Across the Nation

What kind of jobs do majors in the degrees offered by the College of Humanities and Social Sciences get? Take a look at the heatmap below.

Using the Heatmap

Scan the heatmap across a row to see what kinds of occupations the holders of a particular degree are more or less likely to end up in.  Or scan the heatmap down a column to see which degree holders are more or less likely to work in that occupation. Scrolling over a point in those categories will display the percentage of relevant degree holders in that category.  The legend on the right shows you what percentages each color indicates. 

Are Degrees Destiny?

While the variations among degrees is informative, perhaps more informative still is the broad similarity the heatmap presents among degrees and career paths. The most significant color variation happens across columns rather than across rows. In other words, there are jobs that holders of college degrees as a whole are more or less likely to hold, rather than sharp differences among holders of different kinds college degrees. As we say at Mason, a major is not a career!

Technical Details

The heatmap uses occupational categories and groupings defined by the US Census Bureau. Some of the other Census category names have been shortened. For the full list see https://usa.ipums.org/usa/volii/c2ssoccup.shtml. The age range used is 25-45. We use these ages to show where majors end up, rather than initial jobs out of college. Note, however, that these percentages are a snapshot of people at different career stages.