Regret, Humanities, and the University
Why students regret their degrees and thoughts on the liberal arts
Universities have a regret problem. According to a statistic released in May in a Federal Reserve survey entitled “Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2021,” 37% of bachelor's degree holders said they regret their choice of major.
The survey revealed some other interesting regrets about higher education. While only a small percentage regretted going to college at all, 24% wish they would have attended a different school. Only 56% of graduates younger than 30 think the benefits of a degree outweigh the costs, a sharp contrast to older generations.
Public skepticism towards university education underscores the changing calculus of obtaining a degree and the value a bachelor's degree brings once obtained. 1 Furthermore, as tuition increases, necessitating a greater student focus on careers, it’s the liberal arts and other “unapplied” fields that hurt the most.
The Purpose of the University
Ask ten people about the purpose of a university and you’ll get ten answers. Some students see it as a means to a lucrative career. Others view it like the Greek Academies of old, a place to expand the mind and debate the intricacies of a chosen discipline. Many treat school as a strictly social endeavor and prioritize friendships and networking. Various professors and administrators might see the purpose of a university to publish research, lead civic engagement in a community, or provide a safe and welcoming place for a variety of students.
Who is right? The short answer is everyone. The university can and does serve many purposes simultaneously allowing students, professors, and administrators to pursue their personal and professional goals under the umbrella of the school.
Lately, however, universities seem to have two other goals in mind: growing their endowment and becoming a luxury resort for their students. Schools build gorgeous new facilities—spacious student accommodation, top-tier dining halls, and on-campus recreation—all for the purpose of attracting students, especially wealthy students who might one day make sizable donations to the university, thus continuing the cycle. 2
At the same time, university administrators (ie. not professors) continue to rise in comparison to faculty and represent an increasingly large part of the university budget.
More staff, better facilities, larger endowments—all of this comes at a cost, a cost laid mostly at the feet of students. The price tag attached to an undergraduate degree has gone up so much that it’s increasingly difficult for students to think of the university as anything other than a career accelerator. Few degrees are truly worth $30,000+ in loans, and while a student can still have a mind-expanding experience, find a group of life-long friends, and accomplish many other worthwhile objectives, by necessity, a career has to be top of mind.
Down Go the Liberal Arts
When the cost of a degree rises as it has, the disciplines that suffer most are the ones with the weakest ties to career paths. Students in the liberal arts, the “unapplied” sciences, and performance/fine arts often think less about income than other objectives be it a passion for a certain topic, mastery of a discipline, or curiosity about the world. Consider the following graph below which shows the change in awarded degrees over the last several years.
Those that are growing the most have close ties to specific career paths, while those that don’t are declining. 3
The problem is particularly noticeable in the humanities. Looking at a twenty-year window shows that the decline is even more dramatic. Most humanities disciplines have seen a 30-60% drop in graduates in the last two decades.
It’s hard to feel too surprised by any of these trends. School simply costs too much to treat it as anything other than a career platform.
Where does that leave disciplines like the liberal arts? As someone who majored in the broadest of fields, “Interdisciplinary Humanities”, when I saw the chart above, I felt compelled to pick up the proverbial quill to defend my academic training.
But what can be said of the liberal arts that hasn’t been said before? Liberal arts apologetics have always made compelling arguments for the study of humanities, the first and most common being the importance of art and culture in our society. Without art (and by extension the study of art) life would have no soul.
Another argument in favor of the liberal arts positions the discipline as a hedge against radicalism and unethical behavior. When Facebook accelerates a genocide in Myanmar, pundits are quick to quip that Zuckerburg should have taken more humanities classes. Liberal arts education helps us learn from the past, have a greater awareness of other cultures, and teaches philosophical principles that should stop bad ideas and behavior from entering into government, business, and society as a whole.
Neither of these arguments is apparently compelling enough to reverse the trend of declining humanities degrees, though.
The Capitalist Defense of Humanities
There is a third defense of the humanities (and really any less career-applicable major), one focused on the skillset acquired in the liberal arts like writing, deep reading, and cultural awareness—capabilities that might look attractive to a potential employer. I call this the capitalist defense of the humanities.
The capitalist defense became popular during the 2010s with books like George Anders' titled “You Can Do Anything: The Surprising Power of a ‘Useless’ Liberal Arts Education.” The main argument of this book and others like it contends that the humanities are better suited for the pace of innovation that constantly changes the workplace than other majors. Businesses are facing new challenges that won’t hit university curriculum fast enough to produce graduates who can solve the problems, Anders reasons.
Therefore, liberal arts graduates, who have less training in specific technical skills but a better understanding of complex systems, interdisciplinary thinking, and communication, will actually be better equipped for new economies than their peers in business and engineering. In other words, the world needs more generalists, not specialists, for the challenges of the future.
While I think Anders is right about the need for generalists, I don’t believe the humanities have a corner on this market. Many disciplines, including STEM, teach frameworks for thinking, not just specific skills.
The biggest, flaw, however, is that most humanities students don’t care about careers or money (at least they don’t when they choose the major). They’re part of that group who view the university as a mechanism for learning and expanding the mind, not as a launching pad for a career. No humanities student with any sanity thinks they’re going to get rich studying history, literature, and philosophy, nor are they thinking about their potential fit in the global economy. To a liberal arts student, discussions about careers, income, and capitalism almost feel dirty, like betraying the arts.
So while Anders and others may be right, humanities skills can translate into business acumen, no one will study the humanities for that purpose. Most won’t even realize these skills while they’re obtaining their degree because humanities departments are so poor at discussing career paths. As the data shows, humanities grads have some of the lowest lifetime earnings, likely because they flounder in dead-end, entry-level jobs as they learn about the world of work only after they’re swimming in it.
Minimizing Regret
Let’s recap. College is getting more expensive, making degrees like the liberal arts less prudent. Fewer students are studying those disciplines, and those that do study the humanities experience more regret than their peers.
In this narrative, regret is the final step. What if instead of approaching regret as a backward-looking emotion, we anticipated regret and used it in the initial decision-making process?
Most decisions focus on the potential payoff, not the potential regrets. We reason, “if I make X decision, I’ll obtain Y outcome.” This model assumes humans make completely rational, cold-hearted decisions and will do any logical X to acquire Y. If one’s goal is to become rich, there are many quicker ways than going to college. There are also many illegal ways. However, other considerations like prestige, one’s interests and passions, and moral obligations lead to them choosing a safer X in pursuit of Y; we rarely think of a single outcome, balancing many at the same time and muddling the payoff model of decision making.
On the other hand, anticipating regret makes it easier to isolate the variables and focus on one key issue. The simplest way to frame regret before making a decision is with a yes/no question. Will I regret not doing X at the end of my life?
An example of this question at play in my life was the decision to move out of Utah. I distinctly recall thinking that if I didn’t muster up the bravery to leave home, I would regret it forever. The decision then became a fairly easy one. If I wanted to avoid regret, I had to do it.
There’s another way to frame the regret question. I’m moving forward with X. How can I minimize my regret? In this case, the decision has been made, but the outcomes are not yet apparent.
Regarding our family’s move to Maryland, once we made the decision, it was a helpful exercise to think through potential regrets. We would regret the move if we weren’t able to travel home as needed. We’d have regrets if we moved this far and didn’t take advantage of travel opportunities up and down the East Coast. Since we’ve lived here, we’ve prioritized lengthy stays back home and lots of travel.
When someone is deciding on a college major, they can ask both regret questions. Am I so passionate about X that I’ll regret not studying it when I’m 80 years old? If I’m going to study X, what can I do to cut down on my regrets? What disappointments will I have if I graduate and haven’t accomplished X?
Mid-way through my sophomore year, I asked myself these questions (or rather, the regrets sprung upon me). I had declared my major in the humanities, and my expected payoff and goal were similar to that of my peers— to become a better writer, read a lot of interesting literature, and gain a better appreciation for art and film.
However, it dawned on me that my biggest regret of all would be to leave school without a decent job. The thought paralyzed me and caused a lot of anxiety, but ultimately led to internships and additional coursework to prepare myself. I was able to accomplish my original goal while also minimizing my regrets. 4
My wife had the opposite experience. After a miserable two years of studying engineering and business, she recognized she needed to change majors. She had two options: fine art and landscape management. Art is her passion, but she realized her biggest regret would be not painting regularly and selling her art. Since she was very interested in biology, floral design, and horticulture, she chose landscape management as a major and launched an Etsy shop to sell her art.
Six years later, she still spends around twenty hours a week on her art and has sold over 3,000 pieces. She didn’t need an art degree to accomplish that.
Advice and Reassurance to Prospective Students
If I roll back the clock and find myself again at school, would I still study the humanities? Absolutely. I’d study it for the reasons I highlighted at the beginning. Literature, ideas, culture, and art speak to me in a way no other subject can.
Yet importantly, I was fortunate enough to graduate debt free through a series of scholarships and pell grants. I also worked my tail off my last two years and completed four internships that gave me a solid resume. Finding that first job was still incredibly difficult and my humanities rarely did me any favors (though certain employers did recognize the value of generalists).
Had life not worked out this way, I can’t honestly say my answer would still be the same. I think I would have been a voracious reader even without my degree. I don’t think I would have enjoyed college nearly as much in another major, though. I’m grateful not to have any regrets.
In the workplace, I’ve found that a college major (and the university one attends) is a little like an ACT/SAT score. You need a score, but once you have it, no one asks how well you did. A bachelor’s degree is a worthwhile goal, but once obtained, no one really cares what you studied, especially after you land your first job.
Furthermore, not only does a major not dictate what you’ll do for the rest of your life, it also doesn’t dictate how well you’ll do in life. It’s not very popular to extol the merits of hard work, but there’s no better substitute. I believe that for driven, ambitious people, somewhat regardless of natural talent, success will follow not because of your college major but despite your college major. So why not study something you’re passionate about? Life is a very long game, even if it doesn’t feel that way in college.
Advice is hard to give and every scenario is unique, but I’ll offer these three pieces of general advice to a prospective student contemplating their field of study.
If you’re interested in a field without direct ties to a career path or don’t yet know what to study, don’t go into serious debt. You will find a job after college, but none that will make $50,000-$100,000 an easy feat to pay off. Go to a state college or spend two years at a junior college or community college if necessary. It may not look sexy to your friends, but debt isn’t very sexy either, especially when it precludes you from living your best life after college.
Only study a theoretical field like the humanities, unapplied sciences, or fine arts if you’re truly passionate about it or know it’s a stepping stone to a professional graduate degree. If you can imagine yourself equally happy studying something with better career potential, choose that route and consider studying your passionate, less lucrative interest as a minor or on the side. Develop habits that will help you appreciate your passions for life.
Walk yourself through the regret questions before you start school and mid-way through. What fears do you have about life after college? Use your potential regrets and fears to course correct and minimize your regret.
Bachelor’s degrees are still the main credential for the workplace. That may change in the future as corporations no longer require degrees. Additionally, trade schools offer a totally different credential that can lead to high-paying jobs.
For more on this, I suggest Malcomb Gladwell. He has some strong opinions on the lavish university spending and endowments in Season 1 of his Revisionist History podcast.
There are, of course, exceptions. Recreation and Leisure is down over the last several years because COVID-19 obliterated tourism. Engineering is down while Computer Science is up, likely due to the outsized paychecks CS can demand.
I should also note here that I think obtaining a job and working for one’s income is a worthwhile endeavor. Cynicism about the world of work is common in the humanities, and humanities students lean progressive in their politics, causing them to care more about noble causes like income inequality, exploitation, and negative externalities. Try as one might to fight for alternatives, the surest way to avoid poverty is to work. Is it perpetuating a flawed system? Maybe, yet I don’t think an individual should bear the burdens of society’s structural flaws, especially when given the opportunity to better themselves within said society.
I received a BA in History and then taught school while completing an MA in Family Relations and a doctorate in Education. I taught religious education courses (LDS seminary and institute) for 42 years. I had a very rewarding career while supporting a family of seven by careful budgeting and the help of a good wife who was budget conscious, and a full-time homemaker. I found all three college degrees to be fulfilling, while preparing me for a lifetime of learning about things that matter most. Hooray for the Humanities.