ASL

Types of Degrees ASL Majors Are Getting

The following table lists how many american sign language graduations there were for each degree level during the last year for which data was available.

Education Level	Number of Grads
Associate Degree	794
Basic Certificate	693
Bachelor’s Degree	473
Undergraduate Certificate	270
Master’s Degree	106
Graduate Certificate	3
Doctor’s Degree	2

What ASL Majors Need to Know

O*NET surveyed people in occupations related to asl and asked them what knowledge areas, skills, and abilities were important for their jobs. The responses were rated on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being most important.

Knowledge Areas for ASL Majors

Asl majors often go into careers in which the following knowledge areas are important:

• Foreign Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of a foreign (non-English) language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition and grammar, and pronunciation.
• English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
• Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
• Law and Government - Knowledge of laws, legal codes, court procedures, precedents, government regulations, executive orders, agency rules, and the democratic political process.
• Communications and Media - Knowledge of media production, communication, and dissemination techniques and methods. This includes alternative ways to inform and entertain via written, oral, and visual media.

Skills for ASL Majors

asl majors are found most commonly in careers in which the following skills are important:

• Active Listening - Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
• Speaking - Talking to others to convey information effectively.
• Reading Comprehension - Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents.
• Writing - Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.
• Critical Thinking - Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.

Abilities for ASL Majors

Some of the most crucial abilities to master while a asl student include the following:

• Speech Recognition - The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
• Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
• Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
• Speech Clarity - The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
• Written Comprehension - The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.

What Can You Do With a ASL Major?

People with a asl degree often go into the following careers:

Job Title	Job Growth Rate	Median Salary
Interpreters and Translators	17.7%	$49,930
Professors	9.4%	$65,660

Who Is Getting a Bachelor’s Degree in ASL?

This is a less frequently chosen undergraduate major. Only 548 students graduated with a bachelor’s degree in american sign language in 2021, making it rank #199 in popularity. This major is dominated by women with about 90% of recent graduates being female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

At the countrywide level, the racial-ethnic distribution of asl majors is as follows:

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	7
Black or African American	35
Hispanic or Latino	67
White	329
International Students	3
Other Races/Ethnicities	32

Geographic Diversity

Americans aren’t the only ones with an interest in ASL. About 0.6% of those with this major are international students.

Amount of Education Required for Careers Related to ASL

Some degrees associated with asl may require an advanced degree, while others may not even require a bachelor’s in the field. In general, the more advanced your degree the more career options will open up to you. However, there is significant time and money that needs to be invested into your education so weigh the pros and cons.

How much schooling do you really need to compete in today’s job market? People currently working in careers related to asl have obtained the following education levels.

Education Level	Percentage of Workers
High School Diploma - or the equivalent (for example, GED)	1.1%
Post-Secondary Certificate - awarded for training completed after high school (for example, in agriculture or natural resources, computer services, personal or culinary services, engineering technologies, healthcare, construction trades, mechanic and repair technologies, or precision production)	1.1%
Associate’s Degree (or other 2-year degree)	11.4%
Bachelor’s Degree	52.1%
Master’s Degree	25.5%
Post-Master’s Certificate - awarded for completion of an organized program of study; designed for people who have completed a Master’s degree but do not meet the requirements of academic degrees at the doctoral level.	8.9%

Online ASL Programs

The following table lists the number of programs by degree level, along with how many schools offered online courses in the field.

Degree Level	Colleges Offering Programs	Colleges Offering Online Classes
Certificate (Less Than 1 Year)	0	0
Certificate (1-2 years)	61	3
Certificate (2-4 Years)	1	0
Associate’s Degree	145	4
Bachelor’s Degree	4	1
Post-Baccalaureate	0	0
Master’s Degree	10	3
Post-Master’s	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Research)	2	0
Doctor’s Degree (Professional Practice)	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Other)	0	0

Majors Related to ASL

You may also be interested in one of the following majors related to asl.

Major	Number of Grads
Romance Languages	13,043
Linguistics & Comparative Literature	7,681
East Asian Languages	2,056
Classical Languages & Literature	1,484
Germanic Languages	1,098
Middle Eastern Semitic Languages	549
Slavic, Baltic & Albanian Languages	536
Foreign Language, Literature & Linguistics (Other)	520
Second Language Learning	282
Southeast Asian & Pacific Languages	50
Native American Languages	48
South Asian Languages	26
African Languages	8
Iranian & Persian Languages	8
Greek Language & Literature	4
Celtic Language & Literature	3
Turkic & Central Asian Languages	1

References

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

• College Factual
• College Scorecard
• National Center for Education Statistics
• O*NET Online
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers First Quarter 2020
• Image Credit: By PsiДҐedelisto under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.