Philosophy will help you in whatever career you choose to pursue. Here are 11 reasons why.
| 1 | There is extensive empirical evidence that philosophy promotes the development of strong logical, analytical and general reasoning skills that are valuable in all walks of life (see e.g. this recent article). |
| 2 | A large number of studies show that philosophy majors consistently have the highest mean scores on the Graduate Records Examination standardized test (GRE) out of any discipline across the humanities and sciences (see e.g. this table from the American Philosophical Association (APA) website). |
| 3 | Philosophy majors also perform excellently on admissions tests to law schools (see e.g. this table from the APA website) and business schools (see e.g. this table summarizing data from the Graduate Management Admissions Council). |
| 4 | There is extensive evidence that philosophy majors tend to earn more over their lifetimes than majors from any other humanities field (see e.g. this table from the APA website). |
| 5 | This Wall Street Journal study on `degrees that pay you back’ lists philosophy as the top earning humanities major, ranking above subjects including chemistry, accounting and business management for mid-career earning potential. See also this study from The Atlantic. |
| 6 | Philosophy trains the following skills to an extremely high level.
These skills serve you well no matter what you end up doing. Many philosophy majors go on to law school, medical school and business school. Others work for consulting firms, think tanks and non-profit organizations, while others go on to graduate school in philosophy or one of the many disciplines with which it intersects. In short, philosophy provides powerful domain general tools that open many doors. |
| 7 | Recently, a number of philosophers have taken on prominent roles at big tech companies, where they work on issues related to the societal and ethical implications of AI (see e.g. this blog post). More generally, there is growing evidence that tech companies place high value on the analytical and creative problem solving skills of philosophy graduates. See this interview with the co-founder of the Slack (themselves a philosophy major). |
| 8 | Philosophy teaches domain general reasoning skills that apply broadly in almost every professional context. As such, a training in philosophy is highly flexible, adaptable, and resilient to automation. |
| 9 | Here are five reasons that philosophers make great entrepreneurs. |
| 10 | Philosophy is also a very strong pre-med major. This study by the American Medical School Association indicates that philosophy majors have extremely strong medical school acceptance rates, compared both to other humanities majors and also to sciences. |
| 11 | Over the years, many well-known people from a wide range of fields have majored in or studied philosophy during college. See e.g. this table from the APA website. |
