Both anthropology and psychology are large fields of study which cover multiple subspecialities, some of which are more grounded in analytical science than others. … but generally not considered STEM.
I interpreted the OP’s question to include the social sciences as well as performing arts – but the same observations apply either way. Students don’t necessarily major in psychology or literature or dance because they want or expect to become psychologists or writers or dancers …and many attend colleges with a broad enough core curriculum or distribution requirements to assure breadth of exposure — although Amherst happens to have an open curriculum.
Some students choose arts majors for pre-professional reasons, despite the fact that trying to make a career out of arts can be an elite-or-bust path.
Some social studies subjects are also commonly chosen for pre-professional reasons (e.g. economics as an alternative to business, political science as a go-to pre-law major).
You are not understanding the point many of us are trying to make, that no one is abandoning their majors. The majors were not tied to career in the first place.
I was a medieval history major, I ended up in IT. I figured out in college that while I loved reading about medieval history I hated explaining it to people who didn’t also love it, so education was out. And I didn’t really have the GPA to go on to grad school for the academic track. So I took a recommendation from my comp sci teacher and shook the alumni network and ended up in a trainee position that turned into a career.
I am very happy not having to teach or write, which are pretty much the only ways I would be making a living in a pure medieval studies field. There are many ways of exercising my passion outside of the office, and inside my work life I have a job that pays well, occasionally exercises my mind, and leaves me the time and resources to pursue my passions on my own time.
If you want to be trained for a well-paying career, go to plumbing school or auto mechanics school or learn underwater welding. It takes less time than college and costs less.
If you want your mind trained so that you can take different opportunities that life gives you, go to a liberal arts college.
@ninakatarina Your comment reminded me of an old acquaintance who did go to a trade school for plumbing, he now co-owns a newspaper and two car dealerships. I’m wondering if he does plumbing in his free time.
My kid is very much an LAC mindset, looking for a broad education to learn more and eventually do something positive for as many people as possible.
Some pre-professional degrees also have a broad scope due a higher course requirement.
A degree from the college of arts and sciences in English or economics may only have a graduation 32 course requirement while an engineering degree may have a 42 course requirement (half, 21 courses are from the college of arts and sciences). Technically, an engineering graduate has a minor in math and can easily have a minor in a humanities subject from the college of arts and sciences. A student with a goal to write and communicate clearly and concisely can often challenge themselves by immersing in classes with liberal arts majors.
People don’t stop learning when they are in college. Lots of people get very involved in their careers, and love what they do, even if when they were 18 they didn’t expect to be loving what they love at 30 or 35.
The American elite educational system is geared towards making you someone who has good analytical, research, and communication skills, and who has enough of a background in general culture to be able to relate to lots of different types of people and to find common ground with them. Then you follow your opportunities, you pursue what interests you about them, and you see what happens. There’s nothing wrong with responding to economic cues – most people do. We just don’t put as much pressure on smart kids to do that at 18 (or 15 or 16) as much of the rest of the world does.
A few examples from my life:
My AP French Lit teacher: College music major. Knew he wasn’t good enough for career as a solo pianist. Studied in France and became a high school French teacher, pursuing music as a serious hobby. Often served as accompanyist for young singers and other musicians performing in the provincial city where he lived (ones who weren’t established enough to travel with an accompanyist of their own). He was good enough that one of those musicians, a rising flutist, convinced him to move to NYC and promised to get him enough work to support himself. A few years later, she lost her manager and asked him to manage her as well. He turned out to be very good at that, and soon had a full roster of management clients. He retired as CEO of one of the top artist-management firms in the world.
My sister: Thought she wanted to be a geologist, but had a lot of trouble with college physics. Did a semester abroad in Spain, loved it, and switched to being a Spanish Lit major. Because of the late switch, had to take one extra semester to do a required course. For that semester, got a part-time job as a gopher at a securities brokerage,and took a second course in securities analysis just out of interest (part-time tuition was the same for one course or two). Had a great career as a securities analyst, ultimately running several successful international equity funds in public mutual fund groups.
I don’t understand this comment. What list of majors and careers are you looking at? Generally LAC students study what interests them without much weight given to getting a specific job at graduation. They know they are prepared to begin a good career in anything that doesn’t require a specific undergrad degree (so engineering and nursing are out without further education).
A lot of Amherst grads work at Google. That doesn’t mean they are programmers who abandoned art history or whatever. M\any are in management or HR or marketing or whatever (and some are programmers too, even if they are self taught). Many go into finance even though Amherst doesn’t offer a finance degree. Math, Statistics, History, Economics, foreign languages, English - whatever - these are all great prep for finance, if hiring is any indication. There are a lot of Amherst grads in management consulting, despite having no business degree. A lot of doctors who didn’t major in a science. And so on.
FWIW my brother got a degree in art from his LAC. He works as an executive at a designer fashion company. My major was sociology, I’ve been in database/web/consulting for years. My D thought she’d major in one or two things and wound up loving something different, and she found it by taking classes at her LAC and discovering what she enjoyed and didn’t.
You might be surprised. Tech companies want people with ideas and imagination, not just coding skills. I know 4 people who work at Google. One was a Comp Sci major, one in English, one in Sociology, and one in Urban Studies.
This has always been the case. It doesn’t say anything about a loss of passion for the undergraduate subject. Rather, it’s that most people who pursue humanities degrees don’t look at college as a trade school. They are there for a liberal arts education, and fully intend to pursue a career in whatever they find interesting when they graduate. If they were interested in using college as preparation for a specific field, they would have majored in engineering or CS.
I majored in history, not sure what I wanted to do as a career. My senior year, I applied to law school, was accepted, but decided at the last minute that I did not want to practice law. I really just liked being a student. That summer, I worked as a waitress, then moved to a city and got a job as a technical writer in a mutual fund transfer agency. (Humanities degrees are great at preparing you for writing and critical thinking jobs. You can learn the other skills you need on the job.)
After a few years, I got master’s degree in journalism and worked in that field. My trajectory is fairly typical. It was intentional, but open to new directions, and I never had trouble finding work.
It would be an appalling world if everyone had to decide what they wanted to do when they entered college, and then only pursued knowledge in that field.
Isn’t that what university education is like in many other countries? Not that it is necessarily better, but some of these other countries are not necessarily appalling either.
@ucbalumnus , yes, it is what university education is like in many other countries. Fortunately, it’s not like that in all. It truly would be an appalling world if every 18 year old had to pick a career and study that one thing. I am convinced that American creativity and innovation are the result of our not being forced into a career at an early age.
Well, attending fancy private schools and prestigious LACs to educate and explore yourself is fantastic but most people in this world don’t have these luxuries. They have little time and money to get a degree which helps pay their bills and often support others as well. Most of them manage to be happy and add something positive to this world so it ain’t that bad.
@CupCakeMuffins – first of all, students don’t have to attend fancy private schools or prestigious LAC’s for a humanities major – or any other non-career oriented majors. A student can major in English or French or Art History at a public U. or at a community college. My daughter graduated from “prestige LAC” and my son graduated from “directional state U” and both had exactly the same major.
Secondly, there are very few undergraduate degrees that are direct qualifiers for careers – there are some, like engineering or nursing — but most professions require some level of graduate education – and there are a huge range of job categories that might require or favor a college degree but do not expect the college degree to be the source of the job skills. Employers are looking for work experience and a variety of workplace skills, many of which can be picked up on the job or self-taught – and many college student gain those skills through work experience along the way. I know more than one person who got some sort of paying job at the university where they attended school, and their part-time school job turned into a full time job after they graduated and ultimately provided the foundation to careers developed later.
There are indeed countries in this world where a high school graduate can enter directly into law or medical school and a few years down the line they have the requisite eduation for credentialing in their country. Not so in the US. My daughter-in-law is a medical doctor; she paid her own way through undergrad at a flagship state U and majored in literature. That of course was followed up with 4 years of medical school and onto a hospital residency.
“It would be an appalling world if everyone had to decide what they wanted to do when they entered college, and then only pursued knowledge in that field.”
“Isn’t that what university education is like in many other countries? Not that it is necessarily better, but some of these other countries are not necessarily appalling either.”
In many other countries, students do pick a major from day one. They aren’t locked into that as a career though. They have the same flexibility to apply their education to whatever they desire.
“Well, attending fancy private schools and prestigious LACs to educate and explore yourself is fantastic but most people in this world don’t have these luxuries. They have little time and money to get a degree which helps pay their bills and often support others as well.”
By your own first post you can see that LAC grads are gainfully employed. No luxury. They have learned skills and are applying them in their careers. Please go back and reread through the thread.
I did and I do love the idea of a humanities education and having a strong foundation before you try to erect a skyscrapper on top. This is the reason I want my kid to attend an LAC.
