College Grads Regret Majoring in Humanities Fields

[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.

Not true. But breaking into stem jobs is a bit easier if the humanities major has a minor in something STEM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

BS

Plenty of humanities majors go to medical school. All that is required is the core/required courses (10-12 courses). Med schools would rather see someone who majors in something they love and take the requisite courses for med school than someone who just majors in Bio because it covers all prerequisites (or most).


You do not need to attend Top schools to go into any of these areas. Yes, it's a bit easier, but they hire from many other places

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My husband has an engineering degree from Mason (he is a vet who did his degree part time while working and starting our family) and had to do group projects.

He would hand the write ups to me, the "lowly" humanities grad, to edit because these folks couldn't write a sentence to save their lives.

His favorite teammate was the one who couldn't stop reminding people he went to TJ.

My husband was a much better writer than some of his teammates on these projects, and that is saying something.

All this to say - the world needs humanities majors. Not everyone wants/desires to be an engineer, computer scientist, lawyer or doctor.

I thought I was going to go into Ed Policy (daughter of educators with no desire to be a teacher), but wound up in fundraising for nonprofits. No, I'm not making a ton of money, but I enjoy what I do and I am good at it.

+1

NP. I hear you, PP. My spouse wishes all these IT programming experts he manages had had a better dose of writing in their educations. They can program all day and night but are terrible at talking to their client about what the client needs, and terrible at explaining anything to the end users, who are not a bunch of fellow programmers. Nearly every profession needs for people to be able to explain what they do, but many programmers, engineers, even MDs, are all tech knowledge, with no ability to translate what they do for the users and patients whose lives are affected.

Another NP, I hear you as well. My husband transitioned to Tech Marketing (has a STEM degree and was programming in Tech before), he is doing very well for himself, but struggles with writing. He is taking Udemy courses to become a better writer. My kids both want to go into STEM and are in public school. We supplement reading and writing with extra classes in elementary and middle to make sure they have a good foundation. I will encourage them to take AP classes in Language and Literature in High School along with advanced STEM classes. I feel most of the future jobs would be at an intersection of two fields, and having a decent humanities education along with spectacular STEM education would be very valuable.

As a development manager, I spend and inordinate amount of time trying to decipher absolutely incomprehensible emails and written communications from developers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My husband has an engineering degree from Mason (he is a vet who did his degree part time while working and starting our family) and had to do group projects.

He would hand the write ups to me, the "lowly" humanities grad, to edit because these folks couldn't write a sentence to save their lives.

His favorite teammate was the one who couldn't stop reminding people he went to TJ.

My husband was a much better writer than some of his teammates on these projects, and that is saying something.

All this to say - the world needs humanities majors. Not everyone wants/desires to be an engineer, computer scientist, lawyer or doctor.

I thought I was going to go into Ed Policy (daughter of educators with no desire to be a teacher), but wound up in fundraising for nonprofits. No, I'm not making a ton of money, but I enjoy what I do and I am good at it.

+1

NP. I hear you, PP. My spouse wishes all these IT programming experts he manages had had a better dose of writing in their educations. They can program all day and night but are terrible at talking to their client about what the client needs, and terrible at explaining anything to the end users, who are not a bunch of fellow programmers. Nearly every profession needs for people to be able to explain what they do, but many programmers, engineers, even MDs, are all tech knowledge, with no ability to translate what they do for the users and patients whose lives are affected.

Another NP, I hear you as well. My husband transitioned to Tech Marketing (has a STEM degree and was programming in Tech before), he is doing very well for himself, but struggles with writing. He is taking Udemy courses to become a better writer. My kids both want to go into STEM and are in public school. We supplement reading and writing with extra classes in elementary and middle to make sure they have a good foundation. I will encourage them to take AP classes in Language and Literature in High School along with advanced STEM classes. I feel most of the future jobs would be at an intersection of two fields, and having a decent humanities education along with spectacular STEM education would be very valuable.

As a development manager, I spend and inordinate amount of time trying to decipher absolutely incomprehensible emails and written communications from developers.

Maybe because you hire cheap labors from foreign countries?
You get what you pay for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My husband has an engineering degree from Mason (he is a vet who did his degree part time while working and starting our family) and had to do group projects.

He would hand the write ups to me, the "lowly" humanities grad, to edit because these folks couldn't write a sentence to save their lives.

His favorite teammate was the one who couldn't stop reminding people he went to TJ.

My husband was a much better writer than some of his teammates on these projects, and that is saying something.

All this to say - the world needs humanities majors. Not everyone wants/desires to be an engineer, computer scientist, lawyer or doctor.

I thought I was going to go into Ed Policy (daughter of educators with no desire to be a teacher), but wound up in fundraising for nonprofits. No, I'm not making a ton of money, but I enjoy what I do and I am good at it.

+1

NP. I hear you, PP. My spouse wishes all these IT programming experts he manages had had a better dose of writing in their educations. They can program all day and night but are terrible at talking to their client about what the client needs, and terrible at explaining anything to the end users, who are not a bunch of fellow programmers. Nearly every profession needs for people to be able to explain what they do, but many programmers, engineers, even MDs, are all tech knowledge, with no ability to translate what they do for the users and patients whose lives are affected.

Another NP, I hear you as well. My husband transitioned to Tech Marketing (has a STEM degree and was programming in Tech before), he is doing very well for himself, but struggles with writing. He is taking Udemy courses to become a better writer. My kids both want to go into STEM and are in public school. We supplement reading and writing with extra classes in elementary and middle to make sure they have a good foundation. I will encourage them to take AP classes in Language and Literature in High School along with advanced STEM classes. I feel most of the future jobs would be at an intersection of two fields, and having a decent humanities education along with spectacular STEM education would be very valuable.

As a development manager, I spend and inordinate amount of time trying to decipher absolutely incomprehensible emails and written communications from developers.

Maybe because you hire cheap labors from foreign countries?
You get what you pay for.

Not the PP to whom you're responding but what an ill-informed comment that is. I commented earlier in the thread about my DH who manages developers and who wishes they were better able to communicate, especially in writing. Like the development manager you're snarking at, my DH has this same experience of having to spend his (expensive) time deciphering developers' supposed communications. And his team does not hire "cheap labor" from ANY country--they're at the top of their game in IT and well paid. But both ones from the U.S. and ones from other countries lack communication and writing skills. It's not some simplistic "Oh, you hired cheap foreign labor and they don't write in English well" thing. At all.

[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.

Amen to that.

I think this is more important than some collge ranking threads.
What good is there if you go to a higher ranked school but are only capable of easy humanities majors.

You can’t be serious. What a sheltered life you must live.
DP

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

It is really up to to student to figure this out. I'd argue that a coop focused school is a good choice if you want to be a humanities major----they expect all their students to do coops, so you get real world experience. If you want to major in Humanities, you need to work harder to figure out what you actually want to do. Humanities are fine---they are great. They teach critical thinking skills and the point of college (IMO) is to develop critical thinking and love of learning. But yeah, if you are gonna be an anthropology major and don't want to be a professor/get your PHD, then you need to think seriously about what you can (and want to) do with this degree. Seriously look at minors in business, data analytics, cs, etc. and realize that you really need to find internships in something so you do have the transferable skills for employment after a BA. You need to realize that there are not going to be tons of companies searching for someone with a BA in anthropology. So you have to work harder than a CS/Engineering major. You have to market yourself and it will not be as easy, but it is totally doable.

sure you might have to "work harder" to figure out what jobs you want than a CS major but that doesn't mean there are NO jobs to find. And trust me when I tell you, my anthropology major has zero desire or ability to code or be a software developer etc, so if I were to force her into that, she'd fail. What she IS, however, is an exceptional communicator both written and verbal, who knows how to analyze a situation, debate, find common ground within a group of people and make a plan to go forward. This is a very marketable skill and one that it not always incumbent in a CS major or even engineering. No she is not going to walk out of school and get a $120K SDE job, and she does not want one. But she will be able to do plenty of other jobs, that guess what DO exist, including but not limited to human resources, sales, marketing, business analysis, consulting etc. There are different skills needed for different roles and as far as I know, a huge part of the world still operates on human relationships, not AI.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

It is really up to to student to figure this out. I'd argue that a coop focused school is a good choice if you want to be a humanities major----they expect all their students to do coops, so you get real world experience. If you want to major in Humanities, you need to work harder to figure out what you actually want to do. Humanities are fine---they are great. They teach critical thinking skills and the point of college (IMO) is to develop critical thinking and love of learning. But yeah, if you are gonna be an anthropology major and don't want to be a professor/get your PHD, then you need to think seriously about what you can (and want to) do with this degree. Seriously look at minors in business, data analytics, cs, etc. and realize that you really need to find internships in something so you do have the transferable skills for employment after a BA. You need to realize that there are not going to be tons of companies searching for someone with a BA in anthropology. So you have to work harder than a CS/Engineering major. You have to market yourself and it will not be as easy, but it is totally doable.

sure you might have to "work harder" to figure out what jobs you want than a CS major but that doesn't mean there are NO jobs to find. And trust me when I tell you, my anthropology major has zero desire or ability to code or be a software developer etc, so if I were to force her into that, she'd fail. What she IS, however, is an exceptional communicator both written and verbal, who knows how to analyze a situation, debate, find common ground within a group of people and make a plan to go forward. This is a very marketable skill and one that it not always incumbent in a CS major or even engineering. No she is not going to walk out of school and get a $120K SDE job, and she does not want one. But she will be able to do plenty of other jobs, that guess what DO exist, including but not limited to human resources, sales, marketing, business analysis, consulting etc. There are different skills needed for different roles and as far as I know, a huge part of the world still operates on human relationships, not AI.

Someone seems triggered.

Let me know how you feel when your kid ends up at Starbucks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

It is really up to to student to figure this out. I'd argue that a coop focused school is a good choice if you want to be a humanities major----they expect all their students to do coops, so you get real world experience. If you want to major in Humanities, you need to work harder to figure out what you actually want to do. Humanities are fine---they are great. They teach critical thinking skills and the point of college (IMO) is to develop critical thinking and love of learning. But yeah, if you are gonna be an anthropology major and don't want to be a professor/get your PHD, then you need to think seriously about what you can (and want to) do with this degree. Seriously look at minors in business, data analytics, cs, etc. and realize that you really need to find internships in something so you do have the transferable skills for employment after a BA. You need to realize that there are not going to be tons of companies searching for someone with a BA in anthropology. So you have to work harder than a CS/Engineering major. You have to market yourself and it will not be as easy, but it is totally doable.

sure you might have to "work harder" to figure out what jobs you want than a CS major but that doesn't mean there are NO jobs to find. And trust me when I tell you, my anthropology major has zero desire or ability to code or be a software developer etc, so if I were to force her into that, she'd fail. What she IS, however, is an exceptional communicator both written and verbal, who knows how to analyze a situation, debate, find common ground within a group of people and make a plan to go forward. This is a very marketable skill and one that it not always incumbent in a CS major or even engineering. No she is not going to walk out of school and get a $120K SDE job, and she does not want one. But she will be able to do plenty of other jobs, that guess what DO exist, including but not limited to human resources, sales, marketing, business analysis, consulting etc. There are different skills needed for different roles and as far as I know, a huge part of the world still operates on human relationships, not AI.

Someone seems triggered.

Let me know how you feel when your kid ends up at Starbucks.

Haha not a chance. Both of my kids have had great internships so far and will have no trouble finding jobs, if they do not choose to go to grad school. In fact I work in recruiting and the most underemployed young adults i see are chem and bio majors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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."

Seriously? That headline is absurd.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

It is really up to to student to figure this out. I'd argue that a coop focused school is a good choice if you want to be a humanities major----they expect all their students to do coops, so you get real world experience. If you want to major in Humanities, you need to work harder to figure out what you actually want to do. Humanities are fine---they are great. They teach critical thinking skills and the point of college (IMO) is to develop critical thinking and love of learning. But yeah, if you are gonna be an anthropology major and don't want to be a professor/get your PHD, then you need to think seriously about what you can (and want to) do with this degree. Seriously look at minors in business, data analytics, cs, etc. and realize that you really need to find internships in something so you do have the transferable skills for employment after a BA. You need to realize that there are not going to be tons of companies searching for someone with a BA in anthropology. So you have to work harder than a CS/Engineering major. You have to market yourself and it will not be as easy, but it is totally doable.

my anthropology major [LOL. LMAO. Hope you didn't pay a lot for that.]

But she will be able to do plenty of other jobs, that guess what DO exist, including but not limited to human resources, sales, marketing, business analysis, consulting etc.

If you're the kind of person who is interested in anthropology, I have a hard time imagining you enjoying human resources, sales, marketing, business analysis, or consulting.

If you're the kind of person who wants to be in human resources, sales, marketing, business analysis, or consulting, you should major in business or economics.

I get it that you're trying to cope your way into believing your kid's anthropology major wasn't a stupid waste of money, but it shows a massive lack of planning and foresight. If I were hiring someone to do marketing, business analysis, or consulting and some anthro major applied, that would go right into the reject pile. Plenty of applicants majored in something sensible, after all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

It is really up to to student to figure this out. I'd argue that a coop focused school is a good choice if you want to be a humanities major----they expect all their students to do coops, so you get real world experience. If you want to major in Humanities, you need to work harder to figure out what you actually want to do. Humanities are fine---they are great. They teach critical thinking skills and the point of college (IMO) is to develop critical thinking and love of learning. But yeah, if you are gonna be an anthropology major and don't want to be a professor/get your PHD, then you need to think seriously about what you can (and want to) do with this degree. Seriously look at minors in business, data analytics, cs, etc. and realize that you really need to find internships in something so you do have the transferable skills for employment after a BA. You need to realize that there are not going to be tons of companies searching for someone with a BA in anthropology. So you have to work harder than a CS/Engineering major. You have to market yourself and it will not be as easy, but it is totally doable.

sure you might have to "work harder" to figure out what jobs you want than a CS major but that doesn't mean there are NO jobs to find. And trust me when I tell you, my anthropology major has zero desire or ability to code or be a software developer etc, so if I were to force her into that, she'd fail. What she IS, however, is an exceptional communicator both written and verbal, who knows how to analyze a situation, debate, find common ground within a group of people and make a plan to go forward. This is a very marketable skill and one that it not always incumbent in a CS major or even engineering. No she is not going to walk out of school and get a $120K SDE job, and she does not want one. But she will be able to do plenty of other jobs, that guess what DO exist, including but not limited to human resources, sales, marketing, business analysis, consulting etc. There are different skills needed for different roles and as far as I know, a huge part of the world still operates on human relationships, not AI.

We obviously need humanities majors. Your kid is obviously well versed in job opportunities for their major and understands the financial options when exiting college with a degree like that. I just wish more people did!! So as I stated before, your kid would benefit from a business minor/marketing/data analytics (business analysis) to help strenghten their job opportunities and help them find internships while in college. I would never forces anyone into CS (it's definately not for everyone). But if my kid wanted to major in Art history/anthropology/philosophy, I would encourage them to do so, but think bigger picture and find a strong minor to help put them on a path for employment/internships. Because the critical thinking and writing skills they will learn as a humanities major will go further if they have a minor such as business. Business pairs extremely well with most humanity majors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

It is really up to to student to figure this out. I'd argue that a coop focused school is a good choice if you want to be a humanities major----they expect all their students to do coops, so you get real world experience. If you want to major in Humanities, you need to work harder to figure out what you actually want to do. Humanities are fine---they are great. They teach critical thinking skills and the point of college (IMO) is to develop critical thinking and love of learning. But yeah, if you are gonna be an anthropology major and don't want to be a professor/get your PHD, then you need to think seriously about what you can (and want to) do with this degree. Seriously look at minors in business, data analytics, cs, etc. and realize that you really need to find internships in something so you do have the transferable skills for employment after a BA. You need to realize that there are not going to be tons of companies searching for someone with a BA in anthropology. So you have to work harder than a CS/Engineering major. You have to market yourself and it will not be as easy, but it is totally doable.

sure you might have to "work harder" to figure out what jobs you want than a CS major but that doesn't mean there are NO jobs to find. And trust me when I tell you, my anthropology major has zero desire or ability to code or be a software developer etc, so if I were to force her into that, she'd fail. What she IS, however, is an exceptional communicator both written and verbal, who knows how to analyze a situation, debate, find common ground within a group of people and make a plan to go forward. This is a very marketable skill and one that it not always incumbent in a CS major or even engineering. No she is not going to walk out of school and get a $120K SDE job, and she does not want one. But she will be able to do plenty of other jobs, that guess what DO exist, including but not limited to human resources, sales, marketing, business analysis, consulting etc. There are different skills needed for different roles and as far as I know, a huge part of the world still operates on human relationships, not AI.

We obviously need humanities majors. Your kid is obviously well versed in job opportunities for their major and understands the financial options when exiting college with a degree like that. I just wish more people did!! So as I stated before, your kid would benefit from a business minor/marketing/data analytics (business analysis) to help strenghten their job opportunities and help them find internships while in college. I would never forces anyone into CS (it's definately not for everyone). But if my kid wanted to major in Art history/anthropology/philosophy, I would encourage them to do so, but think bigger picture and find a strong minor to help put them on a path for employment/internships. Because the critical thinking and writing skills they will learn as a humanities major will go further if they have a minor such as business. Business pairs extremely well with most humanity majors.

This is completely backwards and senseless. If you want to work in business... major in business. Minor in art history/anthropology/philosophy. If your kid is capable of "critical thinking" then they will surely learn that by majoring in business and minoring in some other humanities thing. I don't understand this attitude that in order to learn "critical thinking" then you must major in a humanities subject. (Fun fact: STEM majors also learn critical thinking. If you don't do critical thinking as an engineer, then the bridge falls down or the computer program crashes, etc.)

An example of "big picture thinking" would be to major in something useful to the whole rest of your life and to minor in the other "fun" stuff that you have the privilege and luxury of doing in college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

It is really up to to student to figure this out. I'd argue that a coop focused school is a good choice if you want to be a humanities major----they expect all their students to do coops, so you get real world experience. If you want to major in Humanities, you need to work harder to figure out what you actually want to do. Humanities are fine---they are great. They teach critical thinking skills and the point of college (IMO) is to develop critical thinking and love of learning. But yeah, if you are gonna be an anthropology major and don't want to be a professor/get your PHD, then you need to think seriously about what you can (and want to) do with this degree. Seriously look at minors in business, data analytics, cs, etc. and realize that you really need to find internships in something so you do have the transferable skills for employment after a BA. You need to realize that there are not going to be tons of companies searching for someone with a BA in anthropology. So you have to work harder than a CS/Engineering major. You have to market yourself and it will not be as easy, but it is totally doable.

sure you might have to "work harder" to figure out what jobs you want than a CS major but that doesn't mean there are NO jobs to find. And trust me when I tell you, my anthropology major has zero desire or ability to code or be a software developer etc, so if I were to force her into that, she'd fail. What she IS, however, is an exceptional communicator both written and verbal, who knows how to analyze a situation, debate, find common ground within a group of people and make a plan to go forward. This is a very marketable skill and one that it not always incumbent in a CS major or even engineering. No she is not going to walk out of school and get a $120K SDE job, and she does not want one. But she will be able to do plenty of other jobs, that guess what DO exist, including but not limited to human resources, sales, marketing, business analysis, consulting etc. There are different skills needed for different roles and as far as I know, a huge part of the world still operates on human relationships, not AI.

We obviously need humanities majors. Your kid is obviously well versed in job opportunities for their major and understands the financial options when exiting college with a degree like that. I just wish more people did!! So as I stated before, your kid would benefit from a business minor/marketing/data analytics (business analysis) to help strenghten their job opportunities and help them find internships while in college. I would never forces anyone into CS (it's definately not for everyone). But if my kid wanted to major in Art history/anthropology/philosophy, I would encourage them to do so, but think bigger picture and find a strong minor to help put them on a path for employment/internships. Because the critical thinking and writing skills they will learn as a humanities major will go further if they have a minor such as business. Business pairs extremely well with most humanity majors.

This is completely backwards and senseless. If you want to work in business... major in business. Minor in art history/anthropology/philosophy. If your kid is capable of "critical thinking" then they will surely learn that by majoring in business and minoring in some other humanities thing. I don't understand this attitude that in order to learn "critical thinking" then you must major in a humanities subject. (Fun fact: STEM majors also learn critical thinking. If you don't do critical thinking as an engineer, then the bridge falls down or the computer program crashes, etc.)

An example of "big picture thinking" would be to major in something useful to the whole rest of your life and to minor in the other "fun" stuff that you have the privilege and luxury of doing in college.

Humanities majors have nothing to come back with other than the tired 'Humanities majors are excellent communicators and STEM majors communicate at middle school level' argument. So predictable and tired old argument. STEM majors have better critical thinking skills than Humanities majors and STEM majors certainly can communicate effectively as well sometimes even better than non-STEM run of the mill average Joe and Jane graduating with any (easy) majors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

It is really up to to student to figure this out. I'd argue that a coop focused school is a good choice if you want to be a humanities major----they expect all their students to do coops, so you get real world experience. If you want to major in Humanities, you need to work harder to figure out what you actually want to do. Humanities are fine---they are great. They teach critical thinking skills and the point of college (IMO) is to develop critical thinking and love of learning. But yeah, if you are gonna be an anthropology major and don't want to be a professor/get your PHD, then you need to think seriously about what you can (and want to) do with this degree. Seriously look at minors in business, data analytics, cs, etc. and realize that you really need to find internships in something so you do have the transferable skills for employment after a BA. You need to realize that there are not going to be tons of companies searching for someone with a BA in anthropology. So you have to work harder than a CS/Engineering major. You have to market yourself and it will not be as easy, but it is totally doable.

sure you might have to "work harder" to figure out what jobs you want than a CS major but that doesn't mean there are NO jobs to find. And trust me when I tell you, my anthropology major has zero desire or ability to code or be a software developer etc, so if I were to force her into that, she'd fail. What she IS, however, is an exceptional communicator both written and verbal, who knows how to analyze a situation, debate, find common ground within a group of people and make a plan to go forward. This is a very marketable skill and one that it not always incumbent in a CS major or even engineering. No she is not going to walk out of school and get a $120K SDE job, and she does not want one. But she will be able to do plenty of other jobs, that guess what DO exist, including but not limited to human resources, sales, marketing, business analysis, consulting etc. There are different skills needed for different roles and as far as I know, a huge part of the world still operates on human relationships, not AI.

We obviously need humanities majors. Your kid is obviously well versed in job opportunities for their major and understands the financial options when exiting college with a degree like that. I just wish more people did!! So as I stated before, your kid would benefit from a business minor/marketing/data analytics (business analysis) to help strenghten their job opportunities and help them find internships while in college. I would never forces anyone into CS (it's definately not for everyone). But if my kid wanted to major in Art history/anthropology/philosophy, I would encourage them to do so, but think bigger picture and find a strong minor to help put them on a path for employment/internships. Because the critical thinking and writing skills they will learn as a humanities major will go further if they have a minor such as business. Business pairs extremely well with most humanity majors.

This is completely backwards and senseless. If you want to work in business... major in business. Minor in art history/anthropology/philosophy. If your kid is capable of "critical thinking" then they will surely learn that by majoring in business and minoring in some other humanities thing. I don't understand this attitude that in order to learn "critical thinking" then you must major in a humanities subject. (Fun fact: STEM majors also learn critical thinking. If you don't do critical thinking as an engineer, then the bridge falls down or the computer program crashes, etc.)

An example of "big picture thinking" would be to major in something useful to the whole rest of your life and to minor in the other "fun" stuff that you have the privilege and luxury of doing in college.

+1000