<p>My friend saids he planning to major in history because he likes history. He got accepted to some high-ranked colleges like BC, BU, and Clark. I'm trying to convince to major in something useful like engineering or business because he can't get a job with history. Any history majors here know if this major is completely useless except for teaching?</p>
<p>Stop posting these pointless threads...</p>
<p>i just don't see how a history major can get you a career, or even a job. can u give me some arguments so i can convince my friend not to major in history but instead something useful like business, engineering, accounting, computer science, etc.?</p>
<p>Look, there have been similar discussions (search for the thread about Philosophy).</p>
<p>Bottom line: There is more to life than making money and there is more to making money than your college major.</p>
<p>Can you list some jobs that history majors can do besides historian and history teacher? I know my friend doesn't want to be homeless.</p>
<p>Lawyer, curator, etc.</p>
<p>u can become a lawyer with a history degree.</p>
<p>Maybe people would be more willing to have serious discussions about this if you didn't throw out phrases like...</p>
<p>"Can you list some jobs that history majors can do besides historian and history teacher? I know my friend doesn't want to be homeless."</p>
<p>History majors open whole expanse of opprotunities.<br>
<a href="http://www.uncwil.edu/stuaff/career/Majors/history.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.uncwil.edu/stuaff/career/Majors/history.htm</a></p>
<p>An engineering major has much less of a range of opprotunities open to him/her.</p>
<p>I've had enough of the ramblings SSJ2MysticGohanX1000. If any reader should examine his past posts, the reason for his spite towards the world should be obvious.</p>
<p>Mystic,
If you are for real, you need a TRADE, not a college education. With a trade, you will not learn anything that is not directly relevant to earning your living. Also, due to the dearth of qualified tradesmen, you won't have to worry about being unemployed.</p>
<p>But how much do trademan make? I need the quickest way to earn the most amount of money. And college is the best way.</p>
<p>Skilled master tradesmen, such as carpenters, electricians and plumbers, makes an excellent living, especially especially if they own their own businesses. If you check the Occupatonal Outlook Handbook (or some other source), I think you will find that experienced tradesmen earn hourly wages of $25 to $35, and certainly much more being the proprietor. On top of this, they earn partial wages while apprenticed to learn their trades, as opposed to paying tuition to learn. Apprenticeships are shorter than the 4 to 6 years you will probably put into college. There's always a need for these skills, and they can't be outsourced. Some tradesmen I know live a more affluent life than my husband and I do with our 12 years of college education, and they have a heck of a lot less stress. Skilled trades are surely not for everybody, but you shouldn't knock these folks who were smart enough to obtain a secure and lucrative job.</p>
<p>MysticGohan, your concern is touching but I'm sure your friend is old enough to make his own decisions. And believe me, a History major isn't the only path to unemployment. In my country atleast there are too many enginneers without jobs right now. And my parents - both history majors - are happily employed (admittedly they are both academics) but teaching isn't the only job you have to take up...here are some others advertising executive, analyst, archivist, broadcaster, campaign worker, consultant, congressional aide, editor, foreign service officer, foundation staffer, information specialist, intelligence agent, journalist, legal assistant, lobbyist, personnel manager, public relations staffer, researcher. . . the list is almost endless.</p>
<p>This of course, is true of almost any liberal arts education. You might consider reading this -</p>
<p>Gurcharan Das on Liberal Arts - from The Times of India</p>
<p>
[quote]
We have had an unusually long spring this year. It is over now and so is the frenzy of board exams. It is not surprising that thoughts of the young have turned to romance. But not for long, for one has to think of a career and making a life. Millions of young Indians as they leave school and head for college, ask: should I study science, arts or commerce? 'Making a life' is different from 'making a living', and I'll recount my own experience as I answer that question, not for any other reason but because one person's life, honestly captured, is not only unique, but is the only certain data of history that we possess as human beings.</p>
<p>When I was 16, I got a scholarship to an American college when it was fashionable to go to England, especially to Oxbridge. Like the diligent son of an engineer, I began to study engineering. Inspired by Crick and Watson, who had recently discovered the DNA molecule's shape, I switched to chemistry. During the summer, I came back and saw for the first time India's grinding poverty. (One has to go away sometimes to notice these things.) Hoping for answers, I switched to economics in my second year. A few months later, I was enticed by the humanities by courses in Greek tragedy, Islamic history, Russian novel, and Sanskrit love poetry. I wanted to study everything but I couldn't of course. So, I did the next best thing. I switched to a joint major called History and Literature.</p>
<p>By now, my parents in India had begun to despair. My mother didn't know quite what to tell the neighbours. Adding to her discomfort, I discovered two new temptations at the end of my second year. I was attracted by philosophy but also by the visual beauty of Bauhaus buildings. So much so that I seriously considered becoming an architect. In the end, two moral philosophers, John Rawls and Isaiah Berlin, prevailed. I wrote my thesis on Aristotle and graduated with a degree in philosophy.</p>
<p>Apart from being a thoroughly confused young man, what this story tells is how a liberal education is a search. One shouldn't feel that one has the answers. It is enough to know the questions. My unusual college allowed me the freedom to search for what I wanted to be. My parents too were patient and didn't pressure me to do "something useful''. Our system in India, alas, doesn't allow for such experimenting. You are called a duffer if you are doing the Arts here it means you didn't get into engineering.</p>
<p>My confusion didn't quite end there.</p>
<p>I still didn't know what I wanted. So, I took a year off and a job selling Vicks Vaporub. And like the man who came to dinner I stayed on. I rose to head the company, and at 50 I took early retirement to become a writer. At first, not having an MBA proved a drawback, but later I discovered, oddly enough, that my liberal education was an advantage. Writing essays had taught me to think and write clearly. I had a better understanding of human motivation for I had consumed vast amounts of literature. Stoic philosophy offered a refuge in my many adverse moments. Most of all, my liberal education had given me confidence in my own judgement, and this often allowed me to be innovative. In the end, it matters less what one studies in college and more that one acquire the right attitudes. Without realising it, I had built a self in college, and I could cope with life's ambiguity.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Don't try to dissuade your friend with these fears - he'll be OK :)</p>
<p>My friend don't want to learn anything not directly related to his profession. When have I ever claimed my friend to be a smart man? Quit accusing him of possessing intelligence.</p>
<p>Wow. Atleast you're honest :p</p>
<p>He wants the quickest way to earn the most amount of money possible. Anything not the best is a failure. He can't stand to be in a place where he is taking orders or where he isn't the biggest fish in the room.</p>
<p>Then he will never get anywhere. Everyone is always at the mercy of a higher body.</p>
<p>I have a BA and an MA in history. I spent 30 years in the Federal government and retired to take a position at the University of Wisconsin. For most of that time I have worked on civil rights issues including evaluating Federal agency enforcement of their non-discrimination regulations and investigating discrimination complaints with some time spent working on coordination of crmininal issues with the US Attorneys. History is a great major for anyone who is highly analytical and is interested in working in jobs that require a high degree of curiousity, research, and the ability to arrange information and draw conclusions from disparate facts. </p>
<p>It was a perfect major for being an investigator.</p>
<p>How about having your friend speak for himself, and you speak for yourself?</p>
<p>Saying that, however, I do have to say that liberal arts majors are much more useful at top-ranked universities. History at Harvard will get you through many more doors than Engineering at Clark, but admittedly an engineer from Clark will probably have an easier time finding a job than a history major from Clark.</p>
<p>It's very easy to talk about the value of a liberal arts education when you are going to the best schools. And I think many people don't realize how hard some people have it. So i do have some sympathy for MysticGolan.</p>
<p>I'm considering history for a major. I'd like to be an archaeologist. I did some research that they start out around $30,000, which isn't so bad to me. Plus I love traveling and getting to switch between indoors and outdoors, so even if I won't be rich, at least I'll be happy. I know so many people who think like you. It's nice you're showing concern for your friend, but if history is what he likes, you can't really force him to like something else. He himself can't even control what he likes. It's just nature. So if you somehow persuade him to get into something that wasn't his first choice, he'd just end up being unhappy.</p>