Reply to College Grads Regret Majoring in Humanities Fields

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]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[/quote]

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.  [/quote]

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.[/quote]

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.

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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. [/quote]

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