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WHAT CAN YOU DO WITH A HUMANITIES DEGREE?
By Tyler Flatt, Assistant Professor of Humanities
This is the question we are most frequently asked by students and their parents. It’s an understandable one, but we suggest a better question: “What can a Humanities degree do with me?” At Boyce, we are committed not only to education, but to transformation; in concert with the Holy Spirit, we seek to reform, renew, and fortify the character of our students in keeping with biblical truth. We are far more concerned with who they will be in their homes, churches, and communities than with what they will do for money.
This is especially true of our Humanities Program, which is designed to do nothing less than teach our students how to achieve a deeper understanding and a fuller command of their humanity, from epistemology to storytelling, and from the nature of beauty to the power of a semicolon. Our method is to bring them under the timeless influence of great art, literature, philosophy, and theology—in short, all that is best in the Western tradition.
A thorough training in the Humanities means much more than merely equipping our students with practical skills for a particular career path; so limited a goal would scarcely be worthy of the lively spirit of humanistic study that has characterized centuries of Christian scholarship. In most cases, technical proficiency in a specific trade or craft can be obtained much more quickly and cheaply elsewhere, and that is as it should be. Training for all of life should require more time, effort, and expense.
Nevertheless, some parents and students still worry that a degree in the Humanities may somehow damage their chances at future employment. Nothing could be further from the truth! Recent statistical data on employment rates for Humanities graduates reveal no significant difference as compared to other fields (including STEM degrees). In addition, the rate of self-reported job satisfaction after college is higher among former Humanities students than among other kinds of graduates.
Here is the bottom line: research shows that employers of all kinds consistently set a high value on employees who are thoughtful, articulate, personable, and responsible interpreters of the world around them. Here are just a few paths Humanities students can and do pursue after college:
- consulting (particularly management and educational consulting)
- journalism, media, & communication
- teaching (elementary, secondary, post-secondary, ESL)
- publishing (academic or mass-market)
- academic administration
- advertising
- human resources
- graphic & industrial design
- government & foreign service
- management & PR with not-for-profit and non-governmental organizations
- technical writing
Humanities is a viable and reliable path to many fulfilling careers. But if you want more than job training—if you want not just an education but a time-tested guide to the journey of life, enriched by the wisdom of millennia—then you should consider a degree in the Humanities at Boyce College.