Should You Major in Social Science?
A Professor Weighs In.
As I was surfing Medium the other day, this question appeared and it gave me pause. It’s a good question. As someone who has just about 14 years of social science study under my belt (that’s no joke…I have a PhD in Sociology…it took a long time!), who has seen the good, the bad, and the ugly side of social science education, and who has also studied the humanities in college, I can tell you the answer that still bubbles up immediately is “oh yes.”
Here’s 5 good reasons majoring in social sciences could be an excellent idea.
1. Social Sciences are the Study of Us…and that’s interesting.
The good news about social sciences is that if you’re a living, breathing human being, you already have some expertise in them and isn’t it always good to go in with a leg up on the game? Social sciences as a whole focus on the study of people: how they think and what motivates them (psychology), how they organize themselves and form and reform life lived together (sociology), how they govern themselves (political science & government), how they communicate with each other (communications studies), how they develop markets and interact with each other fiscally (economics), where and how they live (geography and demography), what humans already have done (history). There’s even a science (cartography) that studies how to literally map where people live. There are many, many others, each with a unique lens on some facet of the human experience.
Because it’s us, the topics of social sciences immediately relate to our lives. We can see ourselves, today, in all of these topics. We can be invested in our studies because whatever essay we write, thought we develop, or discussion we have will be relevant right here and now. Majoring in something interesting is imperative if you hope to make your way through higher ed purposefully. Why would you spend so much time, effort, and money otherwise?
2. Social sciences can get you an interesting career…or at least an interesting job.
Very often in high school, I remember asking both my geometry and calculus teachers, “okay, but when am I actually going to use this in real life?” No shade to math, but unless you’re an engineer of some sort, I’ve yet to find a practical use for 1) functions, 2) the derivative, or 3) cosine and tangent and yet I spend hours trying to drill that into my brain.
This is a long way of saying, if you have a clear career path chosen when entering into post-secondary education, go. on. with. your. bad. self. and accept my hearty handshake for being way more together than most of us were. But if you’re still finding your way into a career path (I am 20+ years into my career and still finding my way), or at least a job path, social sciences offer a great opportunity to explore a huge range of ideas and approaches to understanding the world that often lead directly into applied, practical job paths. It’s like joining the Merchant Marines of academia: see the world, learn something, then figure yourself out.
The extra good news here is that traditionally “scientific” fields like medicine, engineering, and business, to name a few, are starting to acknowledge the value of students’ also studying “life and society” alongside their more technical education requirements. So, while social sciences won’t teach you how to build a bridge or do heart surgery, they will teach you how to figure out where to put the bridge so that people use it or explain why certain cultures support organ donation while others think it's taboo.
3. Social sciences will challenge you.
When I began studying sociology for real, I regularly thought, “This is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to think about.” For some reason, we generally assume that because the topics of study are social, studying social sciences are simple or easy. No. Perhaps the greatest transferrable value of studying social science, sociology specifically, in my life has been the development of a point of view, the ability to critically approach an event, competing theories, or an opinion, and articulate a written or spoken response to it that moves my own (and maybe others’) understanding of it further. How cool is that?
There’s no doubt that you have to read a lot. You do have to write a lot. And you have to develop a point of view and make an argument, every day, all day long. That said, I’ve yet to have one personal or professional accomplishment that I really treasure that does not draw on at least one of those, and usually draws on all of those, abilities. In short, social sciences can make you one of the more interesting people at a dinner party and a force to be reckoned with at Thanksgiving when that uncle starts spouting off about something that sounds pretty misogynistic. (Why is it that we always know who they are but they never do? It’s because they didn’t study social science, I’m sure of it).
4. Social sciences will root you in the reality in which you live.
As I continue to age, right along with my peers, I’m astounded by the moments my friends might have when they see with “new eyes” the reality of the world: most of us are middle-class, most of us are kinda happy, most of us have regrets about a relationship or a job that has hemmed us in, we’re getting older, Social Security won’t be for Gen X what it is for the Boomers (and thanks for that, by the way, Boomers). All of these “realities” I somehow feel I got clued into early by learning how to read the “sign of the times.”
Sociology, and our social sciences cousins, aren’t for the faint of heart. We study data on what people are doing today, what they did 100 years ago, why they’re doing it, and to what end. It’s often not a romantic story and yet it’s always a compelling read. More importantly, it gives me clues and insights into the here and now. I can see the Matrix for what it is. And even though it means I have to live in the bowels of what’s left of the burnt-out earth (I’m really leaning in to The Matrix allusions here), I’d rather do that than be blissfully(?) ignorant of what’s real. Yes, it often sucks. Racism and misogyny are terrible for individuals and destructive to society. Social inequality is the bane of our existence. Hegemony and political brutalism make my blood boil. But I’d rather know about them and what they mean for me and my loved ones than not know.
If we know what’s real, we can change it.
5. Social sciences will sharpen and inform your worldview.
I often tell my Soc 101 students that sociologists aren’t in the business of telling anyone what they should believe. That’s true for all social sciences. We’re not a moral or ethical system. We don’t prescribe beliefs or ideologies. We aim to understand what is happening in the here and now and, maybe if we’re lucky, provide some reasonable explanations for what we’re collectively dealing with at the moment.
And while my sociological project has nothing to do with telling you what you should do next, the information and ideas we discuss can only force each person presented with the ideas to consider their next move. Social sciences are not inherently activist but they do often provide fertile intellectual ground for people to determine how and when they show up in the world and for what. I never truly understood my religion, even after studying theology in college and beyond, until I understood its place in the world and, therefore, my place within that institution in the world. I never considered the role that gender played in the formation of my own personal identity and how I view the world and those who “run” it. Studying economics conceptually left me cold until supply chains, and then the markets, were disrupted by COVID-19.
While social sciences will never tell you what you should do, once with that information, it’s so much easier to know who to vote for, what to watch, and what kind of world you ultimately want to live in.
But will social sciences get me a job?
Look — if you want a six-seven-figure income immediately out of college, then you’re chances are long.
But isn’t the more interesting question: why is the normative paradigm of owning a house with a white picket fence and a mid-size SUV in the driveway, which that six-seven figures will guarantee, so influential in determining what you’re going to do with your life?
If you agree, I’ll see you in Sociology 101. You won’t regret it for long.
