According to this study a whopping 42% of college graduates who majored in English regretted choosing that major. And the most commonly cited reason not only for English majors but for all the most regretted undergraduate majors was limited job opportunities. Rounding out the top 5 most regretted majors:
English/Foreign Language (42% regret)
Sciences (35%)
Education (31%)
Social Science/Law (29%)
Communications (27%)
On the flip side the least regretted majors were:
Computer Science/Math (13% regret)
(Tie) Business and Engineering (both 16%)
Health Administration (18%)
(Tie) Community/Family/Personal Services, Health Science Technologies, and Repair/Production/Construction (19% each)
Apparently that choosing majors with poor or low income major related job and career directions can lead to regret at least if the student is not aware of that beforehand and chooses the major knowing that.
Job and career prospects need not (and should not) be the only reason behind major choice. But awareness of such can help the student make a more informed choice if s/he has money constraints (such as needing to pay off student loans). A student knowing that s/he is going into a lower income direction can know the necessity of frugal living, for example.
The point is that one factor students may wish to consider when choosing a college major is how likely they are to later regret their choice, because not all majors are created equal in that respect. For example a college graduate who majored in English is more than three times as likely to regret having made that choice than one who majored computer science. Various majors are regretted (or not) for a variety of reasons, but the one factor that cut across all the most regretted majors was lack of job opportunities.
I’m surprised that the point is not obvious. If I were choosing a new car I would be very interested in a survey that showed that buyers who picked say Hondas were three times as likely to regret their choice than those who chose Toyotas.
Whether picking cars or college majors, it’s good to make the choice armed with the facts about those ahead of you who made this same choice.
In the US, law is a graduate level major, not an undergrad. Unless they are referring to “criminal justice” as a major, in which case there’s no question that a high percentage of students regret that major- it doesn’t help get into law school and without higher education it leads to jobs as probation officers and the like- not especially high paying careers if you’ve got debt.
Exactly what is a “personal services” major?
OP- you may think the findings are obvious, but without the methodology, this study seems quite obvious- GIGO.
Kids don’t regret majoring in Family Services? What the heck is that? Again, in the US, Social Work (the only think I could imagine is “family services”) typically requires a Master’s Degree. Or maybe counseling? But again- to become a school guidance counselor you need a Master’s, and to become an actual therapist (licensed) you need a doctorate (PsyD or PhD).
Does this study conflate AA degrees with Bachelors? I’ve never heard of a four year degree granting institution offering a degree in “repair”. In my part of the country, that’s what you get after an 18 month certificate course. Not a bachelor’s degree.
But I’m happy you think majoring in English is a waste of time, and now you’ve found a study which confirms that belief.
The report was produced by Georgetown University’s center for education and workforce, and you can Google it if you wish to learn the methodology. They, and I, found the results quite interesting.
To me, this just shows that the least regretted majors attract people who are least retrospective, while the proverbial English major kids are just too darn critical of life and everything else in it ?
???. Actually, it looks like some of the salary data regarding college came from Georgetown, but the majors report was prepared by a labor economist at Ziprecruiter based on a survey of 5000 recent college grads. It does note that of course there are many things besides salary which can be considered. But it is nice to have a salary.
The Ziprecruiter survey is only of users of its own platform – which means that from the start it misses all of the people who have jobs-- or who are using other sources for finding work (such as networking, etc.). So it really might simply reflect the particular market that is targeted in the survey.
In other words, maybe Ziprecruiter isn’t a great place to find a job for an English major but has plenty of listings for people who can repair stuff. My guess is that the unhappiest Ziprecruiter users would be the ones who had the hardest time finding attractive job listings on that particular platform.
I have to agree that only surveying active job seekers can lead to quite biased data - it’s far from a randomized sampling of all graduates in a certain major.
And people looking for jobs being disappointed in job opportunities isn’t exactly shocking.
I guess it’s better than surveying people applying for unemployment
This is definitely not some random representative selection of people.
The car example is particularly stupid. Picking a major because you have skills and interest in area is not at all like picking a car. Not everyone is interested in STEM
One has to assume the English major would make a terrific CS major or similar assumptions. IME that’s rare. One often needs talent in their field to do well or they’ll be in the percentage regretting that degree.
Simply put, not everyone can be a CS whiz - or Engineering- or English. When one finds the niche they shine in and has decent people skills usually they’re fine. When they try to be someone they aren’t, at best there’s needless stress for a lot of life. At worst there’s stress, no job, and high debt.
I would be curious about the time frame for this survey. One year out from college? Ten? English majors are still highly valued for their training in reading, writing, research and analysis. But it may take longer for them to find their career niche, since majors like CS lead to a pretty clear career path.
Posts like this reflect a major shift in the perspectives on the purpose of college, which has evolved over the last few decades to reflect a more vocational view versus “the life of the mind.” Pros and cons. With high tuition and debt, it is certainly understandable to want certainty. But I know many many English and humanities majors in well-paying rewarding careers.
@compmom Totally agree. People used to go to college for the life of the mind. They wanted to learn how to think so they could eventually do many jobs.
Today, many programs are based on job specific learning. Very different.
While I would presume this study is based on recent graduates, it would be great to look at a cross section of ages. Someone 50 years old with a degree in English may have found that field to be really valuable ( in PR, journalism, communications, etc) while someone 22 who doesn’t have any other skills and is looking at their first job, might not.
Not every person is wired for every major. The regrets in the sciences field, I’d guess would be kids who went into the field for the positive job prospects and high income and found it wasn’t what they wanted to do.
My advice to my kids is always along the lines of find some things ( not just one) that you like to do. Create a plan where you have several options for various jobs and develop multiple skills. I know this isn’t popular. But people who love their jobs and who are highly paid are also often highly specialized. When you combine multiple fields you can often create your own job. And these jobs tend to pay better. Plus one never knows which fields will become obsolete. Or which fields will develop.
Everytime I see a pseudo-study like this I wonder what they think those kids who hate math and science or who like it, but just aren’t very good at it, should do. I’m good at math and logical thinking, but after taking the intro computer programming course I knew it was not for me. Both my brothers lapped it up.
The entry-level job market may be more competitive with higher standards now than a generation ago.
There are more college graduates now, so there is greater competition for jobs that will hire someone with a BA/BS in anything.
There may be more competition from those dismissed from their more senior jobs in the recent recession who are desperately looking for anything, including entry and lower mid level jobs.
Many jobs that were willing to hire "smart people" (often with having a BA/BS as a proxy for that) and have them learn on the job now expect entry level employees to be ready to do the job immediately.
