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What UCSD Anthropology Majors
Do After Graduation

Many undergraduates contemplating a major in anthropology have asked what sorts of jobs are available for anthropology majors after graduation. The question is difficult, since it is not easy to keep track of students after they leave in a consistent enough way to produce very good data.

In general a professional job with the label "anthropology" requires a higher degree, often a Ph.D. However that is also true in most of the other fields represented by college majors. A BA in economics, for example, does not make one a professional economist; a BA in math does not make one a professional mathematician; completion of a pre-med program does not make one a doctor. But all college majors can be the background for a range of interesting careers.

Professor Moore has made a habit of providing job-related news clips on his bio-anthro page, which certainly warrants a visit from the bio-anthro majors, at least.

In 1997 the section on Student Research & Information in the Office of Student Affairs conducted a survey of UCSD BA alumni who graduated in 1991-92, 1993-94, and 1995-96. Among the respondents were 50 people who had received a BA in anthropology from UCSD. Here is the distribution of what they were doing in 1997:

The survey began by asking about additional schooling after completing a BA at UCSD. A large proportion of anthropology graduates decided to go on to more professional training: 


      ANTHROPOLOGY N=50
      Advanced Degree Activity - Have obtained or currently pursuing
            Master's                                 28%
            Professional Doctorate (e.g. MD, JD)     14%
            Ph.D.                                     2%
            Credential/Other                         24%
            Bachelor's Only                          32%
But this additional training was of course not necessarily in anthropology. Here is the breakdown of the fields for the 68% of our alumni who decided on more study: 

      Areas of Graduate Study
            Medicine/Health                          32%
            Education                                15%
            Law                                      13%
            Sciences                                 13%
            Business                                 12%
            Arts/Humanities                          10%
            Communication                             4%
Here is how the fifty students were actually spending their time when surveyed: 

      Post Baccalaureate Employment/Other Activities
            Employed Full Time                       67%
            Employed Part Time                        8%
            Graduate School Full/Part Time           16%
            Seeking Employment                        2%
            Caring for Family/Other Actv.             8%
Of the two thirds who were fully employed at the time of the survey, here is a distribution of the areas in which they were working: 

      Current Field of Employment - Full Time Employment
            Sciences (Physical/Life)                 33%
            Business                                 24%
            Education                                21%
            Other Occupations                        15%
            Law                                       6%
There are ambiguities in all this. For example when an alumnus was both working and going to school, and hence coded both, the survey coded working rather than going to school in the summary statistics. Further, the sample size is too small for very meaningful implications to be drawn from some parts of it. However you can get some idea of what happens to anthropology majors when they leave UCSD.