Are all graduate programs in liberal arts easy? Education programs especially easy?

On a different thread, a few members suggested that all education programs are easy. Another member said that all liberal arts programs are easy. I found these to be interesting statements and I was wondering what you might think of that idea.

 

I wouldn't say that ALL liberal arts, or ALL education programs, are easy.

But, in general, STEM courses are harder than Liberal Arts or Education courses. (Economics is a different animal; it generally falls under Liberal Arts but some Economics students take more math classes than the math majors do.)

I am taking two courses this semester: Linear Algebra and Critical Thinking. LA is much easier than I thought it would be; CT is much more challenging than I expected. But both of them pale in comparison to the difficulty of Calculus II.

 

Yes.......

 

I guess I should explain my take on this a little better. I've found that taking hard science or math courses to be more demanding of my mental capacity, whereas, liberal arts courses generally have heavier writing intensive assignments as well as busy work. I don't find the latter to be all that challenging but it is tedious.

 

Yes. I've washed out of several graduate level education programs and finished a graduate program in the liberal arts (I won't mention the university but it is in the top 100 on US News and Rankings). The coursework in the liberal arts and education programs mainly consisted of busy work and long, drawn out research papers.

 

my master liberal arts program isn't terrible, but I wouldn't call it easy. I guess it depends on how you define easy. I think that people who apply to grad schools PROBABLY don't mind writing too much, and grad school is certainly more writing than memorizing. Lots of synthesis. If you enjoy thinking and pondering, it plays to your strengths. I find edu classes to be right there with nails on a chalk board, so seriously, I wouldn't make it through even 1 "easy" one.

 

I do think it is important to differentiate between "teacher" education methods or survey courses and other forms of education study. Educational finance or educational psychology wouldn't necessarily be as easy as children's literature.

I'm about to start an EdD in Higher Education Leadership and Policy, and I am planning to be overwhelmed, but that probably has more to do with the institution than with the subject matter. I have taken education courses in the past, and I have found them to be a mixed bag. The educational research methods and statistics courses were challenging, but others were less so.

IMO, some of this discrepancy emerges from the differences between theory and practice. Methods courses and courses focused more on the "how-to" (Classroom management, "teaching _____ in the middle school" style courses, etc.) are more likely to be considered "easy" (arguably because much of the content is intuitive) than courses more focused on theory or intensive research.

 

Also, one important thing to consider is that "ease" is highly relative. When I was in high school, I LOVED my math and physics classes because they were easy to me and were much more objective, but literature was more of a struggle because I wasn't very interested in the subject matter and there often wasn't a "right" answer.

Sure, some of the basic undergraduate courses in education or in the liberal arts are probably not as challenging to the average person as a math or science course would be, but to a person geared for STEM fields, liberal arts or education courses might be unbearably boring or difficult.

 

Good point, Stefan. I think a lot of it boils down to how you are wired, like you implied. For a person who is a good writer and good at putting together papers, education courses or many other liberal arts programs might be easy, at least to some extent. If you are not good at writing, I would think that a liberal arts program would be tedious and miserable.

Some people are wired to do STEM sort of programs and science, math, Etc. is easy for them. The most important point is to find your calling and to follow it, if you do, it will seem easy even when others might think it is difficult.

 

For years, I had regularly gotten good grades until I did my first graduate economics course at Cal State Long Beach. I worked harder in that class than any, gave it my full effort and only managed to escape with a "C". It was weird because I thought I understood the material perfectly, yet the professor consistently gave me a C on every test. The tests were all essays and they seemed a little subjective to me, but I was somehow not able to write what the professor was looking for.

 

I would agree with everything that has been said in this thread. It's all spot on.

 

Post deleted per misunderstanding the thread.

 

My most difficult course at NCU has HR Management. Go figure.

 

Understandable. It's a complicated subject with all of the employment law that must be dealt with. HR is usually a tough job too.

 

http://i.imgur.com/VVqXo.jpg

 

lol.......

 

the thing is, many good graduate liberal arts programs arent designed for a Master's degree. In fact, some like UC Berkeley dont really even award them. So my point is that its not standardized very well as to what should constitute an MA. Mine was hard- 100 pg paper. However, a friend of mine says she got her MA in Lit by essentially doing a 60 pg history paper. 60pages is on the low end. As for Education degrees, thats a whole different can of worms. Their PHd degrees are mostly a joke, while Eng/Comp Lit Phds are extremely hard.