I have read up on switching to a history major recently and come across a lot of things that are angering me. I am currently a Finance major with a minor in Philosophy, but wanting to switch to history. For those of you who say History is an unattractive major…History is one of the top majors for entering law school. History is also one of the majors where you will learn valuable life skills (like how to actually read and write correctly and precisely) as well as being much more intellectually curious than that of a hard science/math major. That is not to say that they aren’t intellectual as well, but more so it is the liberal arts that are more. Also, if you think you can’t do anything with a history degree you’re wrong. Some of my most successful friends are History majors and making 250k+ as lawyers. And again, in “this day and age” employers don’t give a damn what you majored in as long as you have a degree unless you’re gunning for Investment Banking. Again, I am a Finance major and had a Banking internship in NYC, hated it, and found very shallow people. The professors are also much more “in depth” you could say for history. Thats just my thoughts however. What are your thoughts?
I can bring a lot to both sides because I have exposure to a hard major (Finance) as well as soft (History/Philosophy) but just want to hear what you all have to say!
Majoring in History certainly has its benefits but I don’t think you should argue that it’s a great major because of the propensity of history majors to enter law school – because being a lawyer isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Newly minted JD’s making “250k+” are in the minority; even ones coming out of the nation’s most prestigious law schools.
Ah, should have clarified that one. I meant rather experienced lawyers (3-5 years) in target cities such as DC, NYC, Atlanta etc. I do agree though on the statement that it shouldn’t be based off of the law school aspect, that was just an avenue that these majors (that I’ve known) typically go down. My path would most likely be geared towards Corporate anyways since I have had exposure to the industry while being involved in my schools stock market investment fund. Thanks for the input!
Have you taken classes in the history department? Did you enjoy them more than your finance classes? If so, switch majors! Don’t worry about what other people think about the major and don’t think you have to prove your major to anybody. Just do what you’re passionate about.
I think you have a lot of dangerous stereotyping here. Your points about history being underrated or underappreciated are correct I think, but you are doing exactly the opposite of what others are doing: instead of calling liberal arts lesser, you are calling STEM lesser.
This is done with writing, not History. You can get this at many places through many routes, including those in STEM.
That is a very large generalization that I will pick a very big argument with as a computer science major and a philosophy minor with a planned PHD some many years in the future in Philosophy. Intellectual curiosity comes in many forms: the subject does not make a difference. So either you are talking about a specific type of intellectual curiosity (which may not be any better or worse than the ones STEM majors have) or you are implying that there is no intellectual curiosity in STEM. Weighing one intellectual curiosity as more important than another is arbitrary at best.
While there is some truth to this, you need the knowledge of the field. For example, many people working in software currently are not CS majors, but they do usually have either a STEM degree or lots of coding experience. In jobs not in STEM, you are more correct, but you still need to have relevant skills built up from somewhere. More importantly, they must also be tangible to employers. So, the degree doesn’t matter, what you learn does. The degree may not fully reflect it, but there is a good deal of correlation. Employers care at some level because a degree is a certificate of some level of knowledge and skill in an area.
Again, this is both very vague and very arbitrary. I’m not even sure what you mean, but most interpretations of this I would disagree with.
Overall, it seems like you have a liberal arts superiority complex: less common than its STEM counterpart, but no more correct.
It’s my personal opinion that no academic curiosity has any more value without context to judge it in. If we are talking the concept of “pure academia”, I would say they are exactly equal, as the pursuit of knowledge is the only criteria I know of there. History has no more of a claim than Engineering or Business or Philosophy.
In terms of your personal decisions, go for History! But don’t fool yourself into thinking it’s superior. It can be underestimated for career prospects or diminished for perceived lack of practicality, and you would have very valid points to contest with them, but I don’t think you have an argument for its superiority, especially generally Liberal Arts to STEM.
As a history PhD student, I absolutely encourage people to go into history for many (not all) of the reasons you outline.
I do NOT encourage people to do history as a gateway to law. Law is an incredibly oversaturated field right now and even people graduating from top schools are having a hard time landing nice jobs. I am friends with several law students at a T14 school due to my work in legal history. They are the first to tell other prospective law students NOT to expect big salaries coming out of school.
If you actually want a good career path in that area, consider getting a joint PhD/JD in some form of legal history. It’s a very in-demand field that pays very well.
Absolutely! I wrote this merely to see other sides and making generalizations can be a good thing so many opinions come into play. For me, Finance just isn’t as deep as a history major. In History, you’re digging into the past, carrying out an argument through 10 pages, learning how the world used to be etc. etc. Finance, however, has not been so kind to me. I have learned more in Excel than I would like. I’ve pulled massive amounts of data from Bloomberg Terminals ( for example, a company’s international revenue exposure by segment) and done countless equations and formulas. To me personally, plugging in numbers to a calculator and getting an answer and so on isn’t as “deep.” However, to each his own. Others may find that very enjoyable.
Most professors I have met with in history ask so many more questions, really try to understand me and my thoughts, try to connect in various ways. When I’ve met with finance professors, they are blunt, shove me out of the door and don’t help me. BUT, that may only be within the realm of my school. There are those who are very kind.
Also, yes those skills are learned with writing. However, learning how to critically analyze a situation and pull information from multiple sources in a short time period is not learned with mere writing. I say that this is beneficial due to the fact that I would like to go to law school (yes I know law schools don’t care what major you are). Articulation is a very impressive thing, right!
You are much in the situation I am with CS and Philosophy as compared to Finance and Philosophy. Great combo, I just think history has always interested me more, I just chose Finance for the big money and connections to Wall Street inside my school. Now I am realizing it isn’t about that and I will have a History and Business Major with a Philosophy minor. Each major is superior in its own, and I agree it is very hard to compare STEM to Liberal Arts. Two completely different avenues. Thanks for the comment!
RollinB, big data in history is actually a large, emerging field. I work with a dataset of about 20,000 people and about 100,000 documents. Most of my work thus far on it has been merely in the way of statistics. Math can be a huge part of history, depending on what you’re focusing on. I love being able to bring in my statistics background and then contextualizing it. In fact, much of my math was just published in a book that comes out in a week and we just submitted a paper to NEJM using very advanced statistics to demonstrate the lasting impact of a genocidal state program.
All I’m saying is that your skills are likely transferable from one program to another. Go for history if you like (I encourage it), but you might eventually come to realize that the skill set for the various programs you’ve laid out actually overlap quite a bit.