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

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

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

I haven’t read the comments yet.

One thing people often miss is that the students with humanities majors can double major in math, economics or even business and suddenly make themselves look more marketable. They can learn what they love and simply not mention the women’s studies part on their resumes.

Another thing people miss is that supposedly impractical majors can be very practical. Many philosophy majors, for example, are really theoretical computer science majors. They’re the people inventing AI.

Good women’s studies majors might be on a good track to run marketing programs, public health programs or content production operations, or to go to a great law school.

A third thing people miss is that humanities classes tend to be less time-consuming than some other majors and tend to give students room to run fraternities, school papers, school radio stations and other campus organizations.

If students major in English and doomscrolling, that’s bad for job hunting.

If a student majors in English and also runs a fraternity or school newspaper with $1 million in annual revenue, that’s good for job hunting.

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