We’ve all heard it before.

“There are no jobs for Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences majors”

Well, according to Survey results from the Association of American Colleges and Universities, in collaboration with Hart Research Associates, that way of thinking is, to put it bluntly, wrong.

Graduates who majored in the arts, philosophy, religion, literature, history, etc. might make less than someone who majored in a professional program — at least initially. But they’re loving work and loving life — and that, the advocates have argued, is a good start. – The Chronicle of Higher Education.

With time, however, those liberal art graduates eventually catch up to those engineer and science majors, as far as salary is concerned.

“Why do the earnings of liberal arts majors catch up? It’s not because poetry suddenly pays the bills. Midcareer salaries are highest in management and business occupations, as well as professions requiring advanced degrees such as law. Liberal arts majors are more likely than STEM graduates to enter those fields,” according to researcher David Deming, director of the Malcolm Winer Center for Social Policy at Harvard University.

The advantage for STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) majors fades steadily after their first jobs, and by age 40 the earnings of people who majored in social sciences or history have caught up. – The New York Times

According to Associate Professor in World Languages and Cultures at Chapman University, Dr. Polly Hodge,”I believe that upon graduation, liberal arts majors offer society a wide range of interpersonal skills and a well-rounded knowledge of the humanities in order to make a positive contribution to their communities on many levels,” she said.

Majoring in the arts, humanities, and social sciences prepares individuals for fundamental concepts such as, critical thinking, communication, problem solving, and adaptability. Skills that can be used in any area today AND prepares graduates for careers that don’t exist yet.