<p>I am a low-income rising junior at Harvard, majoring in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and I’ve thought about this issue quite a bit too, as I found myself “good” at math&science but far more interested in things like history and politics. A few comments:</p>
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<p>I’m not sure how realistic this is. Excluding trust fund kids and the insanely wealthy, I don’t think most students at Harvard (i.e. the upper middle class) would be comforted by the prospect of having no employment after graduation. Sure, they have the advantage that they are unlikely to end up on the street after graduation. But that doesn’t mean they or their parents are content with them living in their parents’ basement for an indefinite amount of time. Everyone is worried about finding a job in this economy, whether their parents drive a Mercedes or a used Corolla. Perhaps the difference is that your worst case scenario is working retail or something, whereas theirs is just doing nothing. Both are equally unsustainable, in terms of both finance and personal satisfaction.</p>
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<p>You are referring a dichotomy that is commonly assumed but I’m not sure exists. Essentially you’re saying math/science is practical and profitable, whereas social science/humanities is impractical and futureless. This dichotomy is based on a little bit of truth, but there are some important things to realize.</p>
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<li>Your undergraduate major only matters if you plan for it to be your terminal degree, or if your eventual terminal degree requires a certain undergraduate curriculum. Yes, if you graduate from Harvard undergrad and plan to directly enter the workforce, you will find that an Anthro degree did not teach you “practical skills” in the same way that a chemistry degree would. That does not mean that people don’t hire Anthro majors! That just means that other issues will be more important in the hiring process, such as your work experience, relevant internships, leadership experience, personal accomplishments, interview skills, networking ability, etc etc. The quintessential example is Ibanking and Wall Street. They will hire any undergrad major in theory, but most of the time successful hires have made it through an arduous internship track that begins in your undergrad summers. No one in Ibanking or finance is going to test you on your anthropological knowledge of how language impacts cultural development but hopefully in your undergraduate studies you picked up some critical thinking skills that will stand out in more relevant ways to the people looking to hire you.</li>
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<p>As for grad schools requiring specific undergrad curriculums, I mean if you’re looking to do Russian History graduate studies you most likely have to do Russian History undergraduate studies.</p>
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<li><p>Most science majors are not inherently more profitable. There isn’t exactly an abundant list of things you can “do” with an undergrad bio major as your terminal degree. Most at Harvard go to med school, which you can (technically) do as an Anthro or Philosophy major if you want. Many others continue on to do graduate studies. Those that do directly enter the workforce often face the same kinds of extra-transcript requirements that students from other departments face. If the average salaries of bio majors after 20 years are consistently high, that is likely the effect of medical school, which isn’t really relevant to your issue of picking an undergrad major.</p></li>
<li><p>Some majors require more advanced study than others to have successful chances at landing a job. Ignoring all criteria except your major, a computer science major probably has a better chance of getting hired out of college than does an African and African American Studies major. That’s just the reality of the American job market. But if more advanced schooling is an option for you and you are content with your ability to find internships, network with people, spend your summers wisely, etc., you can make any major work for you. </p></li>
<li><p>Harvard is an exception to many rules. I’m not talking about the Harvard brand name being magical, because it won’t get you hired anywhere by itself, but attending a top school gives you opportunities in the “less practical” fields you speak of to improve your chances at being hired. At Harvard you can become the editor-in-chief of a magazine that’s distributed on every continent. At Harvard you can have unique access to competitive internships and better your chances to get into unique study abroad programs. At Harvard you can network with alumni in powerful positions. At Harvard you can get recommendations from world-class professors that carry a ton of weight in grad school admission. And sometimes, certainly in the case of Wall Street, the brand name does help on occasion. Not to sound elitist, but I would say the major you pick at Harvard is less important than the major you would pick at a school with less opportunities to become a competitive job applicant in other ways. The practical vs impractical issue is less of a problem here.</p></li>
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<p>Like I said, I thought about this too. I’ve done really well in all the math/science classes I’ve taken here, which isn’t a small number. I asked myself if choosing a humanities/social science major is an impractical decision given my total lack of fallbacks if I can’t get a job. But the more I looked at it, the more it made no sense to pick a math/science major for these reasons. There is certainly no streamlined path for Middle East studies but there are certainly options like government work, further graduate studies in the field, law school, and others… it just takes some creativity and internships and networking. I don’t have a particular career in mind yet, but I’m happy with my choice because I can definitively say there’s nothing I’d rather study at Harvard, and that’s a good thing to be able to say. I hope you make a choice that enables you to say that.</p>
<p>A lot of what I’ve said is vague I know so I hope it helps somewhat. Feel free to PM me (or reply here) if you have any more specific questions.</p>