Why the lack of men majoring in humanities?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wall Street absolutely hires English and History majors out of the Ivies—especially if they demonstrate the right skills and experiences.

While finance, econ, and STEM majors are common pipelines, firms on Wall Street (investment banks, private equity firms, hedge funds, etc.) often value the critical thinking, communication, and analytical skills that humanities majors bring to the table.

For goodness sakes.. you ivy grads don't seem to get that the vast majority of humanities majors aren't graduating from Ivies. Those people aren't getting the high paying jobs.

Get out of your bubble.

Does Wall Street hire humanities majors? Yes. Does majoring in humanities reduce your odds of getting, or being successful in a finance job? Yes.

Of course, it’s hard to explain this distinction to people who, almost by definition, have a limited grasp of probability.

It’s not hard (as stated over and over) for Ivy grads.

You are missing the details and the critical thinking and arguing a broader point that is not being made.

[Anonymous]

If I want to build a nuclear bomb, I’ll hire scientists.

If I want to hire someone to run my country, I’ll hire somebody with vast historical knowledge, global policy-wise, and a critical thinker with ethics that doesn’t crack under pressure.

The right man/woman for the right job.

I tapped out salary-wise as an engineer (MS too). My husband with just a BA from a T10 was making $300k 3 years out of college (in the mid 90s) and avg $400-500k to my $250k.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If I want to build a nuclear bomb, I’ll hire scientists.

If I want to hire someone to run my country, I’ll hire somebody with vast historical knowledge, global policy-wise, and a critical thinker with ethics that doesn’t crack under pressure.

The right man/woman for the right job.

I tapped out salary-wise as an engineer (MS too). My husband with just a BA from a T10 was making $300k 3 years out of college (in the mid 90s) and avg $400-500k to my $250k.

Right. Because when I think of Trump, or Biden or Harris for that matter, that's exactly what I think of. Ethical critical thinkers with vast knowledge, all of them.

[Anonymous]

Looks like people have been saying humanities grads fare well, but only when they come from elite colleges. Where would you draw the line? Harvard on one end, Frostburg on the other. At what point in the middle do we stop recommending humanities? 20% acceptance rate?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think people are learning that you can just skip a humanities degree and go straight to Starbucks. There is no reason to waste four years on a humanities degree before Starbucks employment.

What? My degree is in the humanities. I make $275,000 a year working for Big Four accounting firm.

+1
My older kids were humanities majors and now work within the IC. Not sure what the PP is braying about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wall Street absolutely hires English and History majors out of the Ivies—especially if they demonstrate the right skills and experiences.

While finance, econ, and STEM majors are common pipelines, firms on Wall Street (investment banks, private equity firms, hedge funds, etc.) often value the critical thinking, communication, and analytical skills that humanities majors bring to the table.

For goodness sakes.. you ivy grads don't seem to get that the vast majority of humanities majors aren't graduating from Ivies. Those people aren't getting the high paying jobs.

Get out of your bubble.

Does Wall Street hire humanities majors? Yes. Does majoring in humanities reduce your odds of getting, or being successful in a finance job? Yes.

Of course, it’s hard to explain this distinction to people who, almost by definition, have a limited grasp of probability.

It’s not hard (as stated over and over) for Ivy grads.

You are missing the details and the critical thinking and arguing a broader point that is not being made.

That’s a bit of a misstatement…the average humanities major at an Ivy isn’t getting a Wall Street job. They likely are focused on getting such a job and getting involved with clubs and networking towards those jobs and know this early enough to secure internships in those jobs and have a strong GPA…and probably also took some quantitative electives.

It’s very possible for Ivy humanities majors to get these jobs (while nearly impossible for say a SUNY humanities major)…but it’s not easy and most don’t end up getting these jobs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think people are learning that you can just skip a humanities degree and go straight to Starbucks. There is no reason to waste four years on a humanities degree before Starbucks employment.

What? My degree is in the humanities. I make $275,000 a year working for Big Four accounting firm.

+1
My older kids were humanities majors and now work within the IC. Not sure what the PP is braying about.

What does IC stand for in your example? intelligence Community or something else?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If I want to build a nuclear bomb, I’ll hire scientists.

If I want to hire someone to run my country, I’ll hire somebody with vast historical knowledge, global policy-wise, and a critical thinker with ethics that doesn’t crack under pressure.

The right man/woman for the right job.

I tapped out salary-wise as an engineer (MS too). My husband with just a BA from a T10 was making $300k 3 years out of college (in the mid 90s) and avg $400-500k to my $250k.

Right. Because when I think of Trump, or Biden or Harris for that matter, that's exactly what I think of. Ethical critical thinkers with vast knowledge, all of them.

I didn’t hire (vote) for them. That’s exactly my point.

[Anonymous]

[twitter]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wall Street absolutely hires English and History majors out of the Ivies—especially if they demonstrate the right skills and experiences.

While finance, econ, and STEM majors are common pipelines, firms on Wall Street (investment banks, private equity firms, hedge funds, etc.) often value the critical thinking, communication, and analytical skills that humanities majors bring to the table.

For goodness sakes.. you ivy grads don't seem to get that the vast majority of humanities majors aren't graduating from Ivies. Those people aren't getting the high paying jobs.

Get out of your bubble.

Does Wall Street hire humanities majors? Yes. Does majoring in humanities reduce your odds of getting, or being successful in a finance job? Yes.

Of course, it’s hard to explain this distinction to people who, almost by definition, have a limited grasp of probability.

It’s not hard (as stated over and over) for Ivy grads.

You are missing the details and the critical thinking and arguing a broader point that is not being made.

That’s a bit of a misstatement…the average humanities major at an Ivy isn’t getting a Wall Street job. They likely are focused on getting such a job and getting involved with clubs and networking towards those jobs and know this early enough to secure internships in those jobs and have a strong GPA…and probably also took some quantitative electives.

It’s very possible for Ivy humanities majors to get these jobs (while nearly impossible for say a SUNY humanities major)…but it’s not easy and most don’t end up getting these jobs.

You can’t be wrong, can you? I see the stats at my kid’s Ivy. I see who comes to campus to recruit- and the stats on who they take.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just looked through the ‘25 class decisions for a local school on Instagram. Of 13 humanities majors, only 2 are male. Anyone else see this? This must mean that men get a bump.

More women attend college than men.
Good news for humanities majors!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:[twitter]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wall Street absolutely hires English and History majors out of the Ivies—especially if they demonstrate the right skills and experiences.

While finance, econ, and STEM majors are common pipelines, firms on Wall Street (investment banks, private equity firms, hedge funds, etc.) often value the critical thinking, communication, and analytical skills that humanities majors bring to the table.

For goodness sakes.. you ivy grads don't seem to get that the vast majority of humanities majors aren't graduating from Ivies. Those people aren't getting the high paying jobs.

Get out of your bubble.

Does Wall Street hire humanities majors? Yes. Does majoring in humanities reduce your odds of getting, or being successful in a finance job? Yes.

Of course, it’s hard to explain this distinction to people who, almost by definition, have a limited grasp of probability.

It’s not hard (as stated over and over) for Ivy grads.

You are missing the details and the critical thinking and arguing a broader point that is not being made.

That’s a bit of a misstatement…the average humanities major at an Ivy isn’t getting a Wall Street job. They likely are focused on getting such a job and getting involved with clubs and networking towards those jobs and know this early enough to secure internships in those jobs and have a strong GPA…and probably also took some quantitative electives.

It’s very possible for Ivy humanities majors to get these jobs (while nearly impossible for say a SUNY humanities major)…but it’s not easy and most don’t end up getting these jobs.

You can’t be wrong, can you? I see the stats at my kid’s Ivy. I see who comes to campus to recruit- and the stats on who they take.

I don’t understand your comment. What stats are you seeing? There are no stats indicating how many kids go to work on Wall Street and by major.

If there were then places like Peak Framework and other data sources wouldn’t be searching all kinds of disparate databases to cobble together their info…they would simply get the actual stats.

Just as one example, College transitions says 218 Harvard kids went to Wall Street out of around 1800 graduates.

Economics and other quantitative majors were the top majors for these kids by a large margin. So, I don’t know how many were humanities…but supposedly Harvard has like 300 graduate each year…and the majority aren’t going to Wall Street (or consulting).

[Anonymous]

You are your skillset. Outside of roles with regulatory licensing requirements, major barely matters. (Which isn't to say there isn't a strong correlation between certain majors and certain skillsets. Of course there is. Kids that are good at math are more likely to major in it or some math-adjacent field, e.g. But, out in the real world, it's the skillset that matters, not the major.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:English major here: Here’s what I think the answer is:

1. As college costs have escalated, questions of ROI have become more salient; this shifts some from humanities to majors that are perceived as more commercial—I think this is the dominant consideration, tbh;

2. The humanities themselves are not what they once were; there has been an increasing focus on questions of representation and various forms of identity groups where white males are perceived as “the enemy,” and its not unfair to say that, as a rough first cut, humanities now = critical oppression studies. Wherever you come down on the merits of that view of the world, it should be understandable why it might not be as interesting to everyone, particularly the designated villains of the current story. People can take a hint and tell where they are not wanted—hear often enough that people are tired “stale pale males” and its pretty easy to conclude “this is not where i want to place my intellectual focus.” People get punished grade-wise for disagreeing with the political priors of their professor in a lot of cases; unacceptable risk in the current economic climate.

3. The kind of young men who are interested in studying the humanities in college are mostly interested in the idea of a coherent intellectual tradition. This is hard to find now, the deconstruction of the old canon and the lack of any coherent alternative canon makes everything isolated, a one-off, with no coherent story anymore. This reality is off putting to some, a point even those who think changes to the canon were long overdue should be able to understand.

4. Also, many people want to study the humanities because they love old books; many of the professors teaching in the humanities seem to hate them; there’s a disconnect. The mean-spirited nature of critical theories as applied to great works are is off-putting to some. That’s not the only way to do the humanities, but it’s the one mostly on offer now.

This the best response. Everything else is screeching defensive histrionics. The answer is the cost of higher edu + the increased hostility towards men in the humanities at many schools. Just major in something useful like business or econ and read your favorite history books on the side. You can still take a few courses in the humanities and campus wisdom will direct you to the more sane faculty members still around.

A great deal of humanities research output these past 10 years is heavily in favor of one specific way of looking at things. It's not the pragmatic world we knew when we were in college 30 years ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If I want to build a nuclear bomb, I’ll hire scientists.

If I want to hire someone to run my country, I’ll hire somebody with vast historical knowledge, global policy-wise, and a critical thinker with ethics that doesn’t crack under pressure.

The right man/woman for the right job.

I tapped out salary-wise as an engineer (MS too). My husband with just a BA from a T10 was making $300k 3 years out of college (in the mid 90s) and avg $400-500k to my $250k.

I graduated from a T10 ivy in 2002 and a $300k salary for a 25/yo three year out of college would have been astronomical. Even in i-banking in the late 1990s with the bonuses. He must have been a wunderkid which means his life experience as a humanities manager is not applicable to just about anyone else.

The pipeline to Wall Street from my Ivy was defined less by major and more by other factors. Networking, connections, personalities, getting the right internships early on, having played a sport, all these mattered more for about half the pipeline. The other half were extremely keen kids fascinated by money and quantitative research and who majored in economics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If I want to build a nuclear bomb, I’ll hire scientists.

If I want to hire someone to run my country, I’ll hire somebody with vast historical knowledge, global policy-wise, and a critical thinker with ethics that doesn’t crack under pressure.

The right man/woman for the right job.

I tapped out salary-wise as an engineer (MS too). My husband with just a BA from a T10 was making $300k 3 years out of college (in the mid 90s) and avg $400-500k to my $250k.

I graduated from a T10 ivy in 2002 and a $300k salary for a 25/yo three year out of college would have been astronomical. Even in i-banking in the late 1990s with the bonuses. He must have been a wunderkid which means his life experience as a humanities manager is not applicable to just about anyone else.

The pipeline to Wall Street from my Ivy was defined less by major and more by other factors. Networking, connections, personalities, getting the right internships early on, having played a sport, all these mattered more for about half the pipeline. The other half were extremely keen kids fascinated by money and quantitative research and who majored in economics.

Yeah…I was at Goldman in the mid-90s and a 3rd year (if kept on and promoted to associate) made I think $150k all-in.

There was a jump in banker and lawyer salaries in 1999 due to the dot com craze.

The hedge fund world existed but was much, much smaller. As an example, Bezos at that time was a senior portfolio manager at DE Shaw and made $1MM all in but he was also 10 years out from Princeton.