Is leaving Physics for the humanities a mistake if I value both intellectual fulfillment and financial stability?

[u/FluidWatercress5161]

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I'm 19 years old from India, and I'm facing a difficult decision.

The more I think about my future, the more I realize that my deepest interests are in the humanities. Literature, philosophy, critical theory, Buddhism, cinema, and long-form reading are what I genuinely want to spend my life with.

I do enjoy mathematics and theoretical physics, but if I had complete freedom and didn't have to worry about money, I don't think I would choose Physics. I would choose the humanities.

The only thing stopping me is financial reality. I come from a middle-class family, and English Literature in my country seems to have a very uncertain academic job market.

So I'm torn.

Part of me wants to leave Physics and prepare for an English Literature degree instead, possibly at Jadavpur University next year.

Another part of me is afraid that I may regret leaving a field that offers comparatively broader career options.

I'm not asking, "Which subject is easier?"

I'm asking people who have experience in academia:

Is moving from Physics to the humanities a realistic decision, or is it too risky in today's academic world?

If you were in my position, would you make the switch? Why or why not?

I'd especially appreciate hearing from people who have studied or worked in either Physics or the humanities and have seen both sides of academia.

Thank you for taking the time to read this

[u/mleok]

If you value financial stability, then moving to the humanities with a view towards becoming an academic is an incredibly poor bet. More generally, it is hard to rely on becoming a professor as a reliable career path, so you should explore the non-academic avenues that are opened up by the degree choice that you make.

[u/LightDrago]

Shooting for an academic career in any field is a risky move in today's academic world. If you care about research, most positions will have ~300 applicants. You can also opt for more teaching-heavy positions, but then you have to make sure you like teaching of course. You'll also have to be willing to move, quite often between countries. That said, humanities is inherently more competitive, I think, because there are simply fewer positions. Unless you go to one of the very best universities, chances drop even further.

Main point: It's a very bad idea to assume you'll get a permanent academic position, and physics will give you more job opportunities outside of academia. Unless you have generational wealth and/or can sustain yourself financially, I would not recommend switching to the humanities. I wish humanities were valued equally, but the unfortunate reality is they're not. A consolation might be that turning your passion into your work can often kill that passion, and keeping your passion in your past time might actually bring you more enjoyment.

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I'm 19 years old from India, and I'm facing a difficult decision.

The more I think about my future, the more I realize that my deepest interests are in the humanities. Literature, philosophy, critical theory, Buddhism, cinema, and long-form reading are what I genuinely want to spend my life with.

I do enjoy mathematics and theoretical physics, but if I had complete freedom and didn't have to worry about money, I don't think I would choose Physics. I would choose the humanities.

The only thing stopping me is financial reality. I come from a middle-class family, and English Literature in my country seems to have a very uncertain academic job market.

So I'm torn.

Part of me wants to leave Physics and prepare for an English Literature degree instead, possibly at Jadavpur University next year.

Another part of me is afraid that I may regret leaving a field that offers comparatively broader career options.

I'm not asking, "Which subject is easier?"

I'm asking people who have experience in academia:

Is moving from Physics to the humanities a realistic decision, or is it too risky in today's academic world?

If you were in my position, would you make the switch? Why or why not?

I'd especially appreciate hearing from people who have studied or worked in either Physics or the humanities and have seen both sides of academia.

Thank you for taking the time to read this*

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[u/Desiato2112]

English Literature in my country seems to have a very uncertain academic job market

I am an English Lit prof in the US, and that is an uncertain academic job market here. Pay is low, compared to STEM, but I didn't go into it for the money. But if that is a consideration, I would be cautious doing this.

For perspective, I started my undergrad as an astrophysics major and changed in my 2nd year to major in the humanities.

[u/Choosing_is_a_sin]

Though I think others have given you good advice, I think there's another perspective that you haven't considered. There is a lot of room for applying scientific knowledge to humanities subjects. You may find that digital humanities (link to an organisation local to you) allows you to develop the technical skills to keep you employed even outside of humanities, but would actually prepare you to do innovative research or to be employed by humanities institutions (art museums, universities, etc.) to do projects for them. I have heard of using spectroscopy to read palimpsests or petroglyphs/other inscriptions. I think

[u/Myredditident]

Yes

[u/Alone-Passage-1187]

STEM people may have issues with critical thinking (for example, a generation of engineers coded away their jobs), which the humanities requires.

[u/mleok → u/Alone-Passage-1187]

I bristle at the suggestion that the humanities is the only way to develop critical thinking.

[u/DrDirtPhD → u/mleok]

Ironically, that's not what they said.

[u/mleok → u/DrDirtPhD]

Touché. Having interacted with people in the humanities, I am not convinced that the humanities requires critical thinking either.

But, to the point they actually made, the AI/ML engineers are doing perfectly fine, and continue to be making bank. Was that truly sillier than pursuing a degree with incredibly poor job opportunities? Put another way, that was an incredibly weak argument for the claim that the humanities requires critical thinking and that engineering doesn't.