In the smartist era, to be a STEM major is to be among the most important and respected people in the world, especially online where such individuals tend to be elevated to deity status. College graduates, particularly STEM graduates, haven’t experienced a decline in inflation adjusted income levels, unlike everyone else:
Notice how those who attend college but dropout get zero benefit, yet they are still saddled with debt. With a whopping 50% of students failing to graduate, the problem is we’re admitting too many students that simply aren’t smart enough to finish. But many well-intentioned people want to believe that everyone, regardless of IQ, is suitable for college. The reality is college is a bad idea for roughly 66% of the population, or those with an IQ of less than 115, which according to research, is the mean IQ required to graduate. This is only an average, so many do graduate with a lower IQ, but the dropout rate is much higher.
How many dropouts create the next Facebook or become millionaires? A very small percentage – a smaller percentage than graduates – because those who do graduate are smarter and are able to apply their intellect outside of college in a variety of disciplines that a dropout cannot. For example, a literature major can apply his ability to read dense complicated texts and his knowledge of the intricate rules of grammar to become a programmer. Grammar is not much different than code. Thus, it shouldn’t come as much surprise that those who excel in STEM are also pretty good writers due to the transference of skills.
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STEM majors deserve praise because they create cool technologies, innovation, and theories that help make the world a more interesting place. For the value they bring to society, they earn higher wages, and deservedly so. That doesn’t mean other majors aren’t important, it’s just that STEM has more immediate and practical uses than the humanities. Art history never cured a disease or made a sports car that goes to 0 to 60 in 4 seconds.