)

Now, regarding *jobs*. It has been said that Arts is "very broad" and therefore good for jobs. On the other hand, it has been called worse than useless.

So, which is true? The answer, of course, is both. I'm not trying to fudge this, but this is not a simple question to answer. Again, it comes down to the Arts student's interests and abilities.

I have known many Arts students who have gone on to work in pubs, offices, HR, management etc. In other words, their Arts degrees were largely a waste of time in terms of improving their employment potential.

I've known others who've become teachers and high-ranking civil servants, editors, publishers and researchers (not just for companies, but for television stations and documentary channels too), as well as journalists and urban planners. These people made use of their Arts degrees, and were VERY well positioned to secure the jobs they did because they took that degree to begin with.

Then you have the top cadre - the people who take Arts so seriously that they secure their dream job, which is usually obscure and well paid. I have known osteoarchaeologists and marine archaeologists (the people I know have explored the remains of 16th-century Spanish galleons off the coast of Florida), palaeographers, museum curators, archivists and Latinists. The more obscure the qualification, the cooler it is and the more unorthodox the job one ultimately gets.
Palaeography is very interesting. It concerns the study of ancient handwriting. If you become an expert palaeographer in your field, the academic world is your oyster. You get to travel all over the world to teach this skill to postgraduates, and you are called to decipher critical historical documents for top academics. How do you attain this skill? (1) Do an Arts Degree (in History or English or the language of your choice), and (2) do a Postgraduate MPhil or PhD in the medieval or early modern period, specialising in documents that are difficult to read.
Then there are the Higher Critics. Higher Criticism concerns Biblical scholarship of the most exciting variety - it strives to date the books of the Bible, and to discover the genesis of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. It seeks to historicize the Book. It uses the methods of Classics, Hebraic Studies, Anthropology, Archaeology and Palaeography to do this.
In academia sociologists, economists, historians, geographers and political scientists have shaped the world we live in, politically, economically and socially.

While it's extremely unlikely that most Arts students would go on to become Higher Critics (although an Irishman, John Dominic Crossan, is one of the world experts in this field), the possibility is there - IF you work hard and are passionate.

This post exists to hammer home the point that Arts really is what you make of it.

Skapoot

Hey Furet thanks a million for that. Thats a great help, and the fact that you have an Arts Degree means you actually are the living proof of it. Would you mind me asking what you majored in and what postgrads/masters you did afterwards?

Nari85

Arts can be what you want it to be. I didn't attend class for most of my 3 years, had an absolute ball in cork tried everything. Did a joint major in geography and history. Finished last year some how got a 2.1 pretty much because i loved history and that brought my marks up. Doing a MA now that i love and hope to take it even further. Basically what im saying is that you will be able to enjoy arts as long as you have some interest in the subjects. But you really would want to have some idea what you want to do after the 3 years and make sure you pick your subjects carefully, i did archaeology in first year really regret giving it up for geography, core geography in third year is horrible

_Roz_

I did arts because I wanted to study English and Philosophy, and I did. I never intended to get a job after three years - I'm going to do a Masters in something, quite possibly Library and Information Technology.

I wouldn't even say you need to know what you want to do before you start Arts, just do what you really want to do with it and you'll find graduate courses opening up and leading into jobs that you will want to do.

As for subjects, as long as you don't go near Sociology, you're grand

reindeerarmy

whats the deal with sociology? whats so wrong with it

brazilicious

reindeerarmy wrote: »

whats the deal with sociology? whats so wrong with it

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055590347

Stick_man

Hi all, Im am seriously considering doing arts next year as a mature student and any advice would be most welcome. I have a pretty intense interest in literature, history, politics and have ambitions of becoming a journalist. I realise that perhaps an arts degree might not be essential to acheiving that ambition but I dont want to take the course purely for my career choice. I just think I would really enjoy studying some of the subjects mentioned. I do nothing outside of work besides reading and writing and in a sense feel something is lacking with regards to my education. Also would it be very difficult to secure a place being a mature student. Again any advice/comments would be much appreaciated.

DancingQueen:)

Quick question - people are saying that picking arts is good if you want to become a teacher. Does that mean you do four subjects, specialise in two after the course is finished do a masters and become a teacher in those two subjects?

ReacherCreature

DancingQueen:) wrote: »

Quick question - people are saying that picking arts is good if you want to become a teacher. Does that mean you do four subjects, specialise in two after the course is finished do a masters and become a teacher in those two subjects?

Yes and you can still teach your previous two subjects in 1st, 2nd, 3rd year of Secondary School as far as I know. Not totally sure on it!

grenache

I would agree with what most of the posters have already said, if you put the work in, and dont mind reading, then Arts can be a very enjoyable and most profitable course. Both my sisters did Arts in college, one is teaching and one is working in finance.
I'm just finished 1st year Arts in Cork and did the following subjects:

HISTORY - fantastic subject, really interesting and not at all difficult to pass. 3 essays to be completed during the year. The department are good to deal with and relatively friendly.

ARCHAEOLOGY - Parts of this course can be very interesting, for example medieval Irish history, but parts like the Mesolithic and Neolithic can bore the pants off you. 2 essays due during the year and a few short question exams also. Its a relatively straight forward final exam. Cant say enough good things about the people in the Arch department, they are the salt of the earth, really fantastic extra friendly and helpful. I wasn't going to keep this on, but because the people in the department are such good fun, i will be taking this forward into second year.

GEOGRAPHY - Very much a mixed bag, the Cultural part is very interesting, although Jim McLaughlin, the man who made it even more interesting, retired last Christmas so thats a pity. Economic geography can be stimulating but also incredibly boring. Physical is just a total pain in the behind, the biogeography part has to be the most sleep-inducing topic ever! Lots of science stuff in this. The lecturers are generally dead on, but the people (and i mean the women) in the Geography dept office are not nice to deal with. Everything is a chore to them, and they always give you this sort ''what do you want now!'' demeanour.

PSYCHOLOGY - There is an odd interesting part in this, but most of it is mish-mash with lots of big words. I found cognitive psychology to be suprisingly boring. Although i hear it gets slightly better in second year. You would want to really be in to this stuff to take it forward to second year though. For me its just a filler.

grenache

Stick_man wrote: »

Also would it be very difficult to secure a place being a mature student. Again any advice/comments would be much appreaciated.

Anyone doing Arts as a mature student must sit a matriculation exam in April. Basically its a simple essay question about your broader life. Also, when picking your subjects, I would advise people to give Sociology and Celtic Civ in particular, a very wide berth. 90% of the comments I have heard about these subjects have been of the negative kind.