Do you think "soft subjects" exist in education?

[Kardan]

Do you think in school/college/university there are some subjects/qualifications that are considered less impressive/worthy than others?

For example, Cambridge University says they are extremely unlikely to accept students that have 2 or more "soft" A-Levels, including Accounting, Design and Technology, Film Studies, Information and Communication Technology, Media Studies, Photography, and Sports studies.

Do you agree with this? What subjects do you view in this way? Why?

[Yawn]

media and film i always hear about as being less academic

if u want to get into a top uni like cambridge then it matters a lot but the more average places its not a big deal
i havent done any of those subjects so i have no idea if they are easy

[Inseriousity.]

There are but I don't think there should be. To me, education is more about skills you learn rather than necessarily knowledge content and soft subjects still demonstrate valuable life skills so I'm not sure why they're seen as less impressive.

[Aiden]

I think photography isn't worthy for things which don't include it.

The only subjects that I feel are the hardest that I do are drama, maths and science.

[MKR&*42]

Erghhhh yes there are but I'm sure the russell group call them facilitating/non facilitating subjects. The only reason for the division is because skills in English Literature for example, are supposedly able to be transferred to a much larger variety of subjects than, let's say food technology. I don't think it's down to impressiveness, just how easily transferable the skills are. (ok only just finding out transferable has one r??)

I won't deny some subjects are certainly much harder to gain high marks in than others, but if a person wants to do ''soft'' subjects because they enjoy them and want to study something related to their ''soft'' subjects at uni then they should go for it. I've seen this discussion come up many a time on thestudentroom forum and for anyone who panicks they've chosen ''soft'' subjects, the best piece of advice they give is "Well wouldn't you rather get an A in a subject that you enjoy albeit "soft", than let's say get an E at a subject that's "hard" and you never wanted to do?"

[Cassiieee]

God, yeah. I find that art is a pretty useless subject and just fun for us to draw on a bit of paper. and chck paint around the room.

[FlyingJesus]

Travel and tourism

[Jurv]

no i don't believe soft subjects exist. i suppose you could say there are less academic subjects but i don't think they should be treated any differently. it all depends on the person and what they're planning to do with the qualifications afterwards. obvs if you want to do something that requires you going to a uni to do a course that specialises in maths or something you're not, or shouldn't have chosen to do one of the less academic subjects as you can't really relate film, media, photography, whatever to any of that (i don't think? lol). but if you're planning on going to a uni to do a course that specialises in one of the less academic course then it's fine

[dbgtz]

Yes there are soft subjects, including every single BTEC which has ever existed. I think there are subjects which will always hold more prestige, namely maths, English and the sciences. You can see the first two's prestige demonstrated in most places where jobs or universities require a fair grade in them. Then there is a middle ground whereby they will get you in a lot of things, but additionally some restrict you from doing otherwise.

I wouldn't go as far as to say soft subjects are less impressive (unless it's a BTEC vs GCSE equivalent kind of comparison), but they will probably only impress those who have a direct link to the subject e.g. photography the subject and a photographers etc.

Grammar throughout that was probably poor so I do apologise.

[Daltron]

Yes because at Uni I doing a double degree BA / LLB.

My BA subjects are a freaking walk in the park, calling them soft would be an insult to soft subjects.
Subjects in my LLB schedule are VERY hard.

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Also during High School the NSW Government ranks different subjects on the difficulty ie. a 90 in Early Childhood is ranked considerably lower that say a 90 in Extension Mathematics which in turn pushes up or down your overall state rank.