College Grads Regret Majoring in Humanities Fields

[Anonymous]

Of course there must be successful humanity kids.
Looks like the odd is 50%.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know a ton of underemployed Bio majors, just saying.

Most of them are pre-med failure just like ton of pre-law failures from humanities

[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.

Totally agree! There has been very little effort on the part of colleges to define what types of jobs students should expect to do if they get a _____ degree. That is SLOWLY changing by colleges requiring students to do an internship/externship experience. But, colleges are STILL putting the burden on the 20 yr old student to figure out how/where to get an internship with a partial degree in anthropology, psychology, history, English, etc. Colleges have figured out that internships are crucial to getting a job AFTER college. But they still aren't doing enough to define (up front -- when HS senior are applying for admission) what one can expect to do with ____ degree. And still not doing enough to help kids get ACTUAL TRANSFERRABLE, INDUSTRY-DESIRABLE SKILLS while they are getting the degree.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know a ton of underemployed Bio majors, just saying.

Because anyone knows that a BS/BAin Biology leads to low level, grunt work and that you really need your PHD or masters to utilize the degree to its fullest extent. So be a Bio major, but take a data analytics minor (if med school or the like isn't your path). But a Bio degree alone is not the best choice, unless you like grunt work in a lab at low pay.

But even a little bit of research will tell a potential bio major this. That is why pre-med students should major in what they like, and then fit in the prerequisites. Because Bio isn't the best "fall back " major if you don't make it in medicine or change your mind

ooof, we keep saying this to our DD.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know a ton of underemployed Bio majors, just saying.

This pains me greatly b/c a Biology major is NOT a walk-in-the-park! (no pun intended). It's hard! Those Chemistry classes and upper level Biology classes are difficult. It seems like something that is hard should be more desired in the marketplace. It worries me a lot b/c my DD is getting a biology degree and has no interest in teaching HS. I worry about her future.... but at the same time, I am happy she found something she is really passionate about that she wanted to study in college. Crossing my fingers that it works out in the end. Ugggh. Why go through all the torture of Chemistry and upper level Biology classes to end up earning $15/hr!?

[Anonymous]

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

Define "high."

[Anonymous]

At a rigorous school the humanities can teach critical thinking and analysis skills that are very valuable. I was a philosophy major in the '80s and found my undergrad classes in my major much more challenging than top 10 law school classes

It is a waste of time if you are at a school where they are just skimming over the top and everything is applied v.s learning from the raw materials

I think the major is less important than the students interest in the major and the quality of professors in the major at the school you are attending

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know a ton of underemployed Bio majors, just saying.

This pains me greatly b/c a Biology major is NOT a walk-in-the-park! (no pun intended). It's hard! Those Chemistry classes and upper level Biology classes are difficult. It seems like something that is hard should be more desired in the marketplace. It worries me a lot b/c my DD is getting a biology degree and has no interest in teaching HS. I worry about her future.... but at the same time, I am happy she found something she is really passionate about that she wanted to study in college. Crossing my fingers that it works out in the end. Ugggh. Why go through all the torture of Chemistry and upper level Biology classes to end up earning $15/hr!?

Our DD is a true passionate Biology major too. She is well aware that either a master's or PhD are her next steps after. But then she always had this idea/wish/notion of going into academia and research.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates didn't graduate from college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know a ton of underemployed Bio majors, just saying.

Most of them are pre-med failure just like ton of pre-law failures from humanities

Nope, they're mostly people who picked a major putting one foot in front of another with the assumption that respect during school translates into the workplace. Non-lab recruiter's just see someone who has skills they're unfamiliar with (usually by choice). Compare to a humanities degree which is at least approachable and accepted into the fold.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

STEM majors can go into both STEM and non-STEM jobs whereas humanities major can only go into non-STEM jobs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

STEM majors can go into both STEM and non-STEM jobs whereas humanities major can only go into non-STEM jobs.

Ha what's up with the glee? "yay these people can't get jobs in this field!" But Humanities majors go into STEM all the time, and more to the point, there are still millions and millions of non-STEM jobs.

[Anonymous]

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

Investment banking =Must attend target schools usually top 15-20
medical schools = Humanities majors lack the requisite courses (organ. chem, physics etc.) to apply to med schools (also need 3.92+ GPA)
law schools = Must go to top 10 or bust now days
management consulting = Look at IB answer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At a rigorous school the humanities can teach critical thinking and analysis skills that are very valuable. I was a philosophy major in the '80s and found my undergrad classes in my major much more challenging than top 10 law school classes

It is a waste of time if you are at a school where they are just skimming over the top and everything is applied v.s learning from the raw materials

I think the major is less important than the students interest in the major and the quality of professors in the major at the school you are attending

The problem is that any good school can teach critical thinking and analysis skills that are very valuable for any major plus more practical skills for useful majors

[Anonymous]

Did anyone read the article? There wasn't THAT much difference in the survey results between the humanities and non-humanities majors! I think this is another case of the headline creating a LOT of drama that the story doesn't support (see below):



"Compared to those who earned degrees in other fields, humanities graduates had a higher rate of unemployment (3.6% vs. 2.9% in 2018). If they were employed, they were less satisfied with their jobs (85% vs. 89%) and their salaries (74% vs. 78%).

And just under 90% said they were satisfied with their life in general, compared to just over 90% for non-humanities graduates.

At the same time, about 38% of humanities graduates said their degree has no relation to their job. The survey average among all college graduates was about 25%.

About 40% of those with humanities degrees said they wouldn't choose the same major again, a more favorable finding than the Federal Reserve study, though that compares to roughly 36% across all fields. Only about 25% of engineering and health sciences graduates would choose another major."