Thinking of majoring in History? AHA report on career paths & earnings

The stereotypes about the supposed "dead-end" of a liberal arts degree--especially in humanities disciplines such as History, English, Philosophy, and Languages--has become deeply entrenched in the public imagination. Fortunately, the importance of these liberal arts fields are being rediscovered and are gaining renewed attention as versatile and flexible areas of study that equip students with knowledge and intellectual skills that are highly valued by employers, that result in a high degree of career satisfaction, and that provide the flexibility to adapt to change careers during a lifetime of employment. (See, for example, discussion of recent books such as The Fuzzy and the Techie and Robot-Proof: Higher Education in the Age of Artificial Intelligence.)

The American Historical Association (AHA) recently published an article exploring career possibilities for history degree-holders in its magazine, Perspectives. "History is Not a Useless Major: Fighting Myths with Data" (April 2017) challenges the prevailing message that majoring in STEM disciplines is the only path to career success and examines myths about history. The article draws upon data comparing the marketability of various degrees, using census data from some 3.5 million American households, as analyzed by the American Community Survey (ACS).

History majors end up working in a wide range of career areas, as the chart below demonstrates:

"Data source: ACS 2010–14 5-year Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS). Includes individuals who stated they were in full-time employment, between the ages of 25 and 64, had achieved a bachelor’s degree or higher, and had either history or US history as the field of study for their bachelor’s degree." (Fig. 1 from "History Is Not a Useless Major")

Describing the career paths of History graduates, the Perspectives story notes:

History majors seem particularly well-­prepared for, and attracted to, certain careers. Nearly one in five goes into education—just over half as primary-, middle-, and high-school teachers. Another 15 percent enter management positions in business, and 11 percent go into the legal professions (most becoming lawyers)....

It’s important to note that nearly half of the history majors identified by the ACS went on to graduate school—a much higher percentage than the national average (37 percent) and higher than majors in English (45 percent) and the liberal arts (26 percent). This might be because law, management, and education require advanced study. It could also mean that students interested in careers that require graduate training see a history major as a springboard. Likely it is a combination of the two. But knowing this, history departments must understand that it is imperative that they prepare majors for graduate school and offer guidance in educational and career choices.

The Perspectives story also challenges the myth of the underemployed humanities graduate, pointing out that the flexibility of the history degree results in a wide range of earnings for degree-holders--which reflect the wide range of career choices pursued by history gradates.

In fact, there is little difference in career earnings students who graduate with degrees from disciplines in the humanities, life sciences, or social sciences and behavioral sciences (see chart below). However, it is true that the earnings from the disciplinary fields in these academic areas are lower, on average, than earnings for fields such as engineering, physical sciences, health and medical sciences, and business. Since the chart explores correlations between the undergraduate degree and lifetime earnings, it is important to note that what graduates do with their bachelor's degrees, including whether they pursue further education through graduate school or professional training, can make a big difference in terms of income. Note the variation in earnings from the lowest 25th percentile, the 50th percentile, and the highest 75th percentile. (This point about the "value added" by further education is also true for bachelor's-degree holders in most disciplinary fields.)

"Data source: American Academy of Arts and Sciences Humanities Indicators, table III-4a. Available at http://www.humanitiesindicators.org/content/indicatordoc.aspx?i=287." (source: Fig. 3 from "History Is Not a Useless Major")

The Perspectives story concludes by analyzing and contextualizing the data about the history degree:

In short, it is not that history majors are underpaid. It is that the diverse range of occupations that a history degree prepares them for includes several important, but vastly undervalued, public service careers. If the only consideration when choosing a major is whether you will be earning six figures by the age of 30, then history may not be the best field. But for students who are inspired by work in which the greatest rewards may not necessarily be financial, a history major remains an excellent option.

The ACS data shed fascinating light on some of the myths about life with a history degree. Majoring in history does not doom a graduate to a life of unemployment or under­employment. In fact, history majors go on to become much better educated than the average person, filling roles in a wider range of careers than holders of many other degrees. The worst that can be said of this situation is that many of those careers are socially undervalued. But that does not mean that a degree in history is any less valuable.

Grossman: "History Isn't a 'Useless' Major: It Teaches Critical Thinking, Something American Needs Plenty More Of"

Today's issue of The Los Angeles Times includes an Op-Ed by Dr. James Grossman, Executive Director of the American Historical Association: "History Isn't a 'Useless' Major: It Teaches Critical Thinking, Something America Needs Plenty More Of."

As Grossman explains, the number of students majoring in history has declined dramatically at colleges and universities across the country. In part, this decline is a response to the financial melt-down that started in 2008, which has led students and their parents to focus on what they see as more "practical" degrees that seem to lead directly to a career. Although political leaders from President Barack Obama to Senator Marco Rubio have encouraged this turn, Grossman points both to the skills and earning potential that come from degrees in liberal arts and humanities fields, like History. At the "mid-career" point (approximately 15 years after college graduation), people with an undergraduate degree in History earn the same average salary ($71,000/year) as those who majored in Business Administration; the History major brings a higher salary than many other majors that emphasize their "practical" earning potential. (Read more at "Majors That Pay You Back" from payscale.com) Note that these figures are for bachelor's-degree-holders, and do not factor in the additional earnings accompanying a graduate degree or law degree.

As Grossman writes:

"...Employers interested in recruiting future managers should understand (and many do) that historical thinking prepares one for leadership because history is about change — envisioning it, planning for it, making it last. In an election season we are reminded regularly that success often goes to whoever can articulate the most compelling narrative. History majors learn to do that.

"Everything has a history. To think historically is to recognize that all problems, all situations, all institutions exist in contexts that must be understood before informed decisions can be made. No entity — corporate, government, nonprofit — can afford not to have a historian at the table. We need more history majors, not fewer."

Read the full essay here.

So what can you do with that history degree? The future of History, the Global Tuning Project, and careers for students

The Thinker, by Rodin

by Penny Messinger

Are you thinking about what you can do with a history major?

You're not alone. Many students love history but are concerned with whether a degree in history can translate into a successful career.

If you're in that group, you will want to learn more about the ways that the study of history has created value and career opportunities.

I was able to attend the American Historical Association's 2015 meeting and learn more about an exciting new initiative, the Global Tuning Project in History. It is helping historians throughout the world clarify and articulate the common skills, habits of mind, and content knowledge created through historical study. It is also helping us all to see how history majors are applying their training in a wide range of career fields.

The American Historical Association (AHA) is the major professional organization of historians in the United States. The AHA recently created a statement about the History Discipline Core to "articulate the ways history supports an educated workforce and citizenry and demonstrate that its value goes far beyond narrow professional training."
 
You can read the whole statement at the AHA's web page about the Tuning Project, which includes both Core Competencies (abilities) gained through studying history, as well as specific Learning Outcomes (results). These Core Competencies, as stated by the AHA, are listed below. History majors learn to:

1. Engage in historical inquiry, research, and analysis.

2. Practice historical empathy.

3. Understand the complex nature of the historical record.

4. Generate significant, open-ended questions about the past and devise research strategies to answer them.

5. Craft historical narrative and argument.

6. Practice historical thinking as central to engaged citizenship.

Each of these "competencies" includes sub-points that help to explain the specific skill-set of the historian. For example, as a history student, you will learn to research open-ended questions by identifying and synthesizing relevant information; you learn to be empathetic through studying the human past; you develop a sophisticated understanding and skeptical stance about evidence through learning to evaluate the perspectives reflected in the creation of knowledge; you come to understand that all knowledge is provisional; you learn to write effective narratives based on research and evidence; and you learn to be a creative thinker who understands change and is prepared to apply your skill-sets in a wide variety of careers.

Understanding that the world does change and being able to adapt to change is essential for everyone--one of the most important lessons of the past decade is figuring out how to adapt to change, including the collapse or restructuring of many traditional professions as well as the challenges to other fields of knowledge (just for example, consider recent changes in such areas as journalism, economics, finance, law, and education). The future belongs to those of us who can adapt our skills and abilities in occupations that we haven't yet imagined, and who have habits of mind that allow us to understand and adapt to that changing world.

One fascinating example of the ways that the history major (and a humanities education in general) is being appreciated lies in the area of medicine. Another historian clued me in to a recent surge in the number of students who study history (both as majors and minors) to prepare for a career in medicine. He emphasized the many common skill-sets between the two fields: learning to approach patients with empathy and understanding, to compile evidence and evaluate its relevance and importance, to synthesize information, and to master complex ideas and bodies of knowledge, among other issues. There is even a connection from the first interaction that a doctor has with her patient: taking that patient's history.

Interestingly enough, a quick search on the topic of history majors and medical schools revealed a number of stories linking the two areas. One story from Wake Forest University ("So Your Doctor Majored in History") describes its new "Interdisciplinary Pathway to Medicine Program" that guarantees admission to the school's Medical School for "undergraduates majoring in humanities or fine arts." As the story explains,

“Consider the value of having a physician who has learned through undergraduate studies the habit of questioning, of using the imagination to walk in someone else’s shoes, of finding patterns, of balancing moral and philosophical concerns,” says Dean of the College Jacque Fetrow. “When you think about it, the practice of medicine is fundamentally about working with people."

The story continues on to quote the program's director: 

Tom Phillips, director of the interdisciplinary humanities minor at Wake Forest oversees the Pathway program. “We need medical practitioners who know the value of listening,” he says. “So Wake Forest is intentionally looking for undergraduate students who see medicine as a healing art that combines an intimate understanding of human nature in a social context with exceptional science skills.”

A similar story from Butler University emphasizes that

Even as breakthroughs in science and advances in technology make the practice of medicine increasingly complex, medical educators are looking beyond biology and chemistry majors in the search for more well-rounded students who can be molded into caring and analytic doctors. "More humanities students have been applying in recent years, and medical schools like them," says Gwen Garrison, assistant vice president for medical-school services and studies at the Association of American Medical Colleges. "The schools are looking for a kind of compassion and potential doctoring ability. This makes many social-science and humanities students particularly well qualified."

....Michael Sciola, who's been advising premed students at Wesleyan University for the past 13 years, has seen liberal-arts majors become more attractive to medical schools. And he's not surprised that those who stray from science are finding success.

"Medical schools have really been looking for that scholar-physician in the past few years," he says. "We're living in an increasingly complex world, and the liberal arts give you the skills to understand that better."...

History majors can be found in almost every career field, so the overlap between history and medical school is just one example. Stay tuned for more posts about the future of history and the ways that our graduates are putting their educations to work.