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Stop pushing the STEM careers so much. Who's to say those fields will still be in demand next year or next week? We can't predict the future, don't pick a major because you are led to believe it's the best choice or that it's in demand. Pick a major that you enjoy.
The attitude towards liberal arts majors needs to stop. Stephen King was an English major. I am not saying he became successful because of his major. But maybe being an English major motivated him or encouraged him to make use of that writing talent. Or maybe it didn't. Bottom line? He majored in what he loved to do.
On this forum, it's disgusting when someone who wants advice on a liberal arts major gets flooded with posts of "Have fun at Starbucks." and "Stop being lazy and major in something useful."
Excuse me? English isn't useful? Film isn't useful? Art isn't useful? If nobody did those things as careers you'd all be bored to pieces because there would not be any books, movies, video games or music.
Keep telling people to enter the STEM fields and when they do, the job market will be so freaking flooded, if it isn't already, because they were told it is "in demand."
I am NOT putting down the STEM field, but people need to pick a major because they are actually interested in it. Yes I know people enter the STEM field because that it what interests them. But those people seem to the minority.
If you want to be a English major, go for it. Contrary to popular belief, you can actually do a lot with it. Go into advertising, business, public relations, journalism, creative writing, teaching, law.
Same for Arts majors. Do you like it? Go for it, just be ambitious and you will have a chance. Place your happiness above $$$$$$.
Not all liberal arts majors will get jobs. But guess what? Neither will all STEM/Business/Accounting majors.
I know nurses, engineers, biology majors who can't find jobs. It's not the name of your degree that counts, it is how you use it.
Talk to me after you've actually grown up and entered the working world. You are obviously young and inexperienced and don't really understand how college majors relate to actual jobs (or not).
You're also missing the very important point that you can be as fascinated by your major as you want - won't do a thing for you when it turns out your major is just some interesting classes and has no relation to an actual career field. So after you're done being interested in your major, there is no interesting career for you to pursue that has anything to do with what you studied and which you can actually get.
Also, I think all the people who keep crying on CD about how they stupidly majored in history and are now thinking of going further into debt for another degree because they can't get a job would disagree with you.
I don't think that it is possible to get degrees in science, math or engineering if you don't the interest and ability involved in them.
Doing (or attempting) to do so is kinda stupid if your only ambition is to eventually get a job. You'd be much more likely to accumulate a lot of failing grades than anything else.
I work for a top tier consulting company. We hire a lot of college graduates. We don't care what your degree is in. We look at what school you went to, and what was your GPA, but not necessarily what your dregree was in. We care about how smart you are, how well you learn, how you interact with others, how you solve problems. It doesn't matter if your degree is in business or botany. We want people who are smart, motivated, curious, creative, driven, and emotionally intelligent.
Hence why so many consultants don't know anything about the business they are telling how to do things.
The key thing is, this formal definition of liberal arts, while accurate in the academic sense, is irrelevant in the practical sense when communicating to the public. They more typically see things as: (and this is a general view, not a formal definition)
a. Liberal arts = Philosophy, art, any "something" studies.
b. Science = physics, biology, chemistry, related fields.
c. Engineering = well, anything with engineering in it
d. Math = math.
With the general public, "Liberal Arts" means anything without a practical application, but a lot of navel gazing, feel good, associated with liberal politics, education. It does no good to try to tell them their definition is wrong (per the academic definition) because that will just mean you are part of the "educated elite" who lives in the Ivory Tower, rather than their real world.
That is why they need to be corrected. Many of the social sciences have just as much practical application as the natural sciences. We don't have chemists making economic decisions for governments. We don't have biologists treating the mentally ill. Mathematics and the natural sciences aren't as applied and practical as business, engineering, and healthcare. They are theoretical fields of study. That's why people have this misconception that a bachelor's degree in biology is some guarantee to a high-paying job. Those with undergraduate degrees in biology make about as much as many of the social science majors. As a matter of fact, there are a few social science majors that make more than biology and chemistry majors.
I had once considered getting a bachelor's degree in biology until I found out that most of the job opportunities were in labs making $15 an hour or less. I can make that much with my social science degree working in the criminal justice and social services fields. Yes, there are actually jobs out there that state a requirement or preference for bachelor's degrees in psychology, sociology, and related fields. A very short period of my life has been spent in academia. Most of my working adult life has been spent working in the criminal justice field. Don't even get me started on how people think that a CJ degree is more practical than a psychology or sociology degree because CJ is technically applied and not really a liberal art. This incorrect line of thinking has led to hordes of underemployed people with CJ degrees. CJ is almost as theoretical as the social sciences.
STEM degrees. Calling them LA degrees is highly disingenuous.
'Get a degree in anything' hasn't been very prudent for at least 20 years, and it's especially bad advice for the current job market. That's why there's such a significant push for the STEM majors. Also, the US is continuing to lose ground in math and science relative to other developed countries. Since these skills are crucial for success in the global economy, it's important we make significant improvements otherwise it doesn't bode well for this country's future.
No, there's a significant push for the STEM majors because billionaires in Silicon Valley want to drive down the salaries of their employees.
I work for a top tier consulting company. We hire a lot of college graduates. We don't care what your degree is in. We look at what school you went to, and what was your GPA, but not necessarily what your dregree was in. We care about how smart you are, how well you learn, how you interact with others, how you solve problems. It doesn't matter if your degree is in business or botany. We want people who are smart, motivated, curious, creative, driven, and emotionally intelligent.
You want somebody who's in the clique. That's the only reason to look at school over major. But that's fine. Your candor is preferable to the obfuscatory babble about "skills."
Liberal arts degrees are excellent in building a foundation for a career. I have an undergraduate liberal arts degree and then pursued work in a quantitative field (and do reasonably well for myself). I earned my CPA license by going back and taking additional coursework at the graduate level while I was building my career. Over the past 5 years I have worked in forensic accounting, statistical analytics, management accounting, and even dabbled in network security analytics....all this with a lowly ol' English degree and undergraduate and graduate courses in accounting. I never really considered my undergraduate degree to be the pathway to my career...I viewed it as a building block in a progression towards completing education. My parents advised me as such: my dad paid for most of my college and let me know that he wanted me to study what I was interested in - and that career comes later.
The issue today is that people go to school and take out significant (if not insane) student loans and that limits options: they feel as if they need to have immediate impact from an undergraduate degree to career and income. It doesn't usually work that way - careers take a longer time to develop for most people. Poor expectations are set out of desperation - no, simply getting a bachelor's degree will generally not move you from lower class to middle class. Newsflash: Taking out tens of thousands of dollars in loans to get ANY degree from a middling university has ALWAYS been a bad choice!
I encourage people to get an undergraduate degree in whatever they choose to - career building comes after college is over (through professional education, graduate school, professional licensing, experience, etc.). The caveat is that if you cannot afford to pay for college (either through with your own family money or through scholarships) without taking extremely burdensome student loans, then virtual no undergraduate degree will be a panacea.
Semantics notwithstanding, I think it's fairly common knowledge that when people say "STEM" degree they are usually talking about anything science, engineering, math or technology related whether the degree program is technically a "liberal art" or not. When people are complaining about liberal arts degrees, that are typically talking about english, history, romance languages, etc ... really humanities would be the proper term. Sometime people include the social sciences in the "you will never find a job" mantra, sometimes not.
Anyway, as has been the conventional wisdom around this for years (for those who bother to go to their school's career service office before senior year that is LOL) you CAN be employed graduating with a degree in the humanities or social sciences if you plan for it. If that is the route you choose you need to think out what you want to do post graduation more carefully than other majors and be deliberate with your choices in internships and volunteer work. You also should choose a minor carefully and network in your intended field early and often.
You also have to remember not all school (or all programs) are created equal. There are communications programs that are tops in their field whose graduates walk into jobs at ESPN and the like. And there are communications programs no one has ever heard of where everyone ends up a barista. Know were your program falls on the food chain and plan accordingly.
Everyone's situation has to be evaluated separately, it's not as simple as "no one should major in XYZ". Really the problem is most humanities majors don't really plan for their future the way they need to.
Payscale has the most visible list out there. I don't know if they use the best methodologies; but, according to them, the top 3 most underemployed majors are not liberal arts subjects. Their definition of underemployed is working in a job that does not require a bachelor's degree. This is their top 10 list.
1. Criminal Justice - This field is very closely related to the social sciences (and the social sciences are liberal arts), but it's a more applied field of study. Whether or not it's classified as a liberal art depends on the school. This is kind of the same situation with computer science.
2. Business Administration/Management - This is the most popular major in the country, and the number of people earning this degree is a few times higher than the second most popular major, psychology. It's not that this degree is useless; it's just that there is too much competition out there. Obviously, this is neither a liberal art nor STEM.
3. Health Care Administration - This is definitely not a liberal art. It's not STEM either.
4. General Studies - This can be a mixture of liberal arts and applied subjects. It depends on how the individual chooses to complete the degree. The problem with this degree is that it is perceived as not being focused.
5. Sociology - This is a liberal art because it is a social science, and it has also been classified as STEM by some government organizations along with the other behavioral sciences (anthropology and psychology).
6. English Language & Literature - This is a liberal art because it falls under humanities.
7. Graphic Design - This is not a liberal art, but does have many things in common with the humanities which are liberal arts. It also has a lot in common with the "T" in STEM.
8. Liberal Arts - Talking about the degree, not the group of subjects that fall under this category. This is a lot like the general studies degree except that applied subjects aren't allowed in the major area of study.
9. Education - This is not a liberal art; it's an applied field.
10. Psychology - This is a liberal art because it is a social science, and it has also been classified as STEM by some government organizations along with the other behavioral sciences (anthropology and sociology).
...
I feel like a broken record, but I will give this explanation again since people can't seem to wrap their minds around the fact that the liberal arts and STEM aren't mutually exclusive.
I agree there is some overlap, but most of the major on that list would be regarded as liberal arts. The bottom 6 are absolutely LA! (I have a psychology BA, and while it's broad and somewhat scientific, it's not nearly as rigorous as the natural sciences).
I guess the most important thing is to have some kind of long-term career plan as part of your education. Just getting a degree for the sake of a degree is usually a waste of time and money.
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