Of course, we must appreciate and be thankful for the science and math-minded individuals that are progressing our society health-wise, technologically, and in all other aspects. However, the downplaying of the vitality of degrees in the arts is old and useless.
Just as we need doctors and engineers, we need writers and poets and musicians and everything related. Our ability to create is what makes humanity so unique. We can take nothing and turn it into something. We use our minds and communicate without words, through images, dance, music. Or we read and we find comfort knowing that someone before us has felt the same thing, thought the same thoughts and had to courage to share it with the world.
As a species, we have a duty to share with the world the beauty we can create, the pain we have felt, and the joy we are capable of embodying. Without the arts, our world would be less colorful. There would be no emotion, no love, no feeling and no way to express it. The arts give us the means to add light to the world and spread it to others.
While, admittedly, it might be harder to "make it" in art-related fields, that doesn't mean you shouldn't pursue it if that's what you're passionate about. If art is what ignites your soul and makes you feel purposeful, you should do it.
The arts and creativity are what makes us, us. We need people to bring color to this black and white world. Creation is the only way to do this.