Is it low brow to criticize humanities majors?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So what are these great jobs the ivy humanities majors are doing?

Well my DH earns nearly $1 million/yr working in TV & filim
so there's that.

Arts, not humanities. And if we're picking extreme outliers, my cousin's DH makes $1B/year in tech

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, people who don’t understand the value of humanities majors are less educated/low brow in my experience

People who who don't understand that most humanities majors are majoring in what well-educated people do in their free time are less educated and low brow in my experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I had an employee once deride ‘liberal arts’ in general. She thought one majored in, and received a degree in, ‘liberal arts.’ She didn’t understand the difference, nor did she care to understand. She was so low-brow it wasn’t worth my time to try to explain.

Most DCUM posters think that. They don't understand that a major is part of a liberal arts education

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why stop at Humanities? We (CS/EE majors) made fun of the Math and Physics majors on our floor - we kept joking what are you qualified to do? We'd probably go after biology as well but only had one.

One math grad joked after getting his first job that UPS truck drivers were making slightly more - this was in the 90s just before the Internet explosion.

Working at NASA - Physics/Math majors looked down on everyone else. Think Sheldon and Wolowitz. They ran the place. They even listed on open positions "hard science" they didn't care which one. That was for something that required hard coding.

The Business majors keep telling use we're the "smart guys" while significantly making more than us. Off course they only hired Humanities as they moved up. One even told me Humanities start low and finish high. Tech start high and level off. Yes. I understand the comp plan for FANG and the ludicrous salaries are not the norm.

Difference is that tech majors have nice paying jobs doing comfortable work. Business majors generally have to burn out their soul and be miserable people to succeed. Look at the ghoul in the oval office.

[Anonymous]

I studied Classics, focusing on Latin, at Harvard. Nobody from my course is working at Starbucks. Not even close.

Some of them aren't working at all, nor did they ever plan to work. All are living the kinds of lives most people would envy. IYKYK, I guess.

In a way, studying a field in the humanities as "upper class" (a favorite DCUM obsession) as you can get.

But for you plebs who have to work for your bread, I suppose the MBA slog or engineering drudgery is OK.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From my experience, the people who criticize humanities majors, saying things like “have fun working at Starbucks” and “that’s a waste of time,” are from lower social classes and are overall less polished. On the other hand, those who are accepting of humanities majors tent to be more educated, wealthy, and well spoken.

I mean, those people are just projecting their insecurities. The joke’s on them because humanities majors are best positioned to thrive in an AI-disrupted economy. Human creativity is going to command a premium in the workplace. It is already true.

Humanities majors aren't human creativity. They are spectators to human creativity.

But enjoy coping. While English majors get replaced by ChatGPT writing marketing copy.

Humanities majors learn to think. That's what reading, analyzing, and presenting and defending your analyses in discussions, presentations and in writing does. You get a broad based education and learn to think deeply and communicate.

English majors don't just write. They think. That's why their skills are so valuable in so many fields.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s a luxury to be able to study whatever you are passionate about for learnings sake without having to care about employment outcomes.

What exactly do you mean when you say employment outcomes? Income at: One year out? Ten years out? Long-term?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From my experience, the people who criticize humanities majors, saying things like “have fun working at Starbucks” and “that’s a waste of time,” are from lower social classes and are overall less polished. On the other hand, those who are accepting of humanities majors tent to be more educated, wealthy, and well spoken.

I mean, those people are just projecting their insecurities. The joke’s on them because humanities majors are best positioned to thrive in an AI-disrupted economy. Human creativity is going to command a premium in the workplace. It is already true.

Humanities majors aren't human creativity. They are spectators to human creativity.

But enjoy coping. While English majors get replaced by ChatGPT writing marketing copy.

Humanities majors learn to think. That's what reading, analyzing, and presenting and defending your analyses in discussions, presentations and in writing does. You get a broad based education and learn to think deeply and communicate.

English majors don't just write. They think. That's why their skills are so valuable in so many fields.

My literature major did a great job of preparing me for law school and life. Happily making $3M/year as a big law partner. Prefer to hire associates who have a liberal arts background.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I studied Classics, focusing on Latin, at Harvard. Nobody from my course is working at Starbucks. Not even close.

Some of them aren't working at all, nor did they ever plan to work. All are living the kinds of lives most people would envy. IYKYK, I guess.

In a way, studying a field in the humanities as "upper class" (a favorite DCUM obsession) as you can get.

But for you plebs who have to work for your bread, I suppose the MBA slog or engineering drudgery is OK.

Well yes, that is exactly the point that OP is making, congrats on your Harvard education for reading comprehension 101.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m wondering if criticizing humanities majors is a more cultural thing. I’m an immigrant, and humanities majors are definitely looked down upon as there aren’t much career prospects in my home country for them as there would be for an engineer or a doctor for instance.
Also, as a high school student in my home country, it’s almost unheard of to go into a humanities major if you’re good at Math/ STEM.
It’s awesome to see kids in the US who are good at STEM, deliberately choose humanities majors and thrive.

I think that’s only immigrants from Asian countries. How could everybody be an engineer or doctor? That would be weird.

Not everyone is an engineer or a doctor. Most people are poor. Other people are business people who don't need a college education.

NP here. Wow this thread is something.

As a 2nd gen Indian American, I don’t want my kids to be engineers or doctors. Those are vocational careers (yes, half my family did that and they all regret not studying other things).

I want them to have the freedom to study whatever they want. To read as much as they want. And they are at their Ivies as humanities majors. Older one has a IB internship lined up as a history/comparative lit major.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m wondering if criticizing humanities majors is a more cultural thing. I’m an immigrant, and humanities majors are definitely looked down upon as there aren’t much career prospects in my home country for them as there would be for an engineer or a doctor for instance.
Also, as a high school student in my home country, it’s almost unheard of to go into a humanities major if you’re good at Math/ STEM.
It’s awesome to see kids in the US who are good at STEM, deliberately choose humanities majors and thrive.

I think that’s only immigrants from Asian countries. How could everybody be an engineer or doctor? That would be weird.

Not everyone is an engineer or a doctor. Most people are poor. Other people are business people who don't need a college education.

NP here. Wow this thread is something.

As a 2nd gen Indian American, I don’t want my kids to be engineers or doctors. Those are vocational careers (yes, half my family did that and they all regret not studying other things).

I want them to have the freedom to study whatever they want. To read as much as they want. And they are at their Ivies as humanities majors. Older one has a IB internship lined up as a history/comparative lit major.

NP- Another 2nd gen Indian poster here. I was happy when my kid expressed an interest in taking philosophy classes and encouraged them to be open-minded about career paths- academia, consulting, government. The worst is when kids feel stuck or locked into something and then have major regrets as older adults.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From my experience, the people who criticize humanities majors, saying things like “have fun working at Starbucks” and “that’s a waste of time,” are from lower social classes and are overall less polished. On the other hand, those who are accepting of humanities majors tent to be more educated, wealthy, and well spoken.

My experience is that the same person who is educated, wealthy and well spoken is quite congratulatory of someone studying history at Harvard, but has no problem telling the history major at Salisbury "have fun working at Starbucks".

Well yes, but as a history major from a low end state school, they aren’t wrong. It’s a dead end. My classmates I know about work as cashiers or customer service, or went on to law school. That’s OK…for many people a degree is a degree, but it wasn’t ever leading to a career in history.

As with most "non stem degrees", those who want to go further have to have a plan. Nobody is just sitting there asking for "someone with a BA in History". You have to find what you want to do, get your foot in the door (internships, etc) and create a path for yourself. But you should know that from the start of college.
And the stem people who go furthest are the ones motivated to create the "best path" for themselves as well. It's just easier to still get a job without that highly motivated position

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m wondering if criticizing humanities majors is a more cultural thing. I’m an immigrant, and humanities majors are definitely looked down upon as there aren’t much career prospects in my home country for them as there would be for an engineer or a doctor for instance.
Also, as a high school student in my home country, it’s almost unheard of to go into a humanities major if you’re good at Math/ STEM.
It’s awesome to see kids in the US who are good at STEM, deliberately choose humanities majors and thrive.

I think that’s only immigrants from Asian countries. How could everybody be an engineer or doctor? That would be weird.

Years ago, my Japanese American friend from law school said that all of her cousins were doctors. I was amazed.

[Anonymous]

Of course it’s wrong to criticize anyone for choosing to be a humanities major in 2025. But I think there’s a general sense among 18 year olds today that it’s not going to be easy to forge a good life in the decades ahead.

Which is a very different sensibility than when most parents were going to college. We were perfectly happy to major in English or History or International Relations bc we had some confidence things were going to work out. And mostly they did.

But that confidence doesn’t exist anymore. So many smart students are all gravitating to the same majors - engineering, pre-med, business. CS may be dropping off now, but that’s going to make engineering even more competitive.

I think kids are scared - not unreasonably - about the future. So when a bright kid chooses Classical Studies or Art History in this climate, others assume they have generational wealth or they’re nuts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s a luxury to be able to study whatever you are passionate about for learnings sake without having to care about employment outcomes.

My daughter is in NYC with thousands of kids studying dance, acting, musical theatre at places like NYU, Juilliard, Fordham with Alvin Ailey, all the schools at the top ballet companies. That’s just a few of the schools.

It’s not that unusual for these kids to study something without knowing what kind on income they might have.

Years ago I roomed with a woman who had a SUNY dance degree. Her source of income was as an admin via temp agency. She lamented her dance degree. Another woman at a party who was also a dancer lamented that nobody was interested in her dancing but liked her cheesecakes.

In NYC the top dance school is SAB which is a children's professional program. NYU, Juilliard and Fordham don't produce dancers who can actually make a living from dancing. And most of the musicians and actors from those schools end up as real estate agents.