Although the importance of mathematical principles is undeniable in our daily life, many students still struggling to master Maths.
Whether it is pure Maths such as Calculus or Algebra, or the ones using Maths such as Accounting and Business Economics.
For those of us who hate Maths, not particularly fond of it, or simply think Maths is not our strong suit, learning Maths can be quite nerve-wracking due to its complexity.
Like it or not, we must endure it since, in most countries, Maths is a mandatory subject for students. Starting from learning numbers in kindergarten, simple equations in elementary school, to trigonometry, calculus, and algebra in middle school and high school.
Fortunately for us, at university, we have more freedom to choose our major, and if we want, we can choose the one which is Maths free.
Although we must acknowledge, in certain majors and in certain countries, even though you choose a major in social sciences, for example, some Maths is still needed in a certain subject such as statistics.
For example, I took a Communication major in both my undergraduate and graduate school. In my undergraduate program, the study focused on Journalism, Broadcasting, Public Relations, Advertising, and Promotion. Still, I had to take Statistics classes for 2 semesters to qualified for graduation as those subjects were mandatory.
In my graduate /master program, the study focused on Corporate Communication and Digital Marketing. I still needed to take another statistic subject or one semester.
Essentially, it was needed to write your thesis, especially if your research involves a quantitative method such as surveys, to analyze the results.
In this post, we are going to talk about some college majors you could choose if you don’t like Maths. Some of them might have no Maths at all, but some might require you to take basic statistics and use the mathematical principles to a certain degree, depends on the subject and the curriculum of the university where you are going to study.
Here are some of the subjects that you can choose:
1. Graphic Design, Product Design, and Interior Design
Typically, to study designs in the university, such as graphic, product, or interior design, the most important thing is your creativity, design sense, aesthetics taste, lateral thinking, and portfolio of your work, among other things.
Unfortunately, many graphic design programs, especially an undergraduate degree, will require three to four credits of math as part of degree completion.
These three courses can include traditional math subjects such as algebra and calculus. But again, these might vary in different countries and universities.
2. Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of the nature of existence, knowledge, truth, and ethic, questioning the fundamental questions about who we are.
For the most part, you won’t need any mathematical knowledge, but if part of your philosophy course involves a logical construct based on mathematical axioms, in these regards, statistics is a must.
3. Law
Mostly, studying law will not require you to use Math often. But some classes, such as Tax law, for example, require mathematical calculations. Some law programs have Accounting modules, and those will require basic school arithmetic and mathematics.
So, if you dislike Maths, studying law will be an alternative since you won’t be needed an advanced level of mathematical skills during your study, but a good comprehension of basic Maths will be an advantage for you, since you will need to construct strong logical thinking in building an argument.
4. Linguistic and Cultural Studies
Linguistic study language by analyzing many different aspects that make up the human language by looking at its form, structure, and context.
While cultural studies, according to Wikipedia, is a field of theoretically, politically, and empirically engaged cultural analysis that concentrates upon the political dynamics of contemporary culture, its historical foundations, defining traits, conflicts, and contingencies.
Therefore, Maths is not really needed since the study emphasis more on the use of critical thoughts, analyses, and communication skills.
5. Performing Arts
Performing arts is a form of creative activity that is performed in front of an audience, which includes drama, music, and dance. They tend to include a wide range of specialism such as acting, dance, music theatre, digital video, sound design et cetera.
Although you will need math in counting your dance moves and calculating the musical beats, they are highly practical and therefore don’t need complicated mathematical equations in learning them.
6. History
Historical studies learn about societies by examining cultural, political, social, and economic influences across time and space. It studies the past to provide an understanding of the present-day.
Although you will not need maths to study history, historians nowadays must get around their heads into mathematics too, since the data collection database will require a certain amount of understanding of mathematic principles.
7. Anthropology
According to Wikipedia, Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, and societies, in both the present and past, including past human species.
Anthropological studies can be divided into Social, Cultural, Linguistic, Visual, and Biological or Physical Anthropology.
While Archaeology, which studies human activity through the investigation of physical evidence, is considered a branch of Anthropology in the US and Canada, in Europe it is viewed as a discipline in its own right or grouped under other related disciplined, such as history.
Although you don’t need math to study Anthropology itself. Some knowledge in mathematically based techniques as tools of anthropological research such as statistics will be useful.
8. Sociology
Sociology studies human behavior. It studies the social structures, public policies, and cultural context. Sociology also studies how family relationships affect members and society.
Traditional focuses on Sociology include social stratification, social class, social mobility, religion, secularization, law, sexuality, gender, and deviance.
Therefore, as a Sociology major student, you will need a basic knowledge of statistics, since as a social researcher, you will need a social scientific method such as statistics to draw upon a variety of qualitative and quantitative research methods.
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9. Mass Communication
Although if you focus on Journalism or Public Relations, you won’t need Maths to excel as most of the subjects will focus on your writing skill, as a communication major student, you will need to take basic statistics as part of your credit to meet graduation completion requirement.
You will also need some basic accounting to calculate the budget for a marketing campaign in a marketing-related subject.
For example, to calculate the advertising budget, you will be required to have some basic mathematics as you will learn about the cost per click, how much you have to pay for 30 or 60 seconds of advertising on TV, Radio, the cost to advertise on websites et cetera.
10. International Relations
International Relations studies blend the fields of economics, history, and political science. Its studies include topics such as global poverty, economics, the environment, human rights, political environment, so on and so forth.
The international relations program will require you to obtain some basic knowledge of economics, which might involve graphs and numbers.
Over To You
There you have it! 10 College/University major that doesn’t require you to be Maths savvy to survive and graduate with flying colors.
But having said that, unfortunately, mathematics is unavoidable. We used Maths in different ways in our lives, including in many study disciplines.
But don’t be despair. Some only require Maths for logical thinking and reasoning. Others need Maths for basic accounting and to comprehend economical data such as graphs and numbers.
Some others might require you to take traditional Maths such as a couple of credits of Calculus, Algebra, or Statistics, but having them in one semester or two out of several semesters is not that bad isn’t it?
I would like to remain you again that this information only reflects the general situation about the subjects it selves.
To know specifically about whether or not you will have to learn Maths to some level at the humanities, arts or language and cultural studies subject of your choice, you need to do more research on the specific program at the university you want to attend, since the requirements to complete the program and the curriculum might vary, depending on the university.
For more information on university majors, you could choose to continue your education to Master Degree level, you can check on this link.
If you are interested in continuing your education to a PhD level, you can search for information here.
Moreover, some countries require a mandatory statistic subject for the humanities and cultural studies subject in their universities, others will only focus on studying the actual subject.
While they might have statistics or any other Maths-related subjects, it is not mandatory or included as a requirement for graduation completion.
Choose carefully, because even though a couple of credits in one or two semesters won’t have a significant effect on your grades, it still hurts to see that one “C” in a Math-related subject among your “A”s in other subjects right?
If it is inevitable, at least make sure you know what you will up against so that you will have time to prepare, such as create a specific study method to tackle it.
What do you think? Do you agree? Have some feedback or comments, thoughts, or anything you want to add?
Feel free to comment down below. If you think someone could benefit from the information from this post, pin it so that they can read it too. Till next time!
