Anonymous wrote:About half the athletes at my kid’s D1 private ate anthropology majors, the football and basketball players.

I'm the phd above and I tutored one who was not completely literate at an one of the best schools in one sport in the nation. Nice guy though.

Anonymous wrote:Maybe it’s just coincidence, but we’ve been hearing about a lot of Cultural Anthropology majors, both on our college tours and via our friends’ kids.

Can anyone with first-hand experience tell us more about what this current generation of kids are studying via this major? And what are they doing with it after college? Thanks!

No idea. But I have a doctorate in cultural anthropology and took a lot of stats and methods classes as well as did research with quite a few groups. I now run a STEM-based association. It's also very interesting as a course of study. Not sure what one would do with the 4 yr degree other than go into grad school. Grad schools like people who can do math and write. So, keep that in mind. Also, for the MBA, think of businesses like individual cultures and B-school will be a breeze.

The one I know became SAHM after briefly working as a low-paid docent at a museum. She was at a good school and had a high GPA. She did not have personal connections to museum donors and was not from an independently wealthy family.

My cultural anthropology major kid wants to be a mental health professional.

In terms of career path, it’s like so many other humanities and social sciences fields—students develop skills in research, analysis, critical thinking, writing, etc., that they can apply in a number of fields.

Anonymous wrote:Lots of research or consulting jobs might want a humanities background (soc or anthro specifically):

Oh, for Christ’s sake: sociology and anthropology are social sciences.

PP and just realized how long my comment was, whew! The TLDR: I found it an interesting major, and I now love my non-anthro career. But it wasn’t the only path to this career, and anthro def isn’t a major for everyone.

I was a cultural anthropology major. I chose the major because it combined so many fields I was interested in: philosophy, art, economics, psychology, history, quantitative analysis like statistics, religious studies, literature, and communication.

As it turns out, I have been able to use professionally many of the skills I practiced in my undergraduate classes. My job allows me to work extremely closely with some of the most fascinating people imaginable, including literal geniuses from different parts of the globe. My work is interesting, often very fun, and usually fulfilling. I’m able to bring value in part because of things I first practiced consciously in college: leaning into ambiguity, shifting deftly between multiple perspectives, listening both to what is being said and also what’s left unsaid, finding hidden layers of order within the seemingly chaotic or even incomprehensible, communicating across multiple platforms and audiences, etc. While an anthro major isn’t the only way to hone these skills, it was part of how I did so.

But it’s also true there’s not an obvious career path upon graduation, so my friends who were on “tracks” (med school, finance, CS, etc) found their ultimate vocations more quickly than I did. I always worked and contributed, and I had some really interesting jobs, but there was some zigging and zagging, too. (A high tolerance for ambiguity was helpful for this too!).

If you’re the type who thrives while wayfinding along an ever-forking path, anthro isn’t a bad way to go — especially if you have broad and diverse interests and faith in the long haul. If you prefer a major with a more reliable/clear next step, and with more concrete resume skills (C++, etc), this probably isn’t it.

Lots of different possible paths; this happened to be mine. I hope this is helpful.

Anonymous wrote:Many recent fulbright and rhodes and the like have been in anthropology or adjacent humanities fields.

I regard anthropology as a social sciences field.

Anonymous wrote:People realize that Anthropology and Archeology are two different fields, right?

Don't get the comments on an unrelated field here.

Cultural Anthropology and Archaeology are both subfields of Anthropology. They are also both hard fields in which to find jobs, especially without graduate credentials.


Former Anthropology Ph.D. student (cultural anthropology) who mastered out because there were so few cultural anthropology positions outside of development agencies/NGOs.

People realize that Anthropology and Archeology are two different fields, right?

Don't get the comments on an unrelated field here.

Economics or Organizational Development and Anthropology or Sociology are a good combo.

Anonymous wrote:I recently volunteered in an archeology related area. There were several volunteers who work at cultural resource management (CRM) firms. I did not such an industry existed. They told me that they are hired by governments, developers etc as part of infrastructure projects. They said that they hire archeologists as well as anthropologists.

This is nearly all contract work. It is very difficult to make a good living doing archaeology.

Lots of research or consulting jobs might want a humanities background (soc or anthro specifically):

Jump Associates looks for consultants with the following in the handshake job description:
Deep experience in at least one area with exposure to at least one other area. Areas include: business (e.g., management consulting, innovation), design (e.g., product/industrial design), and social science (e.g., anthropology, insights development).

So many others list "anthro" specifically. Play around on linkedin?

https://apply.workable.com/murphy-research/j/EFAC9AC8E1/

https://careers.csis.org/opportunities

https://careers.unesco.org/job/Multiple-INTERNSHIP-Culture-Sector/764957702/

https://fathomandhatch.com/culture-team/

Anonymous wrote:It is fairly popular at my kid's ivy. Lots go into consulting related to the field or the nonprofit sector, others go law school, some do funded grad school targeting niche careers. Many recent fulbright and rhodes and the like have been in anthropology or adjacent humanities fields.
From non-T20 type schools it seems to be a very different and significantly less successful market.

If you’re willing, could you share more about this? I’m trying to imagine what consulting related to Cultural Anthropology looks like. Who are the clients? What type of problems are they asking CA-oriented consultants to help address? Are there specific consulting firms or groups that do this type of work? Thanks!

About half the athletes at my kid’s D1 private ate anthropology majors, the football and basketball players.