Looking At Careers with a Humanities Degree
September 14, 2009 | Paul Backus
I couldn’t tell you how many students enter college on a track to major in Business, Engineering, or Biology because they think that those are the degrees that will lead to high-paying jobs. Conventional wisdom tells us that programs we may actually enjoy more, like English, History, or Political Science, are basically a waste of a college degree. I beg to differ.
Strictly in terms of dollars and cents, even I was surprised to see a brief column in Time Magazine’s August 11, 2008 issue called “Earnings Now—And Later.” Most remarkable was the comparison between Biology and English majors. Professionals with only a bachelor’s degree and less than five years’ experience were earning median salaries of $38,800 with a Biology degree, and $38,000 with English. This small salary gap was even closer for those with 10-20 years experience. At this point, Biology majors were earning $64,800, while their English counterparts brought in $64,700.
I think when you get right down to it, most people are willing to sacrifice $100 a year to be involved in a career they actually like, especially when they’re making over $60,000 a year. For whatever reason, Political Science majors blew both of these out of the water, making $40,800 with less than five years’ experience and $78,200 with 10 to 20 years under their belt. The degrees that really paid off were Economics and Computer Science, where the more experienced demographic brought in $98,600 and $95,500 respectively.
The chart in the Times column did not show what people were actually doing with their degrees, but it did show that even the money English majors can end up making is nothing to balk at. This may partly be because any degree from an accredited University basically shows the same thing—you have proven that you have the skills necessary to earn a bachelor’s degree, and there is hope for you in the real world, whatever subject you have chosen to go to school for.
I was originally a Computer Engineering major. I figured engineering was where the money was at, but eventually I realized that I actually hated math and science classes and loved English classes. I ended up in UC Irvine’s Literary Journalism program. It’s basically a creative nonfiction degree offered by the English department. Some of us, like myself, want to use our degrees for their most obvious purpose—to become journalists and writers. Others, like my friend Cody, enjoyed his writing classes, but plans on going into the business world. Just before graduation, he said he had a decent shot at getting in with Morgan Stanley. He had focused his writing on business-related subjects, and since his degree had such a strong focus on writing, he is now able to market himself as a business-world hopeful with a higher writing ability than most business majors. Similarly, my friend Brian got into a prestigious law school with his Literary Journalism degree.
It’s looking more and more like most of us will end up going to grad school someday. A Bachelor’s degree today holds about as much value as a high school diploma did when our parents were growing up, so Master’s degrees are becoming more of a necessity. This is the point where you really need to start focusing on what you want to do with your life, since master’s programs are more specialized. But while you’re an undergrad, the most important thing is making sure you get out with your degree. You might as well pick something you enjoy so getting that degree can be that much easier.
