How do you explain a history major?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>I looked and found the college I was looking for, in terms of great history programs.</p>

<p>NOW. . .</p>

<p>My family believes that things are to be practical and that one should study what can actually be used in life for an actual occupation.</p>

<p>I "secretly" am contemplating law school (long careers are frowned upon, but of course I'm not entirely sure that I will go) so. . .</p>

<p>how do I explain the practicality of majoring in history? I love history, but will I get a job if I don't go to LS and just have a degree in history?</p>

2

<p>History is great background for many fields, most certainly including law. Depending on your focus and other interests and activities, it is also excellent for careers in journalism, international business, teaching, working for members of Congress, state legislatures, and non-profits.</p>

3

<p>History means you can reserach and write and form an argument...you'd be surprised how many people can't do that...My friend just got into U chicago law scholl with a history degree.</p>

4

<p>Tell your family that with the possible exceptions of being a nurse, a teacher, or an accountant, no one is prepared for a professional career in anything anymore with just a bachelor's degree. And if you're entering one of the three fields above, I'd strongly recommend a Masters as well.</p>

5

<p>By & large, undergrad majors can be categorized as two groups: practical majors & non-practical, pie-in-the-sky majors</p>

<p>Practical majors: engineering, business (accounting), pharmacy, nursing, education.</p>

<p>If you major in one of the above majors, you can find a job fairly easily right out of the college unless you royally screw up your GPAs. Besides, which school you went to doesn’t really make much difference once you landed the first job.</p>

<p>Sadly, history falls into the second category. Unless you plan to go to professional school after college (Law, Business, Med) or grad schools to further satisfy your intellectual curiosity, not many employers will be lined up and waiting for you after you step out of college. Of course, becoming a social science teacher in K-12 educational environment is a great option.</p>

<p>But then again, if you are a history major from one of few highly prestigious schools, you can get that glitzy ritzy i-banking jobs (probably due to your analytical skills) in NYC and chase those pretty mamas with o so tight J-Lo look alike patootees all night long.</p>

6

<p>Be a history major. You can tell your family you are going to law school. Then you can decide later on what you want to do. you can go to law, business or even med. school. No need to make the decision now.</p>

7

<p>Go to college to get a Life, not a job.</p>

8

<p>Nothing is more practical than understanding the world in the way that a good university history major will develop. I know of many history and political science students who got wonderful jobs out of college with major corporations who wanted employees who understood the way our world developed. A number of them had the companies pay for them to get MBAs. The companies' view was that people could always pick up business skills, but they sure couldn't train people with undergrad business degrees to have the analytical skills and knowledge they gained from a liberal arts education.</p>

<p>Hint: Developing foreign language proficiency along with the history degree is an excellent addition.</p>

9

<p>

Very true. I know a Duke graduate who majored in Medieval Studies and then went into i-banking. </p>

<p>

Yes.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.vpul.upenn.edu/careerservices/college/majors/hist.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.vpul.upenn.edu/careerservices/college/majors/hist.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p><a href="http://www.jhu.edu/%7Ecareers/explore/majors/history.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.jhu.edu/~careers/explore/majors/history.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p><a href="http://www.uncwil.edu/stuaff/career/Majors/history.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.uncwil.edu/stuaff/career/Majors/history.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p><a href="http://career.studentaffairs.duke.edu/files/majors/information/history.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://career.studentaffairs.duke.edu/files/majors/information/history.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

10

<p>If you don't go on to law school, you can get a Masters of Arts in Teaching with a certification in Secondary Education. It'll take just one additional year of study (36 credits). If you teach in New York City for a few years in a tough school as a NYC Teaching Fellow, they'll pay back your grad school tuition. Or you could go on from college to Teach for America.
EIther way, if they need to hear "practicality" then just say you're training to be a history teacher but it'll take 5 years. You can only do that if you're a history major, anyway.
Then, as you go along, you can look at other options, including Law School, or some more unusual options (such as Museum work although that doesn;t pay well) but you'll hear more about these from your college guidance center or history profs. And you need to get onto campus for that.</p>

11

<p>My parents were both history majors. One's a math teacher. The other is a speechwriter.</p>

<p>History helped them to learn how to learn, if that makes sense. If you study to be an X, you might be limited to being an X, but if you learn how to read, write, and think, which is what you will learn how to do as a history major, you're prepared for almost any job in almost any field.</p>

<p>I also know somebody who got a PhD in Penn in Medieval History. Also ended up as a fat cat in business. Seems like they wanted somebody who could handle a lot of work :-)</p>