American Studies

A major in American studies improves understanding of life in the United States, past and present, and provides an understanding of some of the ways in which American life and culture have been studied. Such a major serves as excellent preparation for graduate study or professional schools such as law or business.

Please consult the UMW Undergraduate Catalog for specific and up-to-date major requirements.

Thinking About This Major?

The Center for Career & Professional Development has many tools and resources available to help you choose your major. Below are three of them:

Focus 2: A series of reliable, intuitive, career and education decision-making assessments to help students select a major, explore occupations, make informed career decisions, and take action in their career development.

Skills developed as an American Studies major (via Focus2): Decision making, problem solving, reading comprehension, reasoning, speaking

What Can I Do With This Major: Learn more about what you can do as an American Studies major! Some areas of career options are education, Museums and Galleries, nonprofit, business, government, communication, law.

Handshake: UMW’s online career management platform that includes the latest jobs from employers hiring at your school. You can search for organizations based on major, location, job type, and many other categories.

American Studies – Current Job Opportunities

Note: Job & Internship opportunities are pulled from UMW’s online job and internship database, Handshake, and update every 12 hours. Log into your UMW Handshake account to find hundreds of other opportunities and events.

Marketing & Administrative Coordinator

Associate, Client Service, San Francisco, 2024

Associate, Client Service, New York, 2024

Maintenance Worker (Historic Preservation)

Associate, Client Service, US/Asia Transfer, Hindi Speaker, 2024

American Studies Graduate Data

Note: Undergraduate outcome data is collected by the UMW Career Center each year. The data is then broken down by major in order to determine how many graduates in each major are employed, attending graduate school, or pursuing a different path within 6 months of graduation.

• “knowledge rate” defines the percent of graduates for which the institution has reasonable and verifiable information concerning the graduates’ post-graduation career activities
  
• “career outcome rate”  is the number of graduates who have landed in any of the employment categories (full-time, part-time, internship) in addition to service, military, and continuing education divided by the total number of students for whom an outcome is known.

American Studies Alumni (2018-2022)

Total graduates: 26
Knowledge Rate: 95%

Career Outcome Rate: 92%

• Employed Full-time: 36%
• Employed Part-time: 16%
• Grad School: 40%
• Seeking Employment: 8%

Where do our Alumni Land?

 

Alumni Success Stories

UMW alumni are excited to help current students and other alumni succeed in their fields. Below are stories from alumni about their experiences at UMW and after.

American Studies Alumni Bios: Learn more about the career paths of our successful American Studies alums.

Professional Associations