what is the prospect of social science and humanities degree in Singapore?

[zero_88]

how is it compare to engineering degree?

Originally Posted by zero_88

how is it compare to engineering degree?

haha, you joking right? Engineering degree will always be better. Fact is, engineers are much more versatile. They can work in both technical and general fields. Even in an economic downturn, engineers are still employed for infrastructural needs. There is really no comparison between the two.

An engineer who manages to just pass his degree or get a third class honours can still find a decent job. A social science grad cannot. If a social science grad wants to work in a related field, he will need second upper minimum. Second lower and below grads will be relegated to unrelated admin work or sell insurance. Teaching used to be the fall back option for social science grads. But nowadays, its damn hard to get a teaching position. Parents are very very concerned on what kind of teachers MOE hires. Hence MOE only takes in the best. Not to mention now there is even competition for teaching spots. Even a second lower cannot get a place in NIE PGDE.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

haha, you joking right? Engineering degree will always be better. Fact is, engineers are much more versatile. They can work in both technical and general fields. Even in an economic downturn, engineers are still employed for infrastructural needs. There is really no comparison between the two.

An engineer who manages to just pass his degree or get a third class honours can still find a decent job. A social science grad cannot. If a social science grad wants to work in a related field, he will need second upper minimum. Second lower and below grads will be relegated to unrelated admin work or sell insurance. Teaching used to be the fall back option for social science grads. But nowadays, its damn hard to get a teaching position. Parents are very very concerned on what kind of teachers MOE hires. Hence MOE only takes in the best. Not to mention now there is even competition for teaching spots. Even a second lower cannot get a place in NIE PGDE.

Two friends of mine with second lower social science degrees just got into MOE PGDE.

Personally have a second lower social science degree and am doing related work in ministry doing policy work.

Social sciences isnt all that bad

I think of the few most possible career I might take if I take humanities course in uni

1. Informative Magazine Editor, like Times, economist

2, Book author, usually humanities student got excellent language skill and different perspective in life, for e.g. they can write a book on political thriller

3. Teaching, work in MOE, teach student social studes related subject

4. work for some govt research institution and conduct research on global issue and social issues. (highly unlikely for normal student who just want to get a pass)

in conclusion, no matter what job, it will be involve great language ability, and good thinking skill, humanities student tend to look things in another perspective, as they read a lot of book. A lot of writing is involve

if you all love to write, maybe can consider humanities course.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I think of the few most possible career I might take if I take humanities course in uni

1. Informative Magazine Editor, like Times, economist

2, Book author, usually humanities student got excellent language skill and different perspective in life, for e.g. they can write a book on political thriller

3. Teaching, work in MOE, teach student social studes related subject

4. work for some govt research institution and conduct research on global issue and social issues. (highly unlikely for normal student who just want to get a pass)

in conclusion, no matter what job, it will be involve great language ability, and good thinking skill, humanities student tend to look things in another perspective, as they read a lot of book. A lot of writing is involve

if you all love to write, maybe can consider humanities course.

eh please, you wanna work for Time or the Economist not so easy ok. even our local media companies like sph don't take in any tom dick or harry with any social science degree.

[zero_88]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

eh please, you wanna work for Time or the Economist not so easy ok. even our local media companies like sph don't take in any tom dick or harry with any social science degree.

is it English must be good?

btw, if English not good, like average that kind

go humanities course is it suicide?

will it affect your grade if you make grammar mistake in your essay?

Originally Posted by zero_88

is it English must be good?

btw, if English not good, like average that kind

go humanities course is it suicide?

will it affect your grade if you make grammar mistake in your essay?

generally, yes...since writing will be your bread and butter. for social sciences you need to be decent at statistics too but you can't escape writing since your assignments will mostly be writing academic papers. and take note, academic writing is very different from your normal everyday kind of writing.

the way you type..i think you should think twice before going into humanities or social sciences.

i don't think profs will penalise grammar mistakes per se but it's almost a given that you shouldn't be making grammar mistakes...if your language standard is so bad that you're making frequent glaring basic errors it'll just make you look bad and lower their general impression of you. no one likes reading a paper written in horrible english.

Some ministries like MFA, MINDEF and MHA prefer to recruit the first class honours grads from degrees which we think are 'dead-end', like history, philosophy, or political science. I've heard of seniors (NUS FASS) in these ministries, doing policy work or intelligence.

My personal advice is that if you want to pursue a humanities course, you need to have both the passion and skills to excel, so you will have a greater variety of career opportunities (and higher pay). That said, I've friends who graduated with pass degrees or second lower class who are satisfied with their careers, though they might be doing something entirely unrelated.

My psychology grad friends worked as: banker, trader, hospitality sales, medical sales, civil service college psychologist, SIA pilots recruiter, MOE Psy research, child protection officers (MCYS), HR in MNCs.

There are many other interesting things to do. For eg. Tripadvisor, Mediacorp etc You just need to take time to explore what's out there. Social Sci and Humanities grads are valued for their linguistic skills and creativity

Originally Posted by zero_88

is it English must be good?

btw, if English not good, like average that kind

go humanities course is it suicide?

will it affect your grade if you make grammar mistake in your essay?

A technical based degree will probably be better for you. It doesn't look like you can write, even if you think you love to. The amount of writing will soon prove to be overwhelming if you cannot write well and you will likely fail courses a lot.

Suicide? I reckon you will beg someone to kill you to put you out of your misery first.