Hello!
Hoping you can help me asses whether going for a major in History would be a huge mistake or a good idea based on my circumstances. I'm sure you are all tired of these questions, so I appreciate anyone who would take the time to give input. Thank you in advance.
I'm in my late 20s and I'm a first-time college student. I'm looking at transfer universities and possible majors. The History major is toward the top of my list but I have no delusions of grandeur that I would be an academic Historian.
I was told I'm one of the few students at my community college who got perfect scores on both placement tests for reading comprehension and writing, so apparently I'm decent at those skills. It would be nice to further hone skills that I already have an aptitude for. My true love is Geography as I love reading about locations, languages, and cultures, both modern and throughout time. However, most colleges around me don't have Geography programs at all. The ones that do are highly oriented around GIS and programming, which I HATE doing. I feel like History would be a good meeting ground between all of these interests, in addition to expanding my skills into research, which I've always wanted to do but never had the chance.
I'm still not 100% sure about careers. I do know I don't want to go back to retail as that is where I spent my time since graduating high school. I could see myself possibly getting into advertising or PR, writing or editing, becoming a genealogical researcher, working as some type of archivist, or doing investigative work for insurance (I know that's not thrilling but it's something). I can even see myself one day deciding to get more education and becoming a teacher, a paralegal, a lawyer, or a librarian. In other words, I'm pretty flexible and open-minded, but I would like to put writing, reading, and research abilities to good use.
What do you think? According to my goals and aptitudes, would a History major be a good fit? Or a waste time?
Relevant info: My husband's parents paid off all his student loans. I, on the other hand, am not so lucky. But any student loan debt I take on will be our only debt. My husband has a full-time job in a career he loves. So worse case scenario, I won't be homeless on the street or anything.
Without knowing about your immediate circumstances in terms of location, economy and so on, I can only speak in the broadest possible terms, drawing on personal and professional experience that I expect is relatively far removed from your own circumstances. This kind of advice - any advice coming from a forum like this really - is not a substitute for getting advice from someone who knows more about your circumstances.
In any case, in my experience some of the career paths you mention are more or less likely than others. Archives and genealogy are not impossible, but may require more specialist study down the line to be viable options. Without (or even with) a specialist degree, or experience actually working/volunteering in those areas ahead of graduation, I would expect both to be difficult fields to break into. Writing and editing is a very broad field - depending on what you had in mind, they may prove equally difficult. A history degree might well be a good start for any of these options, but you need to be prepared that it would take much more than the degree.
I do know quite a few history graduates who have gone into advertising/PR, and done well. I think history requires a nice balance of creativity and substance, which lends itself well to this kind of career path, though the skill overlap is indirect - you'd need to work at convincing employers why the specific skills you have should matter to them. Not on your list but also a common career path among my acquaintances is government and political work - the ability to gather, analyse and communicate diverse forms of evidence lends itself well to these environments. I don't know of anyone working in insurance, but I can't imagine these skills are irrelevant. In fact, my own (very) biased view is that these skills are quite adaptable - most roles that involve processing information (particularly information which is not purely quantitative) draw on the kinds of skills you develop in a history degree. This is an advantage and disadvantage - there's no defined career path it's leading you towards, but in my view relatively few degrees still provide that kind of certainty. I absolutely wouldn't view history as career suicide, but you do need to think and reflect on how you are building marketable skills, and be prepared to build experience and knowledge beyond your studies in the field you're targeting.
History student here: with a love for geography, Lang, and culture you night be better with archeology or anthropology. I’ve seen history programs through the SW United States and they involve mostly help you(outside of knowing history) with the ability to retain info on lots of things you have read/heard , be able to research on your own, argumentative skills, and comprehension skills. Though my own research I’ve done I’ve had to look at a lot of geography. But, the history I was looking at was mostly a archeological site and the history came from me using more modern sources to track possible movement of peoples from southern China to SE Asia. Research that I’m sure a archeology or anthropology major could also do.