Comment by rdouble | Hacker News Reader

Comment by rdouble | Hacker News Reader

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We have more people who graduate with degrees in dance than we do people who graduate with degrees in mathematics.

This is not true. Dance programs are extremely small and one can join by audition only. The U of MN only has about 10 dance majors per year. In contrast they graduate about 100 math majors per year. I know this because I'm from MN and majored in math, and my girlfriend majored in dance. You can verify actual stats on the U of MN website somewhere.

We have more art and history museums than we have science and engineering museums

This is also incorrect, there are 140 art museums in the US and over 400 science "museums" , if you count the following as museums: planetariums, kid's science centers, imaginariums, aquariums and the like. I know this cuz I once worked at a company that sold software installations to both art museums and science museums. (Not really a great business to be in with few potential customers and loads of competition). You can probably verify the numbers with data from Wikipedia.

my bad man. been up too late, I meant theater and performance. From the link http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2011/11/col...

"In 2009 the U.S. graduated 89,140 students in the visual and performing arts, more than in computer science, math and chemical engineering combined and more than double the number of visual and performing arts graduates in 1985."

As for the museums, unfortunately kid science centers, imaginariums, and aquariums aren't science museums.

As for the museums, unfortunately kid science centers, imaginariums, and aquariums aren't science museums.

My estimate was only including institutes accredited by the American Association of Science and Technology Centers. They definitely do consider imaginariums, kid science centers and aquariums to be in the same class as science museums.

unfortunately kid science centers... aren't science museums

What rubbish. Just because they're not tailored for tertiary-educated engineers doesn't mean they're not science museums.

The comparison of 'art' vs 'science' museums is a load of horseshit anyway - museums are one of the places you go to art is formally presented. They're not where you go to formally present science or engineering.

a science center is different from a science museum. i didn't say this difference was dependent on the formality of presentation.

> museums are one of the places you go to art is formally presented. They're not where you go to formally present science or engineering.

Although generally true, there's the Exploratorium in San Francisco, and the Air & Space Museum and the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. All these examples present something other than art works.

Why are only Computer Science, Math, and Chemical Engineering being counted compared to all Visual and Performing Arts? Shouldn't all math, science and engineering graduates be compared?

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