If you have an interest in both philosophy and math, you might be wondering which would be a better major. This post will show you the advantages and disadvantages of each and help you decide which would be a better major for you.
At a glance:
| | Philosophy | Math |
| Payscale reported average pay | $70,000 | $77,200 |
| Job prospects | Average | Average/Good |
| Jobs people get with the degree (some jobs require advanced degrees) | Teachers School administrators Analysts Clergy Lawyers Physicians Service managers Chief executives | Data analyst Data scientist Software engineer Math teacher Actuarial analyst Financial analyst |
| Difficulty of the major | Moderate | Hard |
| Key things to note | It can be difficult to find a job with just a bachelor’s degree in philosophy. The major can become more employable if combined with a more technical minor. Can be a good pre-law major. | Not a very employable degree by itself if you do not take applied electives. Very employable if you combine it with a more applied minor such as computer science. Also employable if you combine it with data science and machine learning classes and projects. |
Source for philosophy salary
There are a number of things to consider when choosing between the two degrees. Below, are details about each major, their differences and reasons to choose one or the other.
Details about a Philosophy degree
Below are some of the key details involved in a philosophy degree.
Pay
According to Payscale, the average pay of someone who has a bachelor’s degree in philosophy is $70,000. However, it is important to be aware that the average will be being increased by people who also went on to get more advanced degrees.
According to the BLS, the median salary of someone with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy was $54,000 in 2018. The average salary across all majors was $59,000 so this suggests that philosophy majors earn less than most other majors.
Jobs
According to the BLS, typical jobs people with a philosophy degree get includes:
- Teachers
- School administrators
- Analysts
- Clergy
- Lawyers
- Physicians
- Service managers
- Chief executives
You’ll see that many of the jobs, on the list, require an advanced degree. As a result, with just a bachelor’s degree in philosophy, you will likely have a hard time when seeking a job. The reason for this is likely to be that the major will not feature many technical classes that are directly employable.
This means that philosophy can be a good major if you plan on getting an advanced degree, especially in law. It also means that, if you major in philosophy, without planning on getting an advanced degree, it will be important for you to take more technical electives, that are directly employable, otherwise you might have a hard time when seeking a job.
Also, according to this data, the philosophy unemployment rate is 6.2% and the underemployment rate is 50.9%. Whereas, the unemployment rate, across all majors is, 3.9% and the underemployment rate is 42.9%.
Difficulty
Philosophy is a major that will require a lot of dense reading where you will be reading dense texts about philosophy. You will also be writing a lot since you will have to summarize arguments made by authors and provide your response. As a result, you can expect philosophy to be a major that will require a lot of study time. When compared to humanities majors, you can expect philosophy to be more difficult. When compared with most STEM majors, you can expect philosophy to be slightly easier depending on your own strengths. When compared with a math major, you can expect philosophy to be easier.
Classes
Classes in a philosophy major can include:
Logic
Introduction to philosophy
Ancient philosophy
Modern philosophy
Metaphysics
Ethics
Political philosophy
You can see an example degree sequence here.
Things to consider
Philosophy can be a good degree if you are planning on going to graduate school. Philosophy majors typically perform very well on exams such as the LSAT and the GRE. As a result, if you are planning on going to law school, philosophy can be a good option.
Another thing to consider is that there will be lots of dense reading and writing. This means that it is important that you have good reading and writing skills. If you do not, you will likely have a very hard time in the major.
Philosophy is a useful degree in life, in that it will help you understand people’s arguments and to think logically, but it lacks technical aspects. People will often argue that critical thinking skills will help in getting a job. However, technical skills are also important and a philosophy major lacks in technical skills unless you take more applied classes in your electives. This is why an undergraduate degree in philosophy alone can be difficult to find a job with.
With that being said, philosophy can be a very good minor when combined with something more employable at the undergraduate level such as computer science.
If you do major in philosophy, it is important to minor in something more employable such as computer science. This is so that you will have some technical skills that you can use to help you when seeking a job.
Details about a math degree
Below are some key details about the math major.
Current pay
According to Payscale, the average pay for someone with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics is $77,000.
This is higher than the average pay for people with a bachelor of arts degree, across all majors, which is reported as being $64,000 and higher than the average pay for people with a bachelor of science degree which is reported as being $71,000.
However, competing majors such as computer science and the different engineering degrees have significantly higher average pay. For example, the reported pay for someone with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering is $92,000.
Types of jobs the degree will qualify you for
The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that the demand for mathematicians will rise by 33% by 2029 compared to 2019. This is mainly due to the surge in data that companies have been receiving in recent years that they need people with mathematical and statistical skills to make sense of.
Since mathematics is used in many different fields, a math degree should open you up to many different job opportunities.
According to Payscale, the most common reported jobs people, with a math degree, report having are:
Software engineer
Data analyst
Data scientist
Math teacher
Actuary
Financial analyst
Data engineer
However, a math degree is a somewhat general degree that is not specific to a certain type of job in the way something such as computer science is to software engineering.
If you do end up choosing a math major, this means that you should take courses from the field that you want to enter, do summer internships and to complete projects related that field as well in order to be competitive when seeking a job.
It also means that alternative majors such as computer science or the different engineering degrees are likely to give you an easier time when looking for a job after graduating.
This is also shown in the data, since computer science and engineering both report having higher average pay than mathematics.
Many math majors go into software engineering after graduation.
If you want to qualify for software engineering jobs then it would help to make sure to take a data structures and algorithms class since the material from that class gets tested heavily in software engineering interviews.
It would also help to try to get some internships as a software engineer while in college and to complete software engineering projects as an undergrad.
The three most common reported jobs for people with a math degree are software engineer, data analyst and data scientist.
All three of them involve the use of programming, so it would help to make sure to learn to program regardless.
Currently, data science is becoming a very popular career path among math majors.
To qualify for data science jobs, it would help to make sure to learn Python programming, data analysis using the Pandas library, machine learning and to complete data science projects as an undergrad and to try to get data science internships.
A math degree by itself is not very employable. However, it is a lot more employable when combined with classes from computer science, statistics, data science and machine learning, and personal projects in software engineering, data science and machine learning.
Types of classes you will study
As a math major you can expect to take the following classes:
Differential calculus
Integral calculus
Multivariate calculus
Differential equations
Linear algebra
Discrete math
Abstract algebra
Real analysis
Number theory
You can also expect to have the option to select from a range of other advanced math classes or related classes from other disciplines such as statistics, computer science, physics and engineering.
How difficult it is as a major
The math major is generally considered as being one of the hardest undergraduate degrees available. It becomes especially hard when you enter your junior year since most of your classes will be proof-based which tend to be much harder than the more computational classes.
Some things to consider about the major
A math degree can open up many different possible avenues for yourself and can be a very good degree when combined with a more applied minor. This is because the mathematics taught in a math major is useful in a wide variety of fields but you will need to supplement it with some field-specific coursework.
A very good combination would be to major in mathematics and to minor in computer science. Doing this would open you up to job roles such as data science, machine learning engineer, data analysis and software engineering. Alternatively, majoring in computer science and minoring in mathematics is also a very good combination.
If you want to go down the data science or machine learning route, it would also help to make sure to take some statistics and data analysis classes. However, in this case, it would likely be better to major in statistics and to minor in CS or minor in stats and major in CS.
More details about the math major
I have written more about how to do well in a math major here and I have written more about whether or not a math degree is worth it here.
Reasons to choose a math degree
While a math degree by itself is not very employable, it can be very employable if you combine it with something such as computer science and statistics. It can also be employable if you combine it with data science and machine learning classes and complete data science and machine learning projects.
Also, math can be very useful when applying to graduate school as it is a lack of math classes that often makes students less competitive. Although, again, it will still be important to take classes related to the discipline that you are interested in.
If you do choose to get a math degree, it would help a lot to consider what you would like to do after graduating and to make sure to take classes related to that. It would also help to try to complete projects and to do summer internships related to a job you are interested in to make your job search much easier after graduation.
Also, I would recommend choosing applied mathematics over pure mathematics because applied mathematics tends to be the more employable of the two.
Reasons to choose philosophy
While a math degree combined with the right classes and projects does have better job prospects than philosophy, at the bachelor’s level, there are still some reasons why you might want to choose philosophy.
If you are sure that you want to get into law school, then philosophy can be a good major since philosophy majors tend to do the best on the entrance exams.
If you want to go to graduate school for philosophy, then a philosophy undergraduate degree can also be appropriate.
However, in both cases, it is important to remember that you might change your mind half-way through the major. As a result, it would be worthwhile to minor in something more technical, such as computer science, so that you have something to fall back on if you do change your mind.
