Department Of Humanities

What are the Humanities?

The Department of Humanities offers classes in languages, writing, literature, history, philosophy, and religion. All of these are central to what it means to be human. Taking these classes can help you learn to better communicate with others, to better understand others, to better understand our past and present, and to take part in some of the central questions that humans have always asked (for example, Why did that happen? Is this ethical?)

If you are interested in learning the lessons of the past and applying them to the present and the future; writing novels or songs; learning about other cultures and your own through literature, history, and language, we have the classes for you!

We offer majors in English (BA) and History (BA), and minors in English, History, and Philosophy & Religion.

We also offer content courses for English Education majors and Social Studies Education majors.

English

History

Philosophy & Religion

David S. Roth Scholarship

Humanities: The Myths Versus The Realities

The Department of Humanities wanted to highlight some of the common myths and misconceptions that surround the humanities, and shed some light on the realities of studying in this field. This information comes from Humanities Works, an organization that creates posters, postcards, and handouts to support the humanities. Visit their site to learn more.

Comparable Salary

MYTH: Humanities majors earn lower salaries and find less rewarding work than majors in STEM fields.
REALITY: Graduates with humanities majors earn comparable median salaries ($53,000 for English majors, for example) to those majoring in biology ($56,000), environmental science ($57,000), and psychology ($49,000). By age 40, liberal arts degree holders actually surpass STEM degree holders in average annual salary.

For sources and data, and more information, visit humanitiesworks.org/comparable-salary

Humanistic Skills

MYTH: Employers don’t care about the liberal arts skills of critical thinking, writing, emotional intelligence, or cognitive flexibility.

REALITY: A World Economic Forum survey of top executives from nine leading industries listed these and other humanistic skills as the top skills they are looking for in employees. And a Forbes magazine article writes that “today’s tech wave will inspire a new style of work in which tech takes care of routine tasks so that people can concentrate on what mortals do best: generating creative ideas and actions in a data-rich world.”

“What matters now is not the skills you have but how you think. Can you ask the right questions? Do you know what problem you’re trying to solve in the first place?”
— Harvard Business Review

For sources and data, and more information, visit humanitiesworks.org/humanistic-skills

Underemployment

MYTH: The reason humanities majors have low unemployment is because they’re desperate for work and will take anything they can get.

REALITY: Economists have ways of measuring this phenomenon, which they call “underemployment,” or having a job in which you’re employed less than full-time or in which you’re not really using your skills and education.

English majors (45%) and foreign language majors (43%) have a lower probability of being underemployed in their first job out of college than those who majored in biology (51%), psychology (54%), or business (47%).

Five years beyond the first job, the underemployment probability for English majors plummets to 29% (27% for languages), which remains lower than the above majors, similar to the probability for the aggregated social (28%) and physical (27%) sciences.

For sources and data, and more information, visit humanitiesworks.org/underemployment

Employment

MYTH: Humanities majors struggle to find jobs.

REALITY: When it comes to getting a job, humanities majors experience rates of unemployment (3.6% for History, 3.7% for languages and literatures) similar to those of business majors (3.7%), physics majors (3.4%), or criminal justice majors (3.8%).

But the truth is you shouldn’t worry about getting a job with any of these majors. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the government organization that compiles this data, none of these rates are significantly different from the average for all fields of study. This means that while people tend to have strong opinions about some majors setting you up for stability and prosperity and others setting you up for a lifetime of financial insecurity, the fact is that the differences in unemployment rate are negligible.

For sources and data, and more information, visit humanitiesworks.org/employment

Graduate School

Myth: Majors in the humanities don’t prepare students for post-graduate study or for the tests that will get them into law, medical, or graduate school.

Reality: Majors in philosophy, literature, and history have among the highest average scores on the GMAT (for business and management), the LSAT (for law school), the MCAT (for medical school), and the GRE (for PhD programs).