I majored in Art History and Journalism and did not go to grad school. I was never able to work in art history - primarily because the jobs pay so little that journalism was a much stronger career. I do know someone who has an art history degree and went to work at Sotheby’s - but they graduated from one of the top ivies, had amazing connections which helped get into that top Ivy and are incredibly wealthy. The people who graduated with me (not at an Ivy - at a state flagship which has a top-30 ranked art history program) went on to grad school in the hopes of getting on the faculty train at some university or college.

You can go to grad school in anything.

Anonymous wrote:Geez. A lot of hostility. For what it's worth, I know more unemployed computer science majors right now than any other. CS has really dried up in the past couple years. It will come back, but it's wrong to assume that every successful art history major is a trust fund kid. That's not the case at all.

They must be really terrible at it since there are 2-3 jobs for every qualified person in the field.

Anonymous wrote:She can go to grad school.

Won't a Masters in Art History have the same prospects?

Geez. A lot of hostility. For what it's worth, I know more unemployed computer science majors right now than any other. CS has really dried up in the past couple years. It will come back, but it's wrong to assume that every successful art history major is a trust fund kid. That's not the case at all.

These anonymous random anecdotes don't mean shit to us, hard working middle class with smart kids.
We live in the 21st century with data and information.

Yale history 4 year out median income = $77,988.
https://collegescorecard.ed.gov/school/?130794-Yale-University&fos_code=5401&fos_credential=3
Imagine the number for Art history.

These kinds of majors are mostly for rich people, and the kids likely got in backdoors to those fancy schools.
After graduation, some of them get fancy jobs through rich dads and fancy connections. Rich dads with connections later open a gallery for their kids.

Then they like to promote their brands and try to scam the hard working middle class.
Be aware.

We have 12 pages on another thread asking about (bashing) the merits of Undergrad Business Degrees
Where are all the liberal arts lovers, the ones who come out of the woodwork to state that they are So Happy that their child knows how "to think and to write". Yet the advice on entering the job market with a stupid Art History degree - grasping for ideas at best.

Museum jobs are incredibly hard to come by and don’t pay very well. I worked at the National Gallery of Art for about 15 years before I left to take care of my baby. The work was stimulating, and the environment was exciting.

I couldn’t go back, because there are no jobs.

She needs to go to the college career counseling office stat. A good one will test her, help her with a resume and set up interviews with companies coming through she will not be doing anything in art but she can get a job

I know many art history majors -- one is a consultant at McKinsey, one is doing computer science at Epic, one is working at a museum in California, one is working for a magazine, one is in law school, and one, who just graduated in December, is looking for a job. They all went to good schools.

She needs to visit her career counseling office STAT. Has she not had any summer internships she could ask about jobs?

What does she want to do? Liberal arts degrees are not trade certifications. They’re not meant to be. I laughed because I saw the “Yale/Sotheby’s” quote, and that’s what I did for a bit (but you better have a trust fund because it doesn’t really pay - that’s why I moved on). I now work in industry, and I have a fabulous art historian working for me who figured out complex cataloging and tracking methodologies who is now doing data curation and advanced analytics. I hire for general competence and writing/thinking ability.

She can go to grad school.

Anonymous wrote:My daughter changed her major without telling us, she changed her major back 2 years ago. We never emailed the dean or anyone at the school because she was getting good grades and everything was going well. Now she is telling us in May she will be graduating in a degree in Art History, and she learned on Google that she might be able to get a job working as a Subway... What jobs can someone with a Art History BS get?

I have a B.A. in Art History and I am now a lawyer (commercial litigator, est. 250k). I know very few liberal arts majors who ever worked in their B.A. major area. Your DD is no worse off than a sociology/political science/anthology major. She'll be fine but, unlike an accounting/nursing/ Comp Sci major, she'll take extra time to figure it out.

My friend’s cousin has an Art History degree. She eventually got a Masters in it too. She worked for museums and now runs her own gallery. She’s very involved in the art world. She’s made it, but it took awhile and has been happy since she graduated as far as I know.