College Majors: A Qualitative Study

Creativity is an abstract concept that is crucial as part of our advancements of mankind whether that be in the scientific fields with new inventions and research or in the artistic fields with new paintings and amazing portraits, but most people do not understand that the gift of creativity can be a crucial source of innovative ideas. As a result of the need of creativity, schools must include creativity as part of the daily curriculum that students learn. Students already spent seven hours a day at school, exposing them to a class that helps them efficiently and correctly use creativity would be beneficial to not only students but to all members of society. Places of education such as high schools must include classes in creativity in order to create

Creativity drives today’s world, with new technology arriving daily and science conducting itself further. We need creative and imaginative people in today’s atmosphere to bring the world to the next step forward. “Standardized college admissions tests assess only analytical skills, as well as the knowledge base on which they act, and completely ignore creative and practical skills (Sternberg 7)”. Without creative people in this world, where do you think we would be? Not very far. We need practical skills to go throughout everyday life. The standardized tests don’t test for that knowledge base, they test how much short term memory a

In the novel "What the Best College Students Do" by Ken Bain he states that learning is not only discovering new abilities, it is putting a creative twist into it (p. 4). He places Paul Baker (a professor that taught Integration of Abilities) in this story because he emphasizes what Bain is trying to convey (pp. 2-3). Baker states that "This is a class in discovering your own creative ability and all you will have to help you with your discovery is yourself and getting acquainted with the way you work" (p. 4). Everybody has different viewpoints because everyone has different backgrounds, therefore, creativity is not only a want it is a necessity. To deeply learn something, students needs to have a

The beauty of creativity is that it is abstract, yet ubiquitous: in art, music or how one decides to compose an essay. However, creativity has recently been declining among the human population. According to an article, named, “The Creativity Crisis,” by Newsweek.com in July 2010, authors, Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman, state, “the Torrance Test … indicates that the public’s “creativity quotient” has steadily crept downward since 1990” (Prompt 1). Bronson and Merryman report that the test, which evaluates one’s creativity, had been dispensed to myriads of people across the globe, and have concluded that creativity has been slowly diminishing. Kyung Hee Kim, professor at the College of William and Mary, also comments that this is most prevalent and grave among students from kindergarten through sixth grade (Prompt 1). Consequently, society, or in this case, the world fears that current students and future generations will not be nourished with the creativity required to thrive as individuals, affecting the world as a whole. Ultimately, this poses the question whether a creative thinking class, which solely focuses on the education of creativity, should be taught in the school. This school should impose a creative thinking class, due to the fact creativity is a vital element for the future and is the solution to the creative crisis.

Creative Thinking Ability Evidence of art display or musical performanceScales for Rating the Behavioral Characteristics of Superior Students (SRBCSS)

Although these results appear to be encouraging, one must consider what improvements are missing when implementing the fine arts. One area that lacks improvement is the math and sciences. Garcia et. al states that there is no significant correlation between improved math and science scores and fine arts exposure. This lack of improvement is a serious factor that must be considered while discussing the effects of fine arts. In today’s society, the majority of growing career fields

S. I. Hayakawa wrote and published an article named "What lt Means to Be Creative". This article challenged how a creative person could be defined and identified. In Hayakawa’s essay he presents several points of view an individual could be characterized as being creative. His writing forces you to contemplate on how a person’s aptitudes are categorized. Hayakawa tests your ability to be opened minded and makes you visualize how a person could be described as a creative individual but may discredited themselves due to society’s standard of this word. After reading his writing, I believe I can summarize his analogy.

The College Board is a non-profit organization composed of more than 5,900 schools, colleges, universities and other educational programs. College Board provides widely-known resources, tools and services to students, parents, and colleges on topics such as college prep, admissions, and financial aid. How College Shapes Lives is based off information found in the report, Education Pays 2013: The Benefits of Higher Education for Individuals and Society. This report is an in-depth database describing the difference in earnings, lifestyles, and behavior patterns that correlate to a person’s higher education level. How College Shapes Lives further examines how an individual can benefit from higher education and how society as a whole benefits from it. How College Shapes Lives was written by Sandy Baum, Charles Kurose and Jennifer Ma.

Schools with music programs have a higher estimated graduation rate estimated at 90.2% and a higher attendance rate around 93.9% (11 Facts about Music Education 7). In comparison, schools without music programs; however, average a72.9% graduation and an 84.9% attendance (11 Facts about Music Education 7). Additionally, students who study art are four times more likely to be recognized for academic achievement and three times more likely to be awarded for school attendance than those who do not (11 Facts about Arts in Education 2). Despite the benefits of having a music and art program, they are often the first things to go when a school starts budget cuts. Due to, schools today focusing on four main core values: Math, Science, English, and History. Consequently, by focusing on these four main core values schools are crushing the creativity of students. Ken Robinson successfully argues this viewpoint in his TED Talk, “Do Schools Kill Creativity?” By enthralling the audience with humorous rhetorical questions, creating connections with the audience through logical and relatable examples, and by keeping a fairly concerned tone throughout his speech to convey the urgency of the issue at hand Robinson effectively and subtlety attacks the modern world’s education system while at the same time informing his audience how schools are squandering the creativity of their students

College students have the hardest time paying off their student loans, but why? Well, most students usually pick their major based on their talents and their interests.(Source, Time) This idea sounds like a smart move, but in fact it is putting students in a very difficult situation. Since most majors end up making considerably less money in their first year out of college, it is becoming more and more difficult for majors in the humanities and arts to pay off their student loans.

"Do Schools Kill Creativity?" TED. Feb. 2006. Lecture. This Lecture is a source that you provided us during class; it is a Scholarly source. Robinson discusses at a TED talk that school is killing our creativity. What he means by creativity is getting rid of art, dance, theater and music in our schools. It is apparently harder to find a job in those categories. Simply because not everyone has the creativity to be in one of those majors. And with creativity majors it takes practice. You can’t wake up one day and be a professional grade artist. It takes years and years to perfect that, and most people do not have the determination or patience to become a fine arts major. If you have a gift for a fine art, school makes you put it aside and focus on the other subjects. School forces you to declare a major that you can get a job in. Sometimes, most majors that you can get a job in requires little to no creativity. (“Do School Kill Creativity?”) Unfortunately, if you want to be a theatre major you are harshly looked upon because you aren’t going into something like engineering. Advisors quickly frown because they fear you won’t be able to find a job after all that hard work. Why do we not have many job openings for fine arts? I do not like it that they are trying to take away our creativity. But on the other hand I understand why. It truly is harder to get a job in the fine arts

In this essay I will explore the correlation between intelligence (IQ) and creativity (DT), and whether one is influenced or can be predicted by the existence of the other. The relationship between IQ (intelligence quotient) and creativity has been an anchor point for psychological research. Numerous amounts of psychologists have carried out research in order to find evidence to support this idea of a correlation or evidence to disprove the hypothesis that IQ and creativity could be related.

Boon, R 1997 Cultural creativity: the importance of creativity in organizational and educational contexts [s.l.] : [s.n.], viewed 18 April, 2012, via eReserve

As a child, I had often responded to the question “what do you want to be when you grow up?” with an enthusiastic “I want to be an author!” Therefore, I had quite a bit of nostalgia attached to that sentiment, and panicked when I began to be asked about college majors. I saw myself as too scientific for the arts, but too artistic for the sciences.

Many people say majoring in philosophy in college is a waste of time. Some say that philosophy majors will never use the skills they spent years learning in college, but the skills they learn indirectly affect every decision they make in their lives. Philosophy improves critical thinking and can improve a person’s decision making process. Philosophy is a good choice for a college major because it increases critical thinking which can help people later in life by helping them find a job, complete their job effectively and efficiently, and helping them solve problems that they will face in their lifetime.