College Majors and Occupation

A few days ago, my post linked to an article in The Wall Street Journal asking how narrow an undergraduate academic focus is too narrow, considering how rapidly the job market changes.  I agree with the article's assertion that pushing students just towards majors in fields that currently seem "safe" (high starting salaries, plenty of jobs) can be problematic.  That's not only because of the rapidly changing job landscape, but also because one's college major frequently doesn't have a whole lot to do with what one actually pursues as a career after college.  And here's a really beautiful graphic from the University of Virginia's Office of Institutional Assessment that shows how varied the outcomes really are.  For the graphically disinclined (I had to stare at it for a minute), the majors are colored on the left; the occupations are the gray bars on the right. 

Indeed, "the path you take as an undergraduate matters, but your major is just one of many decisions that contribute to your occupational choices."  You don't have to be a business major to succeed in the business world; you don't have to be a biology major to be admitted to medical school.  And yes, you can even be a philosophy major and be successful.  Interested in grad school?  An undergrad major in philosophy might actually be your best preparation.  According to George Washington University (whose philosophy department was happy to share this info on my visit a few weeks ago), philosophy majors scored the highest of all majors on the GRE verbal, the second highest on the GMAT (outscoring business majors by 15%), and the third highest on the LSAT.  48% of philosophy majors who applied were accepted to medical school, compared with 43% of biochemistry majors, 42% of pre-med majors, 35% of biology majors, 25% of nursing majors, and only 22% of pharmacy majors.  Those oft-made-fun-of philosophy majors even make a good living.  So when someone asks what in the world you're ever going to do with that major in philosophy, there's your response.  Although I can't promise people will stop asking.