I’m going to admit something most parents are horrified of their children saying – “I am an English Major.” Wait worse! – “I am an English Major and I have taken enough classes to be a Music major… I am an English & Music major.” Someone name a more horrifying degree…I’ll wait.
Before anyone starts pointing and laughing or has an existential crisis of their own if they are in the same boat, I just want to say, your major does not and will not matter. I am currently in the job search process and this truth becomes more prevalent with each interview I have or every alumni I connect with.
Personally, I am pursuing a career in marketing and advertising, building off previous internships. The alums I talk to each week (whether business development, sales, marketing, etc) rarely have business or economics backgrounds. I have spoken with VPs/Directors/Managers that have degrees in Government, French, History, Communications, Music, Engineering and, yes, English (most notably the VP in the lot…yes I’m flexing). Just go on SLU’s LinkedIn network and type in any job to see the wide range of academic backgrounds of professionals within the field. Your path is not determined from a major you decided at age 19.
Now to give actual names behind this rant. Successful Humanities/Social Science majors? I’ll name a few. Michael Eisner (former Disney CEO) – English, Susan Wojcicki (Youtube CEO) – History & Literature, Lloyd Blankfein (Goldman Sachs CEO) – Government, Steve Ellis (Chipotle CEO) – Art History, George Soros (hedge fund manager/billionaire investor) – Philosophy, Hank Paulson (former Treasury Secretary) – English, Mitt Romney – English, Martin Luther King Jr. – Sociology (enough said). REMINDER: These are just a few, go on Google and search yourself!
How about some numbers? According to a study by SUNY Oswego, students majoring in specialized health sciences actually had a 15 percent less likely chance of getting into medical school compared to humanities majors. In fact, more than 50 percent of Humanities majors were accepted into medical school, which was 7% higher than the acceptance rate of Biology majors.
One common path for non-traditional majors is Post-Baccalaureate Pre-Med programs. Additionally, Math/Statistics and Humanities majors actually have a higher average score on the MCAT (medical acceptance test) than science related majors. If not medical school, there is always law school. From Political Science to Sociology to Art, law school is always a mixed bag for Humanities applicants. Notably, even Business schools accept high rates of Humanities majors. This past year, 48% of students enrolled at Stanford Business School came from Humanities/Social Science backgrounds, compared to only 18% Business majors. Maybe your major isn’t as useless as you may believe!
Those who major in STEM programs may feel entitled, due to their rigorous academic schedule and their job prospects that their father has been boasting about. These claims are true and great for them! STEM majors deserve the credit for their understanding of material many students cannot wrap their head around. However, the same career worries may be shared by STEM majors. A Biology degree without health-related graduate school or biological engineering may hold little value in searching for very high paying jobs.
As not many people care what novel you read for SYE, not many jobs may care if you can name the body parts of an insect. My father was a Biology major who struggled to find a job for a whole year after graduation until he went back to school for engineering. Thus, every student, STEM/Humanities/Social Sciences alike are all in the same struggle for finding a good job after graduation.
Therefore, your major does not and will not matter. What matters are the skills and passions you obtain along the way. Great Health students can know how to cure every common disease, yet without social skills, they will be awful doctors. Similarly, if you write an epic press release for a company, but can’t handle a budget – you will never succeed in business. This is the beauty of our liberal arts degree! We have taken classes in English, Math and Science. We have the underrated ability to think. If you study English, you are not destined to be a starving writer if you do not wish to be. You can apply this knowledge to any job you choose.
Go have fun in your PCA classes; enjoy college! Learn. Think. Grow. It is up to you to decide where your major takes you.