"Doing arts not a waste of your points"

do whatever the **** you want and **** what people have to say about it. if you're digging ditches then strive to be the best ditch digger you can be.

When I did my Leaving cert I wanted to study English and philosophy. I changed my mind when my Father & Grandfather convinced me that would be "a load of sh1te".

I wanted to do something that would sound impressive so I went for Law in UCD, Law in TCD, Biz&Legal in UCD, that's all I put on the CAO form. Had to be Dublin as I didn't want to be too far away from the love of my life as then was. I was shy by 10 points for the first 2 so did the 3rd instead.

I finished that degree 9 years after I started it, lost all interest along the way. Although I will say it has opened doors for me and I now work in hedge funds in an area I would not have gotten into without the piece of paper.

Would I have stuck out the Arts degree and if so where would I be now, who knows....The love of my life dumped me a week into first year btw

Cormac... wrote: »

Tell me 1 subject choice in Arts that a 4 year degree would immediately qualify you to work in a PAYE career without doing further education?

For basic office PAYE, any arts degree will suffice. Wouldn't economics have one or two specific jobs open to it as well? What about a BA in Psychology? But I mean, for the most-part you'd have to specialise (post-degree) just like with Science.

I have a BA in English and philosophy and currently doing a masters in publishing.

I loved my college years,was genuinely interested in the majority of my classes and they really opened my mind on a lot of topics. My housemate did commerce and found the majority of his lectures boring and just a lot of rote learning.

I think everyone should do some philosophy, my modules in environmental ethics and cultural ethics really impacted upon me and changed the dynamic of my thinking. My philosophy lecturers were so intelligent,their minds just work in amazing ways.

Permabear wrote: »

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Interesting! I did an Arts degree in Psychology and Philosophy with the intention of continuing my education over the coming years in order to become a Clinical Psychologist. Got bored with Psychology mid way through a post grad in London and moved over to the Corporate world.

I didn't find the transition difficult and I do excellent for myself now. A lot of the people I work with have varying backgrounds, some of them specialist in areas such as accounting, economics, law and others with general arts background or even science. Your university background isn't really a determinant on how well you do in the corporate world, its all about you as a person, your drive, charisma, intelligence etc.

I know plenty of Oxford/Cambridge technical graduates who struggle where people with a far less prestigious and general education have flown up the ranks. I can see how an arts education gives you an edge in some ways as in my experience arts graduates can come across as more cultured/educated than individuals who specialize heavily into a technical degree. Some of those softer skills you learn doing arts can be a big help when navigating a political environment where often success is determined by who you know, how well you fit in and how you are perceived rather than what you know. Maybe all those extra hours Arts Grads can devote to socializing isn't necessarily a bad thing after all!

There is far more to life than the black and white some of you are talking about "Science vs Arts".

It's actually quite pathetic and petty some of the comments. I'm currently studying one of the MANY grey area degrees; Architecture. We learn practical skills like IT, Presentation, Negotiation, critical thinking etc. But we also learn about the history of Art, Architecture itself as well as political movements that influenced these, throw in environmental studies that we do and viola, grey area.

Practical degrees like IT, Science etc are excellent. Very much needed, jobs aplenty it seems and in general they seem to be decent degrees. But what's wrong with studying something a bit more arty? Why not a collection of both?

Sure, some people are perfectly happy living in Ireland all their lives, working in a stable job that requires very little adaption/extra learning, but there's plenty others who want to explore the world, learn about cultures and do things a little differently.
Not saying someone who studied IT can't do any of that, far from it. That's why you have to acknowledge there's a grey area, not just black and white!!

Science, Arts and everything in between.

Does anyone who has an Arts degree actually regret having it, or regret their course choice?

A good English degree is a great way into a lot of tech companies, have you ever asked a web developer to write content? Just don't, some of them have very poor written communication skills.

Clandestine wrote: »

I don't have much interest in programming but that's what I'm doing my degree in because it'll guarantee me security.

It really won't. Programming is one of the least "university qualification" driven disciplines there is (it's all about years of commercial experience) and if it doesn't interest you then you won't stick at it long enough.

I always find it funny people bashing arts degrees and 'artsy' types in general and then sit down to their nightly Game Of Thrones marathons