In a recent article in The New Yorker, “The End of the English Major,” Nathan Heller, an English major from Harvard (full disclosure: I’m one of them, too), chronicles the steep decline in the number of students graduating with humanities majors.
Since 2013, the study of English and History has dropped by a third, while the number of students seeking degrees in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) is soaring. Heller reports that the number of graduated humanities majors at Ohio State’s main campus has fallen by 46%. Tufts has lost nearly 50% of its humanities majors, and Boston University has lost 42%.
Part of the reason for the decline is the growth of interdisciplinary majors like “Culture, Technology, and Environment” designed to meet student interests, or combining English or History with adjacent fields such as in Harvard’s History of Science Department, which Heller reports had a “fifty-per-cent increase in its majors over the past five years.”
Harvard University’s History-of-Science major has grown 50% in the past five years.
At LogicPrep, we believe that everyone’s story matters. Describing areas of study that excite you, and that you might want to pursue in college, provides an important narrative framework for your application. It’s important to back up these descriptions with demonstrated interest and achievement in relevant coursework, extracurricular activities, summer jobs or internships. In other words, “show” don’t “tell.” This is the best way to create a vivid and memorable portrait of who you are as an applicant. And for admissions offices, knowing where your interests lie helps them select for a balance of prospective majors within the class.
A liberal arts education teaches you to read, write and think, skills that are essential in any field. But it's a fact that most of our students start this process telling us they want to study Business or Engineering. Mostly because they believe that is the best way to set themselves up for the job market and the most lucrative careers.
To get a fresh perspective on the value of choosing a major—and why the liberal arts might be an equally compelling path to a career in business as a Finance or Engineering degree—we spoke with several college grads ranging in age from 29-34, to ask them whether their choice of major had an impact on their career. We got an earful, and some of their answers were surprising.
Who are our college grad panelists?
Ellen, 29, an Economics major/Business minor from Cornell University, worked in investment banking after college and now works at a Hollywood talent agency focusing on TV Lit.
Jack, 32, studied Art History and Linguistics at Columbia University and went on to earn his doctorate in Art History and Archaeology. He now works for a small agency in food & beverage, focusing on strategy and content.
Jerry, 31, double majored in Marketing and Information Systems at the University of Maryland and has spent the last ten years in "ad tech" at various tech companies, such as Meta, Roku, and Fanatics.
Ben, 34, an Engineering major from a New England Ivy League college, worked as a software developer at a hedge fund for ten years and now works at a financial company.
Suki, 33, a Philosophy major from Barnard College who worked for Scholastic during and after college, is now a screenwriter living in LA.
Of these graduates, four attended private liberal arts colleges/research universities, one attended a public research university. Three had significant student loans to repay after graduation. Only one of our panelists has so far earned a post-graduate degree. Most stated that learning on the job is the best way to advance in their profession and did not have immediate plans to pursue a graduate degree.
Here are some of the highlights of our conversations:
Did your choice of major have an impact on your career success? And if given the chance to do it all over, would you pick the same major?
All five said “yes” they would pick the same major, mainly because they enjoyed the subject, not necessarily because it imparted specialized skills or credentials.
Ellen, eight years out of college, didn’t think her college major had much impact on her career:
“When I look to my left and to my right at my desk right now, the people I am surrounded by majored in all sorts of things, and here we are, all seated at the same place.”
Qualities like perseverance and motivation (financial or otherwise) might be as important as your major.
Cornell Economics major Ellen remarked:
“After college, I worked in investment banking and my closest friend at work was an Art History major from a different Ivy League school who had never taken a finance class in her life. She outlasted many Business majors at that job. Likewise with consulting, which I think is another industry that welcomes all backgrounds.”
When asked if his major, Engineering, helped him succeed in his career, Ben said:
“Not really. I don’t use thermodynamics to write software. Engineering is interesting, and I’ll probably never get an opportunity to study it again, whereas I am listening to Hemingway on Audible right now. Plus it was a good signaling mechanism for finding my first job.”
Suki, a Philosophy major turned screenwriter noted that careers are rarely straight lines:
“What I majored in has not affected my life in any way. You never know what you’re going to be doing ten years from now, least of all when you’re in college. I thought I wanted to be a doctor and then a lawyer — now I write fart jokes.”
Everyone mentioned that skills like writing, critical thinking, and problem solving are the ones they use most in their jobs, and those are skills they also learned in high school.
Jack emphasized the importance of writing skills:
“A wide variety of jobs require writing, and regardless of the subject I can apply the rhetorical skills I developed through Art History to that work. There are times when I wish I had some more practical skills if I had taken, say, Statistics, or Computer Science; but I can't really imagine myself majoring in those subjects. I also am fortunate to come from a place financially where my parents encouraged me to study what I want, and no one in my immediate family was relying on me to support them with my college education.”
All five of our graduates emphasized the value of exploring courses outside of your comfort zone because they challenge you to think differently.
Jerry changed his mind a few times before landing on Marketing and Information Systems:
“I started as an Accounting major and took classes ranging from Chemistry to Nutrition. Through real-time feedback from professors, grades, and internships, I was able to narrow down my academic interests and ultimately chose a path that aligned with my strengths and career aspirations. In some ways, these courses taught me what I was not good at, which is just as valuable.”
Ellen’s humanities classes pushed her out of her comfort zone:
“My humanities classes forced me outside of my comfort zone to write essays and think more creatively. These aren't ‘hard skills’ necessarily but are required for almost any job. It's also good to learn how to feel (or fake being) comfortable in the uncomfortable, which you will inevitably have to be in any job.”
Suki loved Philosophy partly because those classes challenged what she thought she knew:
“I took ‘Contemporary Moral Problems’ sophomore year at Columbia. I walked in thinking ‘I know everything, and I know how I feel about all of these issues,’ and I walked out of that class feeling like I didn’t know a thing. A lot of it was thought experiments where the whole purpose was to remove your emotions and background from the problem. It was really interesting because as a teenager you never do that. It was so cool.”
Jack noted how the humanities provided an important contrast to our data-driven world:
“In a world that is increasingly driven by quantitative studies and hard data, the humanities remind us that nothing is ever really black and white and encourage exploration of the gray areas.”
Naturally, this English major will sum it up with words from Shakespeare. In Hamlet, Act I scene 3, Polonius gives fatherly advice to his son Laertes as he departs to study in France. This famous monologue concludes with: “This above all: to thine own self be true.”
When it comes to choosing your major, be open to exploring different subjects; find out what excites you, what you value, and how you want to contribute to the world. For some it will be a passion for scholarship; others are motivated by public service, scientific research, or financial gain. Remember that not all paths are linear, and disparate paths often lead to the same place. But whatever field you choose, lean on authenticity and honesty for success.