Easier said than done for many.
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But these students are often under employed.
One only needs to look at job listings by major through handshake. Or the job fairs for business/engineering vs ‘the rest.’
It’s clear which majors are sought after and which aren’t.
I’m not against the humanities or social sciences as that’s my jam. But I also know the crazy road I had to take to get to where I am today.
S is happily working as an economic consulting analyst (real estate) with his public affairs degree. His firm is now looking for more analysts with his sort of background because they have found the finance majors they’ve hired previously aren’t interested enough in the subject matter to either immerse themselves in the work or stay around.
They don’t mind what your degree is in, but they do require a 3.9+ GPA and administer a numeracy test as part of the screening process (eg how many 1200 sq ft apartments can you build on a quarter acre lot with a 5 story height limit and 25% allowance for common space). His 800 SAT2 math score and 5 in Calc BC helped with that, but wasn’t asked for on the application.
Well, I’m actually in a humanities field, and I know what kinds of jobs my students get: lots of teaching, sure (we have a large teacher ed program), but also nonprofit work, government service, library and archival work, museum work, business, etc. Lots end up in law school or graduate programs in library science, public history, archaeology, MBA programs, public service, public health, social work, divinity school, and education. One student got a job at a nonprofit because of a contact she made while working on a project in my interdisciplinary humanities seminar.
Do some work as baristas before finding those paths? Sure. But so do some business majors and even some comp sci majors. There are lots of paths available to these students.
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Agreed - my daughter is working in civil rights this summer for a state agency.
But it’s extremely difficult to find these jobs. They don’t just pop like others is what I’m saying - and yes, they’ll pay less.
Hopefully no one is going from Metropolitan State directly to an MBA program because it won’t be a good MBA program and they’ll have wasted whatever lift an MBA could give them…you need to work first.
Again, I’m not saying these are bad majors but if you’re comparing them to business (accounting, finance, supply chain, IS), teaching, math, engineering, etc., it’s a much more arduous road.
Well I think that’s what @coolguy40 was saying but @blossom disagreed and as I noted, I think it’s somewhere in the middle, but I believe more on the side of @coolguy40 But we can all agree to disagree 
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I’m saying this because I was THAT graduate who got one of those unmarketable degrees. I didn’t beat the odds. Most of them don’t…go figure There’s nothing like a few years of complete misery to make you rethink your life. I went to graduate school and got an employable degree. It’s good that I did…because my daughter has expensive taste in shoes 
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After a diligent and reasonable search period, with record low unemployment, if one is still jobless one should consider changing fields/cities/search parameters. Expecting unlimited parental support is juvenile.
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Wow, CC keeps you humble. I have been recruiting (or leading recruiting teams) for big corporations for 35+ years. But I guess my view of what large employers are looking for is stuck in the past?
You’ll be surprised to know that there are really terrible CS majors out there. They are not good at what they do. There are terrible finance majors. There are kids now getting “marketable” degrees who are going to be stunned when the world doesn’t roll out the red carpet for them. A kid in my town- scraped through HS. Scraped through an engineering program at a “they teach engineering?” type of college. Insulted when anyone suggests that he get a job at the Genius Bar to at least be getting a paycheck (he’ll struggle in engineering but he seems competent enough to help old ladies set up their I-phone).
Gonna be a LONG search for this kid. I don’t know him well enough to know if he’d have been a fantastic speech therapist or an outstanding OT or a superlative nurse- but the world seems to be telling him that it’s going to be a struggle to get a foothold on the engineering ladder.
Ain’t my kid. And although I’ve tried to be helpful-- you can’t save them all.
But I defer to the superior wisdom of the crowd.
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@blossom We all have perspectives. We all see different things and that’s ok. We all don’t have to agree. I respect your opinion and how you conduct yourself. Life isn’t a one size fits all.
As for the student I was trying to help - I gave her resume and other feedback and even sent her an in person State job fair of today.
And nothing - no response - so I wish her luck but I’ve moved past.
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Slightly off topic but to those of y’all interested I really recommend Working: What We Do All Day | Official Trailer | Netflix - YouTube
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Ain’t that the truth! I told my kid, you can major in anything you want, but you’re going to support yourself with it. We might turn her bedroom into a pottery room to make sure 
Just my opinion, you can graduate with almost any degree and are highly employable if you graduate from a T20 school (or top LAC) with excellent grades.
However, if you have an average/above average GPA from a non T20 school, you are much more employable with a STEM or Business degree.
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Presumably that is why news stories that are really about data typically start off with an anecdotal example that supports the conclusion from the data, because the general public responds to, understands, and believes anecdotes more than data. Of course, the journalist who writes those kinds of stories needs to be able to understand the data.
It is also how disinformation spreads easily, since one outlier anecdote can override the data in most people’s minds.
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Not all STEM majors are alike in this respect:
- Science: if not heading toward teaching…
- Biology: compete with legions of originally pre-health students graduating every year. First job pay levels often similar to humanities majors.
- Chemistry: see biology.
- Computer science: subject to industry fluctuations and cycles.
- Physics: sometimes find their way into engineering, computing or finance based on math skills.
- Technology: less common than engineering, and subject to similar industry fluctuations.
- Engineering: subject to industry fluctuations and cycles.
- Math: if not heading toward teaching, often trying for computing or finance.
Business also seems to be a major where job prospects are more sensitive to college prestige than (for example) various engineering majors.
It depends. If you want an accounting job from one of the Big 4, they recruit everywhere. If you want top IB/Consulting, then prestige seems to matter more.
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And to add to this, Obama on success in the workforce.
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The overwhelming majority of employers do not focus on either USNWR ranking or GPA, beyond whether the GPA is above a basic resume screening type threshold. T20 USNWR ranked schools show a wide variation of outcomes between different major (not strictly a STEM vs non-STEM division), just like non-T20 schools. Some example numbers are below from Berkeley, which is USNWR T20 and the highest USNWR ranked public college.
Berkeley First Destination (Surveyed “a few months” after graduation)
- Art-- 48% Still Looking, 22% Employed (Salary = $42k), Many job titles (baker, pre-school aid, game tester, …)
- Philosophy-- 45% Still Looking, 33% Employed (Salary = $52k), Many job titles (barista, night stocker, software engineer, …)
- English – 38% Still Looking, 34% Employed (Salary = $45k), Most common job titles are teacher and legal assistant
- Biology – 35% Still Looking, 44% Employed (Salary = $55k), Most common job titles are research associate and research assistant
- History – 30% Still Looking, 35% Employed (Salary = $52k), Many job titles (custodian, tutor, software engineer, …)
- Economics-- 20% Still Looking, 67% Employed (Salary = $80k), Most common job titles are analyst and software engineer
- Business – 15% Still Looking, 79% Employed (Salary = $85k), Most common job titles are analyst and associate
- Computer Science – 12% Still Looking, 73% Employed (Salary = $125k), Overwhelming majority have job title of software engineer
Looks to me like majoring in econ, computer sci or business makes sense there.
Probably engineering too
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Based on what you provided, more business, econ, and comp sci majors are employed at much better pay levels, even if they didnt all have the top grades within their major.
And there are also some philosphy majors who are now software engineers. Perhaps they are the ones with excellent grades and the average/above average philosophy majors are those who are unemployed or working as a barista or night stocker. There may be some correlation between gainful employment and their grades but I cant prove or disprove that based on the data.