The Interfolio Blog

We help people apply to graduate programs and medical school. And because of that, we spend a lot of time talking to students and applicants across a wide range of majors and specialties. Increasingly, undergraduates, graduate applicants and Ph.D. candidates struggle with the choice between majors and programs that are focused on a particular career or choosing a field of study that is more liberal arts in nature and is not directly industry-focused.
There is a powerful myth that what you study in college deeply narrows the scope of career options that will be available beyond the classroom. Many have argued that as a result, liberal arts majors have declined substantially in recent decades. According to an address given by W.R. Connor, President of The National Humanities Center, between 1966 and 1993, majors in the humanities declined anywhere from ten to fifteen percent. It seems that the History, English, or Art History majors find themselves being type-cast as teachers or museum curators before they have explored what types of opportunities are available to them; this surely makes some majors less appealing. Despite this decline, students who graduate with less recognizable majors don't appear to have any fewer opportunities than those who graduate with very popular, career-oriented majors.
A recent post for Higher Education Weblog argues that employers find real world experience and a strong liberal arts background to be an extremely valuable combination. The article cites many examples of individuals who successfully pursued careers that range widely from what they studied in undergrad liberal arts programs, but that still depend heavily on the experience they gained in critical thinking, communication and writing. In fact, liberal arts training can help graduates excel beyond their career-trained peers, as one interviewee noted "my liberal arts background will have a major impact on my ability to succeed in management positions."
This is not to argue that liberal arts students shouldn't consider what career they would enjoy upon graduation. Most liberal arts programs and graduate degree programs in the humanities leave room for elective work that can be done in more career-focused areas like computer science, marketing and business management. While the liberal arts major is a strong base for anyone looking to develop employable skill-sets, it is equally as important that graduate and undergraduate students focus on making their own career path and gaining as much experience as possible in the process. As the Higher Ed Weblog article notes,  "Job opportunities are forged by the individual, not by the program which one follows in college."