On another note, it’s a shame we can’t encourage people to double major within a reasonable amount of time in college. I could see myself being the one to say “history major? what are you going to do with that?” But that doesn’t mean I don’t think people shouldn’t study history. Not to mention, getting a degree in X may not be the most practical path to a vocational career to begin with.

And about engineers/lawyers making more…it really depends. Plenty of english lit majors may end up going into sales, or software, or be high paid toolbags for newspapers. Being an engineer doesn’t necessarily pay that much, it has the potential to do so if you make it into mgmt but obviously that’s not everyone, same as the english lit major becoming a high paid journalist isn’t everyone. For the moment engineering may seem more stable, but that could change in an instant. I know a lot of out of work lawyers right now.

I agree with you about advertising or other fields. But, it’s just harder to get a job now in anything.

Besides, most HS history teachers won’t have history degrees, they’ll have ed degrees. Sad but true but such is the path to certification. And chances are ze won’t be able to compete for the independent school job because the minimum requirement these days is an MA. Tell them to become a) a paralegal to see if they want to go to law school b) find a finance training program (Goldman Sachs for years only hired from Harvard’s history department for their training program c) advertising – I’ve never met anybody who had any kind of job in advertising who had a degree in it. They all had degrees in psych, history, art, or English. In other words, any field where thinking and persuading matter.

As far as the accusation that “Others spent their years partying” goes, I would not even dignify it with a rebuttal. You Mr Brooks spent the early aughts partying. Where was the high dudgeon when Reagan, Bush 1 and Bush 2 were spending us into oblivion ?

But I also think it comes from a very real cost-benefit analysis that the student has to do. If you are going to school for four years (that could stretch into five), you are going to have some student debt, you want to walk away with something that society values and you want a degree that will get you a job (to pay off the debt). So sure, to a nineteen year old, a degree like accounting or hotel management sounds like more of a sure thing than History or English.

I actively try to discourage students from thinking of themselves as potential High School History Teachers Historiann. In the upper Midwest we have an over supply. Every year Woebegone State graduates way more Social Studies History Teaching majors than there are jobs. I think thats the worst possible vocational delusion right now, short of earning a PhD in History and expecting to have your pick of R1 jobs.