What do you do with a humanities degree from an ivy, if you are not going to grad school?

[Anonymous]

I have a good friend who majored in medieval history. She became a successful editor at a major publishing house. I think in general humanities degrees will be seen positively in the years to come. In the age of AI, demonstrating an ability to write and think while having a broad base of knowledge will be seen as very useful by employers. Basically, engineers and philosophy majors will be fine.

[Anonymous]

What do you do with a BA in English?

Great song from Avenue Q - wish they revived that show.

[Anonymous]

I appreciate the OP actually asking this question because so many others in this position immediately take the "mediocre Americans who aren't pre-professional have no merit and are useless." Which is not the right attitude.

Agree with others that a liberal arts degree from a top school shows the ability to think and write and analyze which is valuable for many career paths. And those who have those degrees recognize this and hire these types of people.

The world isn't just bankers, engineers and doctors. And of these people, many have liberal arts degrees.

[Anonymous]

I have two nieces that recently graduated with these degrees from an ivy. One is working at a publishing house and the other works in a museum. A lot of them transition into things like marketing or law or go back for the PhD to teach college or teach HS.
I’m a lawyer and it drives me nuts when people say they are studying pre law. That’s dumb. You’ll learn law in law school. Just study something interesting that will make you an interesting person. Sometimes that stuff even comes up in the law. If you end up with a case representing a tribal nation, that Native American studies major may come in handy. You never know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You don’t sound like you know much about Ivy league degrees. Students have already signaled their worth to future employers by being admitted and being a candidate for their degree.

Students with Ivy humanities degrees are easily employed by consulting firms, Silicon Valley companies, the financial industry, media companies,and government.

Elite universities publish a post-graduation report summarizing where their students are employed or attending grad school each year. Typically 90 pct are employed within 6 months of graduation. You can take 5 minutes to google and read if you’re actually interested.

But your post seems to me more like you want to concern troll about majors such as “medieval studies.”

+1. As much as I hate the prestige obsession on this forum, majoring in these subjects at top schools is not the same as majoring in these subjects at the rest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son tells me that humanities majors are becoming more sought after recently at his consulting firm because in the age of AI, they are looking for people who can really think, communicate, question assumptions, etc. This is anecdotal for sure but they were mostly hiring CS and math majors a few years ago.

MBB and boutique firms have always hired a lot of humanities grads for strategy work. Implementation firms like Accenture, PWC, EY have always hired a lot of CS type kids to staff projects.

[Anonymous]

My son is doing a duel concentration in Econ and a humanities subject. The humanities are his passion… the Econ is what will pay the bills.

[Anonymous]

The short answer is Anything the student wants to do.

Many humanities majors from DC's ivy go on to law, med school, plus a few want to be professors or need a phD for other careers.
A lot go to top consulting firms, think tanks, publishing, or the CIA. Really. Intelligence roles vary, but a subset seem to target ivy/similar schools.

[Anonymous]

A few thoughts:
(1) If you go to the right school, you can major in humanities and do very well. I knew two guys from Princeton; one an English major, the other a history major. Both went into investment banking. The thing to understand is that many firms hire for smarts, ability to learn quickly, confidence, and social skills / presence, not for technical knowledge you learned in college. They will train you once you are hired.
(2) There are roles where being able to digest large amounts of information critically and write well are valued. I know many people that majored in business and engineering that write poorly, often because they don't read for pleasure and don't consider writing important. I personally would hire a smart history or philosophy major over a business major most of the time. Its easy for smart people to learn basic accounting and finance. I'm a consultant that values people that take pride in writing well, and that can speak to clients.
(3) If you have the right aptitude and personality, sales is a great path in which your undergraduate degree doesn't matter much. Sam Palmisano, ex CEO of IBM, was a history major.
(4) I know you said "not going to grad school" but at the better liberal arts schools, the path is to go onto to a MBA, JD, MD or PhD.
(5) My advice to humanities majors is to take a few courses in math, statistics, accounting and finance. I think liberal arts majors should learn to read, write, and also work with data, with some exposure to something practical like accounting. Many people seem to lean toward only reading/writing or only math/analysis. There is value in being able to do both.

[Anonymous]

Don’t understand why folks says humanities students are critical thinks and write well and assume engineers and stem students don’t. Engineers are critical thinkers and write well too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don’t understand why folks says humanities students are critical thinks and write well and assume engineers and stem students don’t. Engineers are critical thinkers and write well too.

They're not. They're just emphasizing that humanities students bring something valuable to the table, and it's not uncommon that they are desirable in all kinds of fields. Also, I'm still surprised that people don't know that you can major in anything and go onto med school and law school. Pre med is not a major or any formal track that you declare. You just fulfill the prereqs in undergrad and take the MCAT and apply to med school.

[Anonymous]

My son is starting college as an art history and chemistry double major—French minor. Plans either AH grad school with a goal of museum work or law school. Could also see him switching gears and going premed.

[Anonymous]

Usually the Ivy kid's family has money so they aren't worried about it.

And sometimes those liberal arts areas are where the student's talent lies and they make the best of it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For context, both DH and I are immigrants and have advanced degrees in STEM and have done well financially. We have a middle schooler and a freshman in high school so we are starting to look into the whole college admission process.
I am really surprised how families make such a huge deal about their kid getting into an Ivy, only to realize that their child is doing some obscure major like Native American and Indigenous studies, or Medieval and Renaissance Studies (an actual major at Dartmouth)
I am truly asking a genuine question, because, in our country of origin, similar degrees that don't lead to a job either do not exist or are not taken seriously at all, even at the best universities. I also can't imagine anyone spending $400K+ on a degree that does not yield much of an ROI unless they are very wealthy (which I am assuming a lot of ivy kids are, but not all)

I am truly asking a genuine question here: is this a strategy that kids do just for admissions, and then switch majors to something like economics or applied math? If not, what job opportunities exist for someone with a Bachelors degree in those humanities majors?

Obviously, work at Starbucks while they figure out what comes next

[Anonymous]

There has been a lot of influential voices in tech, F500 and financial market who say humanities grads will have a much tougher road than non-college educated blue collared workers, let alone STEM college graduates. Marc Rowan predicts we are entering an era where Humanities grads from Ivies will make $60k 10 years after graduation whereas a construction worker or electrician will make $250k 2 years after finishing trade school.