Why Social Sciences are Pushed More Than the Hard Sciences in College

I got this as a response to a post I made a while back. And rarely do I post commenters' comments beyond just the post they made their comment on. But this was worthwhile as it was similar to what I saw when I was teaching economics. The school I was at needed equipment and gear to teach the kids. This would have required a new building and new equipment. However, somebody got the ingenious idea that they would rent some nearby cheap office space and require the students to get "general ed requirements." Then in shifts the kids would come in and take their general education requirements while the other students used whatever lab equipment they needed. They more or less doubled enrollment without having to spend twice on the gear. Anyway, here's the post;

"Ironicly the worthless degrees are VERY much about capitalisim, or at least very much about greed.

One reason why there are more lawyers than there are engineers is that a school can make more money selling law degrees than engineering degrees. Once you have the sunk cost of the classrooms and the law library you only need some washed up litigators for professors, and if you want to better amortize your sunk costs you can always add a few of them as adjuncts professors and set up a night program. As such the per unit cost of each additional student is pretty low.

On the other hand scientists require labs, materials, experiments, equipment, possibly even field work. This is expensive. It costs a lot for Dr. Wu to research the cutting edge of superconductivity, and Dr. Chandra to research quantum computing and the cost of an observatory for Dr. Goldstien to study Kuiper Belt objects of the outer solar system...well that gets fobbed off on the Government. By comparision it is downright cheap for Prof. Henrette to research the Anit-Femminist Subtext of 14th Century French Divorce Laws...even if that means sending her to Paris for a month.

So a university will prefer to open a law school (along with the prestige that brings) over building a cutting edge hypersonic wind tunnel for aeronautics research. The wind tunnel will cost LOTS of money and few students use it. The tuition is about the same as in the Law School, (probably lower in fact) and per unit cost (to the school) of a Masters Degree in hypersonic aeronautical engineering is going to be pretty high.

Furthermore, the school won't see much if any direct return on investment, and will loose money. (Sure they may get a NASA contract or two, but how many hypersonic aeronautical engineers become a State Senator someday? or come back to the Alumni office and cut a big check to donate a building in their name?)

On the other hand with a Law School they can dangle massively inflated "average starting sallary" figures at prospective students, and gladly take the money that Sallie Mae loans the student victims for three, or four, or seven years. The per unit cost of a law degree is very low (see above). The school makes tons of money, today, and has a handful of influental alumni tommorow.

You see this to an even greater degree (no pun intended) for undergrad. The tuition is the same for an engineering major and a femminist studies major... but what does it cost the school to "educate" the femminist studies major? Assistant Professor sallary and "domestic partner benefits" for a couple of otherwise unemployable ex-activists, a handful of subscriptions to obscure journals for the library, the sunk cost of power and heat for a couple of classrooms, the coffee machine, and some food for the department's cats. At some of the more expensive private schools a single one of Daddy's tuition checks has covered the cost of his little LUG's entire degree, and every dime from there on in is (for the school) pure gravy.

If this means the school then turns these students loose with a mountian of debt and few, if any, marketable skills...well that's not the school's problem."