Sample Career Paths by Major

Pomona's liberal arts education equips students for action and intellectual engagement in a fast-changing world. Some students enter a field related to their major immediately, while others use their undergraduate education as a launch pad for professional or graduate school. Still others take time to explore their careers, live abroad via fellowship, research and teaching opportunities, work at a nonprofit, or gain further research experience at universities and companies across the nation.

There is no one path for a Pomona student in any major, but here is a sampling of some of the careers our alumni are engaged in, as well as specific companies that senior students self-reported they would be entering upon graduation.

Art History

Sample career paths for alumni: museum directors, curators and art conservators; professors; lawyers; physicians

Asian Studies

Sample career paths for alumni: international affairs, public policy, law, economics, journalism, the arts, scholarship

​Environmental Analysis

Sample career paths for alumni: law, policy, medicine, the sciences, conservation, global climate change, urban planning, resource management, community action, environmental education, urban agriculture

French

Sample career paths for alumni: graduate and professional programs, including medical school, law school as well as Ph.D. programs in French at Harvard, Yale, Cornell, Duke, UCLA and Brown. Many go on to live and work in France and other French-speaking countries

History

Sample career paths for alumni: academia, journalism, public affairs, law, business and more

International Relations

Sample career paths for alumni: public service, non-governmental organizations, business, law and academia. Pomona is one of the top 50 colleges and universities in the country producing career diplomats.

Latin American Studies

Sample career paths for alumni: public policy, law, business, social work, education, international relations and advanced research in the social sciences and humanities.

Linguistics & Cognitive Science

Sample career paths for alumni: graduate programs in speech pathology and Ph.D. programs in linguistics, psychology, and cognitive science, the technology industry, fieldwork on lesser-known languages and revitalization projects on endangered languages around the world

Mathematics

Sample career paths for alumni: teaching and academia, research and graduate study in pure mathematics, applied mathematics in a number of fields and industries, data analysis, statistics

Middle Eastern Studies

Sample career paths for alumni:: international affairs, public policy, law, economics, journalism, scholarship, and the arts

Music

Sample career paths for alumni: graduate studies in music and related fields, professional performers, composers, scholars and teachers, medicine, law and business

Philosophy

Sample career paths for alumni: business, medicine, law, the arts and education. Philosophy majors do particularly well in standardized tests like the GMAT, LSAT and GRE.

Philosophy, Politics and Economics

Sample career paths for alumni: law, business, and public service

Physics & Astronomy

Sample career paths for alumni: research scientists, astronomers, doctors, lawyers, teachers, entrepreneurs, computer programmers and movie technicians

Politics

Sample career paths for alumni: organizational leadership, social change advocacy, electoral politics, policymaking, law, journalism, education, finance and medicine

Religious Studies

Sample career paths for alumni: graduate studies in religion, law, medicine and business; careers in management, journalism and the media, college administration, primary and secondary education, government and health and social services

Romance Languages & Literatures

Sample career paths for alumni: medicine, law, business, government, health care and education

Russian and Russian and Eastern European Studies

Sample career paths for alumni: academia, business, law, journalism, diplomacy and international development

Science, Technology and Society

Sample career paths for alumni: health sciences, law, education, science writing, public policy, environmental studies, medicine and law

Sociology

Sample career paths for alumni: education, law, social work and business

Spanish

Sample career paths for alumni: medicine, law, business, government, health care and education

Theatre

Sample career paths for alumni: actors, dancers, designers and technicians, producers, writers, dramaturgs, teachers and administrators