College Grads Regret Majoring in Humanities Fields

[Anonymous]

https://www.bestcolleges.com/news/analysis/college-grads-regret-majoring-in-humanities-fields/

Lack of critical thinking in choosing a major which is a very important thing. They focused too much on 'college experience' was

[Anonymous]

So, my kid doing a double major in STEM field and Foreign Language is a rare bird?

Kid has always been interested in both and did not want to choose one at the exclusion of the other.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So, my kid doing a double major in STEM field and Foreign Language is a rare bird?

Kid has always been interested in both and did not want to choose one at the exclusion of the other.

I think that what's really going on here is that humanities majors are, really, pre-law majors, and law is in the doldrums. Once law recovers, the popularity of humanities majors will recover.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://www.bestcolleges.com/news/analysis/college-grads-regret-majoring-in-humanities-fields/

Lack of critical thinking in choosing a major which is a very important thing. They focused too much on 'college experience' was

Humanities majors need to have a plan, more so than a traditional STEM major. They need to be proactive and find a path that interests them career wise. It is also beneficial if they add in a minor in business, data analytics, CS, math, really anything that will help them find direction and possible internships. They also need to realize that while they can make as much as STEM majors, it will take a few years to do that. Very few art history majors start out making $75K/year.

[Anonymous]

I don't believe it is bad to major in humanities (with some notable exceptions such as gender studies) as long as you are able fulfill all the prerequisite classes for a STEM major if that's what you want. For example, majoring in English would help in any field. If a student's passion lies in the humanities then it is likely that student would do well in his/her classes and that would ultimately help in any field that they ultimately go into.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So, my kid doing a double major in STEM field and Foreign Language is a rare bird?

Kid has always been interested in both and did not want to choose one at the exclusion of the other.

Your kid is a STEM major.
Common.

[Anonymous]

can we NOT have this discuss again? this was posted several weeks ago, we've already hashed it out ad nauseam.

I have to kids who are humanities majors, politics and anthropology. I was a humanities major (political science) and my DH was as well (english). in fact every other member of my side of the family, all humanities majors (math, econ, etc). Not every kid should be, or needs to be an engineering major people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://www.bestcolleges.com/news/analysis/college-grads-regret-majoring-in-humanities-fields/

Lack of critical thinking in choosing a major which is a very important thing. They focused too much on 'college experience' was

Humanities majors need to have a plan, more so than a traditional STEM major. They need to be proactive and find a path that interests them career wise. It is also beneficial if they add in a minor in business, data analytics, CS, math, really anything that will help them find direction and possible internships. They also need to realize that while they can make as much as STEM majors, it will take a few years to do that. Very few art history majors start out making $75K/year.

This. The pathways out of humanities are harder and many students don't have a good sense of what their career is supposed to look like. It's a bit of a black box.

I think many universities also do humanities students a disservice because many humanities departments treat academia as the default career path and it's very much not. There are many ways to use a history or English degree that don't involve graduate school or teaching. But you are unlikely to meet people working in your college major department who have a sense of what those uses might be.

Universities should be telling kids getting humanities degrees about this early on and part of getting a degree like this should actually include developing a career plan, and that career plan can also influence what classes you take, what minors or double majors you pursue, etc. We actually do need people who are experts in literature, history, political science, etc. Lots of jobs to be had. It's just very hard to know what they are when you spend 4 years mostly working with people who think the main option is "Professor of Humanities Subject" and not, like, doing historical documentation for a major corporation or training new hires on the internal writing style guide or whatever actual job with benefits these people are qualified to do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, my kid doing a double major in STEM field and Foreign Language is a rare bird?

Kid has always been interested in both and did not want to choose one at the exclusion of the other.

Your kid is a STEM major.
Common.

So, if you fulfill all requirements for a B.S. STEM field and additionally B.A. Foreign Language, you are just looked at as a STEM major??

The other major gets ignored or overruled by the STEM major? Why not the other way around?
The US system keeps mystifying me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:can we NOT have this discuss again? this was posted several weeks ago, we've already hashed it out ad nauseam.

I have to kids who are humanities majors, politics and anthropology. I was a humanities major (political science) and my DH was as well (english). in fact every other member of my side of the family, all humanities majors (math, econ, etc). Not every kid should be, or needs to be an engineering major people.

+1, I do not understand why people are so obsessed with explaining for the millionth time that they think the only way to ever make enough money to live is to major in a STEM field and no other jobs exist. Especially weird in DC where there are thousands and thousands of people working in non-STEM jobs, grateful for their useful humanities degree which has allowed them to have an interesting and rewarding career that also somehow pays their mortgage and helps them save for their own kids' college. And we do it even not coming from family money or having a trust fund! There are many of us, it's very weird how this group of DCUM poster is convinced we do not exist.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://www.bestcolleges.com/news/analysis/college-grads-regret-majoring-in-humanities-fields/

Lack of critical thinking in choosing a major which is a very important thing. They focused too much on 'college experience' was

Humanities majors need to have a plan, more so than a traditional STEM major. They need to be proactive and find a path that interests them career wise. It is also beneficial if they add in a minor in business, data analytics, CS, math, really anything that will help them find direction and possible internships. They also need to realize that while they can make as much as STEM majors, it will take a few years to do that. Very few art history majors start out making $75K/year.

This. The pathways out of humanities are harder and many students don't have a good sense of what their career is supposed to look like. It's a bit of a black box.

I think many universities also do humanities students a disservice because many humanities departments treat academia as the default career path and it's very much not. There are many ways to use a history or English degree that don't involve graduate school or teaching. But you are unlikely to meet people working in your college major department who have a sense of what those uses might be.

Universities should be telling kids getting humanities degrees about this early on and part of getting a degree like this should actually include developing a career plan, and that career plan can also influence what classes you take, what minors or double majors you pursue, etc. We actually do need people who are experts in literature, history, political science, etc. Lots of jobs to be had. It's just very hard to know what they are when you spend 4 years mostly working with people who think the main option is "Professor of Humanities Subject" and not, like, doing historical documentation for a major corporation or training new hires on the internal writing style guide or whatever actual job with benefits these people are qualified to do.

+1

I was an English major and chose it because I wanted the “college experience,” but I always knew it didn’t guarantee me a job. And you certainly couldn’t depend on my colleges’ career center to help you there because they’d say “what can you do with an English major? Why, anything!”

I knew when I was in high school that I wanted to major in liberal arts and I knew that meant grad school, which meant I needed to go to a cheap college. I don’t know how I learned this but I’m sad for others that they missed the memo!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://www.bestcolleges.com/news/analysis/college-grads-regret-majoring-in-humanities-fields/

Lack of critical thinking in choosing a major which is a very important thing. They focused too much on 'college experience' was

If you are smart, confident and have good work ethics, you can succeed with any major and any track. College experience builds your personality and your network, undermining it is naive.

[Anonymous]

Investment banking, medical schools, law schools and management consulting have high percentage of humanities majors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://www.bestcolleges.com/news/analysis/college-grads-regret-majoring-in-humanities-fields/

Lack of critical thinking in choosing a major which is a very important thing. They focused too much on 'college experience' was

Are sentences important things?

[Anonymous]

My 24 year old nephew has been employed since 21 and earning $180k+ with a humanities undergrad, his twin sister with STEM undergrad is still trying to get into any third rate medical school. Difference? One loved what he studied and other was just trying to do required prerequisites and get good grades.