Humanities vs. Technical Sciences: What Courses to Choose at College

Irrespective of the obvious variations in entry cutoffs, job opportunities for graduates with a bachelor in humanities and technical science subjects are relatively similar. Despite that, however, scholars have always had contentions regarding these two disciplines especially when it comes to choosing which to pursue at university. Occasionally, humanities and technical science courses have been used interchangeably. This has fueled further misinterpretation and poor exemplification of what they really are.

The Scope of the Two Types of Study (humanities and technical sciences)

Essentially, the two doctrines are entwined. Precisely, humanities are a subset of the larger technical science subjects. To put this into context, think of the geometrical principle which states that all cubes are rectangles but not all rectangles are cubes. Likewise, all humanities can be termed as technical sciences subjects and the opposite is true. With that understood, let's look at this from a broader perspective. Technical science subjects span across 4 main groupings which include:

• Humanities
• Natural science
• Social science
• Mathematics

Predominantly dealing with the human study and how natural scientific laws affect our lives, technical science is an extensive scholarly discipline that nurtures critical thinking among students. Its main goal is to impact learners with the relevant technical skills ultimately improving their everyday life.

In more specific terms, technical science programs entail critical subjects like  

• World history
• Biology
• Psychology
• Physics
• Statistics

On the flip side, as a sub-category of the latter, the humanities are also a respectable university field that strives to establish the aspects that make us who we are. Generally, humanity studies scopes across a wide range of subjects including Music, Theology, Journalism, Speech, Foreign language, Communication, Theater, Art, Literature, Film among others.

Brief overview

In summation, technical science subjects deal with the practical world and try to enlighten learners with the workings of the universe. On the other hand, humanities are more of a supplement of the latter and impact vital life skills like:

• Critical thinking
• Problem-solving
• Communication
• Creativity

While these talents are liquid gold in the modern business world, it is apparent that majoring in humanities is as lucrative as pursuing technical science subjects.

Which Subject to Choose at The University?

In terms of schooling and career development, technical sciences and humanities are often isolated as distinct disciplines. Even though, in reality, the two are complementary and practically inseparable. As a result, in most institutions of higher learning, during the first and second years of study scholars are required to undertake both subjects simultaneously.

However, during the 3rd and final year at the university students are given an exclusive opportunity to choose the discipline they are more inclined to major in. While this decision comes as a total surprise to many college students, deciding whether to specialize in humanity or technical science courses may be a real nightmare to many.

Well, obviously this should be an individual choice driven by personal interests. Nevertheless, every graduate wants to pursue a marketable niche. Though technical science courses may seem more lucrative in
terms of practicability and applicability, the truth is that neither of the two
has an edge over the other especially when it comes to winning contracts.

In fact, the current market trend indicates that a graduate with a bachelor of arts has more chances over those with BS. But since that is just a speculative analysis, let's have a more insightful look at what it takes to get a bachelor’s degree in either of two disciplines.

Commitment level

Whereas there is some kind of latent stigmatization upon students pursuing humanity subjects, the truth is that graduating with a BA is as demanding as graduating with a BS. Although the research methodology in humanity subjects varies significantly from the techniques employed in technical science courses at the end of the day, both are equally creative and result in one ultimate objective-realizing and sharing information.

Assuming a more scientific approach, technical science study is more straightforward and mostly deals with facts and figures. This approach is used in every research
paper writing service .However, humanity subjects involve creativity and thus require extensive essay writing and content analysis.

Recent research involving course structures of some of the leading universities in Australia (University of Queensland, Australia National University and University of South Wales) indicated that essay writing contributed to a staggering 60.1% of the entire history course work while only 20% featured in the ecology course work.

After further analysis where the two courses were broken down, it was found that the typical number of essay requirements for every compulsory history subject was 2.6 amounting to an ordinary impact of 78.6% to the final mark. Comparatively, when it came to the number of essays required for each ecology class the figures drastically reduced to 0.4 which had an aggregate impact of 12.2% on the final mark.

With that, students majoring in humanitarian courses may find themselves between a rock and a hard surface thus resolving to pay for an essay in order to deal with the heavy workload.

Final Words

Essentially, technical science subjects deal with the practical world and help learners understand how to navigate and make the world a better place. Nevertheless, pursuing humanities is a great learning experience that helps scholars discover their identity as individuals.

While there is no decisive answer to which subject to choose at the university, the decision lies among the learners themselves. However, before settling on a humanity-based subject or a technical science
course for your university studies, it is imperative for students to have a
crystal clear picture of the commitments and rewards involved.