Humanity/Liberal Art majors at USNA

[Tekkat]

It's my understand that those that major in STEM courses usually get a job as an officer dealing with their major. For those that get degrees such as General Science, English, History, Economics, Political Science etc., what do they do usually after graduation?

 

[MidCakePa]

With all due respect, your understanding is 100% incorrect. Fully inform yourself by going to the USNA website and reading every page, link, tab and pulldown. This topic is very straightforward though sometimes misunderstood.

Bottom line is this: At USNA, your major has virtually no bearing on your eventual warfare community. The only way it really comes into play is with your grades and where that places you in the OOM come service-assignment time.

Some will say this major is easier or that major is harder, hence taking one or the other will lead to higher or lower grades. Don’t get sucked into that faulty thinking. Best way to ensure that you get great grades is to study something you genuinely enjoy. Nothing worse than having to slog through a major you don’t enjoy — amid all the other responsibilities and pressures — just because you think you’ll get better grades. That’s just sheer misery.

 

[usna1985]

As a general rule, your major has nothing to do with your service selection / assignment or what you do in the military. There are some exceptions. For example, those who want to attend medical school typically major in chemistry or another major that gives them the pre-requisites they need. Those going into Cyber warfare often have majored in cyber or computer science (though it's not mandatory). Pilots and NFOs major in just about everything -- you do NOT need to major in AeroEng. You'll find history majors in submarines and EE majors going USMC ground.

Fully agree re majoring in something you enjoy and that you're good at. Do well so you stand high in your class in order to have more options in service assignment.

 

[Tekkat]

With all due respect, your understanding is 100% incorrect. Fully inform yourself by going to the USNA website and reading every page, link, tab and pulldown. This topic is very straightforward though sometimes misunderstood.

Bottom line is this: At USNA, your major has virtually no bearing on your eventual warfare community. The only way it really comes into play is with your grades and where that places you in the OOM come service-assignment time.

Some will say this major is easier or that major is harder, hence taking one or the other will lead to higher or lower grades. Don’t get sucked into that faulty thinking. Best way to ensure that you get great grades is to study something you genuinely enjoy. Nothing worse than having to slog through a major you don’t enjoy — amid all the other responsibilities and pressures — just because you think you’ll get better grades. That’s just sheer misery.

As a general rule, your major has nothing to do with your service selection / assignment or what you do in the military. There are some exceptions. For example, those who want to attend medical school typically major in chemistry or another major that gives them the pre-requisites they need. Those going into Cyber warfare often have majored in cyber or computer science (though it's not mandatory). Pilots and NFOs major in just about everything -- you do NOT need to major in AeroEng. You'll find history majors in submarines and EE majors going USMC ground.

Fully agree re majoring in something you enjoy and that you're good at. Do well so you stand high in your class in order to have more options in service assignment.

Thank you for informing me, I remembered reading on USAFA's website (not USNA) under multiple majors they had potential job assignments listed (STEM majors usually) and assumed it would be the same for USNA.

 

[OldRetSWO]

In addition to what is already stated above, the Humanities/Liberal Arts majors at USNA have enough STEM and Engineering that the degrees granted are Bachelors of Science. Even the English Majors get a BS degree.
FWIW, My major was International Political Science and post Active Duty, I was employed by Both GE and Lockheed with the title of Engineer. That was probably because I had far more Engineering/Science/Math course than I did in my supposed Major.

 

[nuensis]

URL designators generally don't care. RL designators will care about the major. There are some RL designators that are now available to all MIDN, so major selection is a factor if you want to pursue one of them.

Some academic departments have internship or otherwise summer programs that can in turn make you more competitive for a certain community (i.e. CS/Cyber departments own the NSA and NCWDG internships good for CW/IP designators). Some communities require a specific major (Med Corps requires chemistry to even get close to the requisite knowledge for selection, METOC requires Oceanography, CEC requires engineering). Some communities do put quantifiable value in certain majors (i.e. Aerospace Engineering will get you a couple of ranking points for Aviation), but usually not enough to make a huge difference.

Even if you are going to commission URL, some MIDN will do some long term planning for lateral transfer to an officer community unavailable at commissioning (i.e. FAO, PAO, HR, EDO). If that is you, major selection definitely matters. There isn't too much space to meet education requirements for lateral transfer (i.e. picking up an engineering degree so you can pass an FE, or getting language proficiency) once you're out in the fleet.