I do agree with you that humanities courses are what really educate but do they prepare for a career? Obviously, a technical engineering qualification will get you a technical engineering job, but I think you need more to survive the future than just a high wage. Many engineers know textbook engineering but when faced with real world problems in their field, they just quote the textbook answer with no understanding of what it means when things go wrong, so I'm told. Likewise, they have no worldly wisdom or dare I say it, common sense, when it comes to thinking outside the box or dealing with real world issues.

Likewise, many humanities students end up teaching. Of course we need teachers, but I think we need teachers who have also spent time in the real world, perhaps working in business to give their subject experience and application.

My tip to all students is to spend time traveling and even living abroad. Working abroad helps also. But, to do so, don't spend all the time with Americans but instead meet locals, meet those who have never been to America, meet those who are successful in their own country, learn about the cultural norms and customs that are so different from our own. Learn that in some countries asking what somebody does for a living is bad manners, like asking how much money someone makes here. Learn that success in other cultures is often measured in how many children, or how much travel outside their own country, and not about career. Learn that there are more ways to do something than the American way and people are happy when they are different from America.

Some of the best things I have done in my life have involved travel. Some of the best memories have been made outside USA. Some of the richest experiences haven't involved wealth or money.

Travel indeed is one of the best forms of education for anyone, college educated or not.

A well-rounded education is always a positive but knowledge of humanities subjects can easily be accomplished by reading on one's own.

Perhaps the best approach is to major in a subject that can land you a real job and minor in the humanities.

What's the point of getting a degree in Sociology only to end-up working as a barista at Starbucks?

A college education costs a fortune these days. One needs a decent return on their investment of time and money. Humanities don't deliver. It's a business decision.

"A college education costs a fortune these days. One needs a decent return on their investment of time and money. Humanities don't deliver. It's a business decision."

That's not completely true. There are affordable educations out there, they just aren't UC schools. And there are plenty of well paying careers out there that aren't STEM, law, medicine or business. You just have to dig a bit to find them, they aren't dropped in your lap like engineers.

"What's the point of getting a degree in Sociology only to end-up working as a barista at Starbucks?"

This is a tired trope. There are plenty of people in well paying careers who have degrees in social sciences and other non-STEM degrees. They just take a bit of work to find and adapt yourself to them.

I was a math major in college and took courses in law and morals, music history, European history, anthropology, and economics. What I got out of these courses are not just knowledge in these fields, but, more importantly, the different ways of presenting evidences and making arguments to establish a thesis in these fields. You can't learn these skills just by reading or watching somebody doing it. Taking these courses forced me to practice making these arguments myself and facing critiques from fellow students and instructors. These courses are absolutely worth the time I spent on them.

It is certainly sensible to consider market demand for future occupations when selecting a major. However, as someone else pointed out, there are many career paths for humanity majors too.

Having a business degree is always a good ticket to a viable professional career and taking a few humanities courses along the way will make one a better-rounded individual.

Majoring in the humanities is OK if one is actively pursuing a career in academia, journalism, or literature.

On the other hand, if I had a nickel for every societal low achiever who previoysly majored in the Behavioral Sciences or the Humanities, I'd be wealthier than Jeff Bezos.

Not everyone needs to go to college just for the sake of going to college and sometimes attending a good vocational school pays better dividends over the long haul.

If such were not the case, we would be having fewer discussions about low-income housing necessities, vast salary discrepancies, economy-based homelessness, and the need for more government-funded social assistance programs.

It is the moral and ethical responsibility of anyone living in America to apply themselves in a productive manner that does not create any additional economic burdens on those who are self-sustaining by having made better career choices in their lives.

BTW...I tip generously at Starbucks purely out of sympathy and sadness for those who did not apply themselves.