B.A. Philosophy/English, Options besides law school? Forum

[scifiguy]

Hi, what's up people?

For those of us who are humanities majors (I'm Phil/English), what options are there for us other than law school? I've considered a Ph.D. in philosophy and becoming a professor or teaching high school English. Those are the only two so far.

I'm a junior right now. Haven't taken the LSAT, but have a 3.5 GPA.

Worried about the legal economy, but also not sure of what exists out there for people with a Bachelor's in humanties?

Have some of you worked before law school with a humanities background? If so, what fields do you work in? What options do people know of for people like "us." Thanks for people's thoughts.

[NoodleyOne]

Starbucks. McDonald's. Etc.

[scifiguy]

Starbucks. McDonald's. Etc.

Thanks. I think I kind of knew that already. lol. I could get a job at those places w/o college too!

[EliotRosewater]

I'm a recent graduate with a gpa a little bit above a 3.5 and a philosophy degree. I'm doing AmeriCorps for a year or two before I apply to graduate school. I was set on law school while I was in undergrad but at this point I'm leaning more toward a Master's in Public Policy degree for a number of reasons. There are a ton of AmeriCorps jobs and if you're okay with living off of very little money it's a great segue into the non-profit sector. If you have internship and extra-curricular experience that will help out a whole lot in the AmeriCorps application process.

It's something to consider and it's something that can help you get a few years of work experience on your resume before going into some graduate program (law school or other).

[WhiteyCakes]

Pretty much academia or grade-school teaching

[dazzleberry]

Post-Bacc into something in science, and be happy that you avoided law school. Or, just get a BS in something useful (EE, Chem, etc); it'll only take a year more than law school.

[Swimp]

Post-Bacc into something in science, and be happy that you avoided law school. Or, just get a BS in something useful (EE, Chem, etc); it'll only take a year more than law school.

Postbac is underrated. I know a handful of polisci/philosophy/english majors who are now in medical school.

You could also get a consulting job and then go to business school after a few years.

[ksllaw]

I know of English majors who did editing. I'm not sure how hard it is to break into or what salaries there are, but I know of two acquaintances who had English BAs and did that.

[ksllaw]

Post-Bacc into something in science, and be happy that you avoided law school. Or, just get a BS in something useful (EE, Chem, etc); it'll only take a year more than law school.

Postbac is underrated. I know a handful of polisci/philosophy/english majors who are now in medical school.

You could also get a consulting job and then go to business school after a few years.

dude, seriously?

From postbac to medical school?! Wow. It depends I guess on a person's aptitude. Some may not be able to handle the science classes.

What type of a consulting job could a philosophy person get though? I'm a humanities person too.

[WhiteyCakes]

Shouldn't this be a conversation between you and your school's career services office?

[scifiguy]

Shouldn't this be a conversation between you and your school's career services office?

I have an academic advisor. We don't really discuss these things. Instead it's more like what I need to graduate and stuff like that. She mostly makes sure that I am on track with course work.

I've talked to a couple of professors as well and they are definitely not knowledgeable about industry. They seem are helpful when it comes to academia jobs and outlook, but not really anything outside of it. I had really wanted to do law for a while until I started reading about the news of law schools posting misleading employment data. The law economy is something that worries me.

[scifiguy]

I'm a recent graduate with a gpa a little bit above a 3.5 and a philosophy degree. I'm doing AmeriCorps for a year or two before I apply to graduate school. I was set on law school while I was in undergrad but at this point I'm leaning more toward a Master's in Public Policy degree for a number of reasons. There are a ton of AmeriCorps jobs and if you're okay with living off of very little money it's a great segue into the non-profit sector. If you have internship and extra-curricular experience that will help out a whole lot in the AmeriCorps application process.

It's something to consider and it's something that can help you get a few years of work experience on your resume before going into some graduate program (law school or other).

Oh, cool.

Never considered public policy. Very interesting. Yeah, philosophy grads are kind of looked at funny I thinnk.

Our studies are more rigorous than most of the humanities and social science type degrees (I honestly think it's the toughest of the bunch and requires the most analytical thinking), but employers seem to think it's the most useless. I think I remember reading some article about the 10 most "useless degrees" and I think women's studies and like philosophy were on that list.

I'm not sure about AmeriCorps. I'll look into it though. when you say it's little money, do you mind sharing how much you're talking about?

I wonder if people can work as a paralegal or in government work with my background?

[scifiguy]

I know of English majors who did editing. I'm not sure how hard it is to break into or what salaries there are, but I know of two acquaintances who had English BAs and did that.

My minor is actually in English, but I still have time to do a double BA.

Post-Bacc into something in science, and be happy that you avoided law school. Or, just get a BS in something useful (EE, Chem, etc); it'll only take a year more than law school.

Postbac is underrated. I know a handful of polisci/philosophy/english majors who are now in medical school.

You could also get a consulting job and then go to business school after a few years.

I'm actually a UG now, so post-bac wouldn't be needed if I was interested in those majors. I sat in on an engineering class and honestly the material was so boring that I couldn't imagine doing it for work or even studying it. I'm really unsure about pre-med.

Yikes! I mean...I'd have to really change course and take a lot of new classes. My math background beyond like Algebra 2 is a bit shakey. I've only taken statistics here in college and haven't had Calc since high school. That would be a major shift.

Why didn't those people you mentiond earlier just do pre-med from the start out of curiosity?

[minnbills]

You could intern your way into a business job.

[R86]

Why didn't those people you mentiond earlier just do pre-med from the start out of curiosity?

Because 18 and 19 year old kids aren't known for their wisdom and foresight.

They probablty had some bullshit intro level English class reading Hemingway short stories (or, more realistically, fucking Chuck Palahniuk novels) and the professor was just so cool that they knew English was right for them.

[R86]

Sorry. I guess I'm a bit bitter about my English & Philosophy majors and how little I actually learned.

To answer the OP: I found a good job as support staff in a mid-sized firm. From here I can keep doing what I'm doing, become a paralegal, or go to law school if the scholarship is right.

I could also, potentially, transfer this "office" experience into a job at another office, be it an admissions office at a college or who-the-fuck-knows-where.

[Swimp]

From postbac to medical school?! Wow. It depends I guess on a person's aptitude. Some may not be able to handle the science classes.

What type of a consulting job could a philosophy person get though? I'm a humanities person too.

Well yeah, it goes without saying that if you can't handle organic chemistry or something, med school probably isn't in the cards.

And consulting firms take almost anybody with good grades who interviews well. Seriously, like half of my closest friends ended up at consulting firms right out of college (everything from MBB to smaller boutiques) and we graduated right into the teeth of the recession. I can only imagine it's easier now.

Why didn't those people you mentiond earlier just do pre-med from the start out of curiosity?

Because that's not the stuff they were interested in when they were in college.

[IAFG]

You could intern your way into a business job.

Or at least intern your way into knowing if you actually want a business job.

I know it's rough out there, but why do liberal arts majors assume they're totally unemployable?

[minnbills]

You could intern your way into a business job.

Or at least intern your way into knowing if you actually want a business job.

I know it's rough out there, but why do liberal arts majors assume they're totally unemployable?

That was the impression I always got as a liberal arts major. In fact, I think the first time I heard someone say something different was the career services at my law school when I was visiting for the first time.

[IAFG]

You could intern your way into a business job.

Or at least intern your way into knowing if you actually want a business job.

I know it's rough out there, but why do liberal arts majors assume they're totally unemployable?

That was the impression I always got as a liberal arts major. In fact, I think the first time I heard someone say something different was the career services at my law school when I was visiting for the first time.

Granted, I graduated in 2006, but I went to career services and signed up for on-campus recruiting (all preselect) and got an offer for every interview I did. With my shitty lib arts degree, mediocre GPA and Big State U alma mater. The weird thing was, none of my peers were even interviewing. I guess they didn't know it was a thing.

[bk1]

Granted, I graduated in 2006, but I went to career services and signed up for on-campus recruiting (all preselect) and got an offer for every interview I did. With my shitty lib arts degree, mediocre GPA and Big State U alma mater. The weird thing was, none of my peers were even interviewing. I guess they didn't know it was a thing.

I think that's a lot of it, but I imagine it is waaaay worse now. And it seems that, at least at my UG, most job fairs were geared towards internship stuff that wouldn't necessarily lead to full time employment.

[FlanAl]

I would imagine things are better now than they were when I graduated. I think that the biggest factor is to be geographically mobile. Also even though your UG might not have the best career services, name or alumni network do your best to take full advantage of everything your school has. Most of my buddies who landed good jobs during the recession did so via alumni networking. A good number of them bagged fancyish jobs.

[TheThriller]

OP, I am planning on going to law school and currently sending out apps. But if I have a change of heart I am currently resume dumping any job I am qualified for on usajobs.gov.

And I would venture to say my majors are even less useful than yours (not to mention my GPA is low)

[IAFG]

Granted, I graduated in 2006, but I went to career services and signed up for on-campus recruiting (all preselect) and got an offer for every interview I did. With my shitty lib arts degree, mediocre GPA and Big State U alma mater. The weird thing was, none of my peers were even interviewing. I guess they didn't know it was a thing.

I think that's a lot of it, but I imagine it is waaaay worse now. And it seems that, at least at my UG, most job fairs were geared towards internship stuff that wouldn't necessarily lead to full time employment.

It definitely won't lead to full time employment if you don't do it and start thinking about employment for the first time the April or May before you graduate.

[IAFG]

I think that the biggest factor is to be geographically mobile.

Oh, so true. I didn't get two offers in any one city. But wouldn't it be better to be employed in Kansas City than unemployed in Minneapolis? Or fuck it, just go to UMN law school at sticker