Key Takeaways
- Experts recommend three majors for students who want to thrive in an AI-dominated workplace.
- None of these majors mention AI; one expert said AI was “too narrow” of a field to major in.
- Computer science also didn’t make the list because of high unemployment rates.
What would you study if you were in college today?
For many college students, majoring in computer science is no longer a job guarantee. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s labor market data, recent computer science graduates have an unemployment rate of about 6.1%, slightly higher than the 5.7% overall rate for recent graduates.
Not all hope is lost. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicted that software developer jobs will grow 15% from 2024 to 2034, about five times the average for all jobs. So long-term demand for computer science is strong, even as recent graduates face an uphill climb trying to enter the field.
According to a new report from The Wall Street Journal, experts recommend three alternative majors instead of computer science for students who want to thrive in an AI-dominated workplace: anthropology, mathematics and philosophy. The commonality between these different areas of study is that they thrive where AI falls short.
For example, anthropology is “the study of what makes us human,” according to the American Anthropological Association. That inquiry feels newly urgent as AI reshapes work and forces people to consider which skills and qualities remain uniquely human.
Alec Litowitz studied mathematics and anthropology at MIT before adding both a law degree and an MBA to the mix. Throughout his career, including as an early partner in global hedge fund Citadel, Litowitz has repeatedly relied on the insights into human behavior that he gained from anthropology.
“The beauty of anthropology for me is that I can telescope out and try to understand what’s happening to society right now,” he said in an interview with the Journal.
Math and philosophy are also strong contenders
Bert Bean, chief executive of Insight Global, a staffing and consulting firm, told the Journal that he brings candidates for AI jobs in for an interview and puts them in front of a whiteboard. Then, the interviewers “throw crazy technical problems” at the candidates to see how they think.
Math majors excel at this type of assessment. They usually have experience with manual problem-solving, having grappled with hard questions and practiced working them out by hand.
However, Litowitz, the math-anthropology double major, said that if he were to do it all over again, he would pick philosophy. Ana Prestamo, a recent graduate from the University of Notre Dame, agrees that philosophy is a useful major.
“Studying philosophy, or any of the humanities for that matter, has given me something that artificial intelligence cannot replace: a closer understanding of what makes us human,” she wrote in March in The Observer. “And in a time when AI can solve almost any technical problem, understanding what makes us uniquely human becomes all the more valuable.”
Notably absent from the list of recommended majors is AI. Peter Miscovich, executive managing director at real-estate giant JLL, told the Journal that majoring in AI is “too narrow.” Eventually, saying you majored in AI will “sort of [be] like saying you majored in Excel,” he added.
Key Takeaways
- Experts recommend three majors for students who want to thrive in an AI-dominated workplace.
- None of these majors mention AI; one expert said AI was “too narrow” of a field to major in.
- Computer science also didn’t make the list because of high unemployment rates.
What would you study if you were in college today?
For many college students, majoring in computer science is no longer a job guarantee. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s labor market data, recent computer science graduates have an unemployment rate of about 6.1%, slightly higher than the 5.7% overall rate for recent graduates.
Not all hope is lost. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicted that software developer jobs will grow 15% from 2024 to 2034, about five times the average for all jobs. So long-term demand for computer science is strong, even as recent graduates face an uphill climb trying to enter the field.
