Engineering versus liberal arts: Who is right?

The following link offers an interesting view. Please feel free to comment.
http://techcrunch.com/2011/03/21/engineering-vs-liberal-arts-who’s-right—bill-or-steve/

I think there's a lot of merit to a full liberal arts education because it gets you to think on a higher level and out of the box. That being said, there are practical and technical skills students need to know when searching for jobs. When I was applying for finance interviews, the general sentiment from recruiters is that they'd rather take Wharton and NYU Stern kids over Columbia because they are taught classes in their finance major, which Columbia only offers economics. Columbia's new Financial Econ major is a step in the right direction, but I feel that the course selection is still a bit lacking. More access to Business school courses would be great.

Also, I think that Columbia should add a class to the CORE requirements (maybe a semester or half of one) in public speaking and professional presentation. Although Columbia students are brilliant academically, their intelligence is not always get conveyed properly. Social skills are just as if not more important than book smarts.

When considering this dichotomy, it's important to consider the skills that might be valuable at different points in a person's career. I am willing to acknowledge that engineering majors have an easier time finding work; however, a liberal arts education emphasizes skills that become more important later in a career. An engineer who can't think creatively, communicate effectively, manage other people, and gather inspiration from other industries will never make it far up the corporate ladder.

On a separate note, we must work hard not to take this division too seriously. The worst thing a "liberal arts" or "engineering person" can do is fail to recognize the contributions their counterparts can offer. We each have strengths and weaknesses, and we are most successful when we recognize and harness the complimentary skills in others.

In a sense the juxtaposition of engineering and liberal arts education is very useful because it keeps a number of doors open. It's nearly impossible to head into an engineering graduate program with with a history major, but an engineering major at a liberal arts college would have a chance at history or political science graduate study.

On a separate note - a piece of information about Steve Jobs comes to mind. A few months ago I read that Steve Jobs had numerous extraneous interests during college including calligraphy. Many people thought (perhaps Jobs himself) that calligraphy was not a useful skill. But in the coming years, Jobs was able to integrate his external skills to add utility in his work. Jobs used his calligraphy skills to design the original apple typeface which has been used on millions of computer systems. A tangential interest at one time - yes? Valuable in the long run - definitely.

I'm never going to be an engineer, yet every day I benefit from the innovations of those who have chosen to pursue careers in science and technology. When I send a text, ride on the subway or microwave leftovers at 1 AM, I know that science is improving my quality of life. These innovations are easy to see, but I wonder if people notice as much the benefit of the arts when they turn on their iPod or admire the latest cover of The New Yorker. It’s easy to take the arts for granted in ways that you can’t with technology--theoretically, it’s easier to imagine living without Lady Gaga or the latest clothing fashions than it is to think about going without running water or (for many of us!) cell phones or the internet. But just because the arts may be considered “luxuries” in some ways does not make them any less of a necessity.
An education in the humanities teaches skills that are applicable to any other subjects—creativity, diligence and resilience (have you ever asked an actor how many auditions they had to attend before they got a job?).However, when push comes to shove and money gets tight, these programs are the first to get cut in our public schools. If arts programs keep getting the short end of the stick budget-wise, we will continue to place a premium on math and science, subjects that, while vitally important, are made even better by cross-disciplinary training with the arts and humanities.
Once students get to college, they are asked to specialize. In many ways, I hate the idea of a major because it suggests that you have chosen to focus on one subject to the exclusion of others. The great thing about Columbia (and the main reason I chose to come here) is that the Core recognizes the importance of pursuing your individual interests, but also the necessity of having those passions grounded in a broad liberal arts education that makes you study not only music and literature, but the sciences, as well. Even though I know I’m never going to be a particle physicist, because I’ve taken Frontiers of Science I can read a newspaper article on the crippled nuclear reactors in Japan and understand the science behind the crisis. That’s just another example of knowledge being power.

If you don’t believe me, just ask Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart.