<p>I've heard that at HYPS (and possibly Columbia, U of Chicago, U of Penn, etc.) that majoring in the humanities is okay since the name brand and connections of the school will still allow you to be competitive in the job market. How true is this? I'm a little skeptical, but is there any solid data on the job placement by major at these universities?</p>
<p>Based upon the below articles, “okay” is relative as there are too few good paying jobs in humanities these days, even with a degree from HYP – unless you want to go for a doctorate and teach.
<a href=“Let Them Eat Code | Opinion | The Harvard Crimson”>http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2013/11/8/let-them-eat-code/</a>
<a href=“The Harvard Crimson”>http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2013/11/7/same-story-new-book-repackaging-humanities-at-harvard/</a>
<a href=“We Can't Save the Humanities | Opinion | The Harvard Crimson”>http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2013/11/11/Lee-humanities/</a>
<a href=“http://artsandhumanities.fas.harvard.edu/humanities-project”>http://artsandhumanities.fas.harvard.edu/humanities-project</a>
<a href=“Where We Stand: The Class of 2013 Senior Survey | News | The Harvard Crimson”>Where We Stand: The Class of 2013 Senior Survey | News | The Harvard Crimson;
<a href=“http://harvardmagazine.com/2013/06/reinvigorating-the-humanities”>http://harvardmagazine.com/2013/06/reinvigorating-the-humanities</a>
<a href=“Harvard Humanities Fall From Favor Among College Students - WSJ”>http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424127887324069104578527642373232184</a>
<a href=“The Humanities in Dubious Battle”>https://chronicle.com/article/The-Humanities-in-Dubious/140047/</a></p>
<p>Does history count? A history major can go to law school or business school.</p>
<p>There are plenty on humanities majors who find jobs in consulting, banking, start-ups, and other companies. GPA is important, some economics classes are helpful, connections through varsity sports or final clubs help tremendously.</p>
<p>Of course the highest paying finance/banking/consulting jobs will go to the economics majors with the highest GPAs and most corporate personalities.</p>
<p>I only have some anecdotes from my daughter’s HS but there’s a Harvard sociology major and a Williams art history major both working for Google in the People Operations area.</p>
<p>Eh. Is People Operations just a cool way to say Human Resources? If so, then don’t humanities majors from no-name colleges get HR jobs too? </p>
<p>I’m sure some of your doctors and lawyers and engineers who design your phone/car/roadways come from “no-name” colleges too. I guess you’ll vet your parents nursing home staff for their Ivy degrees too? You seem to possess an extremely shallow understanding of the impact of a degree from a “named” college.</p>
<p>“Of course the highest paying finance/banking/consulting jobs will go to the economics majors with the highest GPAs and most corporate personalities.”</p>
<p>But of course, there are all different kinds of ways to make a lot of money, despite the tiresome and inaccurate schtick on CC that the only way to do so is to work in finance / I-banking / mgt consulting (with perhaps doctor / lawyer / engineer as a back-up plan). </p>
<p>
This is really a myth. Employers don’t swoon just because a resume has a fancy school listed, and connections exist at any school; you might get great leads from your Indiana University fraternity brothers. The kids who are admitted to selective schools are go-getters and their achievements, drive, and smarts get them jobs, not the brand name.</p>
<p>My experience is that a lot of employers do kind of swoon if there is a fancy school name on the resume–that’s one thing they use to sort resumes. But obviously, it’s not essential at all.</p>
<p>Also, as others have noted, a lot of those humanities majors at top schools end up going to law school, business school, etc.</p>
<p>I guess the better question would have been this: Is there anything that being an English major at HYPS can do as opposed to a science/engineering major at a generic state school? </p>
<p>You mean, other than get into Harvard Law School?</p>
<p>
You really cannot compare those majors, or the potential job you would get upon graduation from either HYP or a state school, as they are just too dissimilar. One involves lots of writing and reasoning, while the other demands more analytical and math skills. It’s like asking, “Which is the better flavor – chocolate or rum raisin?” If you’re asking this kind of question, it sounds like you have no idea what you want to do with your life. In that case, taking a gap year would probably be your best option, as it would give you time to think about which major best suits you and your temperament.</p>
<p>“Of course the highest paying finance/banking/consulting jobs will go to the economics majors with the highest GPAs and most corporate personalities.”</p>
<p>This is not my observation at Harvard. The high-GPA humanities majors with corporate personalities did just as well as the economics majors. One of the Goldman Sachs fast-track guys in my class was a summa cum laude Classics major. That degree says, “I’m brilliant and I work like a dog,” which is exactly what they’re looking for on Wall Street. </p>
<p>The kids who want to go the finance/banking/consulting route often choose to do Econ, but at Harvard, they don’t have to. What they have to do is crush it.</p>
<p>What’s a “science/engineering” major? What career does an undergraduate physics degree prepare you for, exactly, besides “going for a doctorate and teaching?” How about biology or mathematics? Do you think people become “biologists” or “mathematicians” right out of college, with their undergraduate degree in hand?</p>
<p>When I was a student at Harvard, I didn’t find the humanities vs STEM dichotomy to be very useful in describing what jobs people get right out of college. More often it predicted what kind of advanced study one would do out of college, i.e. people intending to go to medical school tended to concentrate in STEM fields, though many didn’t. More often, the humanities vs. STEM dichotomy is a not-so-subliminal way of presenting STEM fields as more challenging and humanities fields as easier and more wishy washy.</p>
<p>With the possible exception of engineering, and computer science to a much lesser degree, Harvard concentrations aren’t pre-professional. That is, they aren’t constructed to provide you with a tangible set of skills identical to that which you will use in your first job after you graduate. I’m sure some jobs exist that an intelligent, ambitious humanities major at Harvard couldn’t possibly obtain if they have a well-rounded courseload, high GPA, and make good use of their summers, but I don’t think there are very many. </p>
<p>Among my younger kid’s friends, the ones with the highest-paying, biggest-brand-name consulting jobs are a Harvard summa history concentrator (with a secondary concentration in . . . painting) and a Brown sociology major (without honors, but with a really significant leadership role).</p>
<p>I did a deal last fall with a boutique investment bank in which one of the partners is a former Yale Comp Lit professor, and many of the junior staff were HYPS English majors.</p>
<p>So, yes, you can do OK as a non-STEM, non-economics major at a high-prestige college. It doesn’t happen automatically, though. I think you have to expend some energy making certain you are competitive and have the necessary skills for the jobs you are targeting.</p>
<p>I’ve noticed that English isn’t even listed under the “Majors” forum here, although such majors as “Dance” are. Is it the goal of the few remaining English majors to get a job on Wall street? Will my younger daughter someday be the sole English major who actually wants to become a writer?</p>
<p>I know an English concentrator from Harvard who spent most of his senior year looking for a job in publishing. As those jobs seem to be on the decline, there were many students being interviewed, but few hired. He was one of the lucky ones and got a job writing for the “The New Yorker” right our of college. So, yes it is possible!</p>