Museum Studies

Types of Degrees Museum Studies Majors Are Getting

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

Education Level	Number of Grads
Master’s Degree	562
Graduate Certificate	210
Basic Certificate	70
Bachelor’s Degree	35
Undergraduate Certificate	12
Associate Degree	3

What Museum Studies Majors Need to Know

In an O*NET survey, museum studies majors were asked to rate what knowledge areas, skills, and abilities were important in their occupations. These answers were weighted on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being the most important.

Knowledge Areas for Museum Studies Majors

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

• English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
• History and Archeology - Knowledge of historical events and their causes, indicators, and effects on civilizations and cultures.
• Administration and Management - Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
• Clerical - Knowledge of administrative and clerical procedures and systems such as word processing, managing files and records, stenography and transcription, designing forms, and other office procedures and terminology.
• 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.

Skills for Museum Studies Majors

When studying museum studies, you’ll learn many skills that will help you be successful in a wide range of jobs - even those that do not require a degree in the field. The following is a list of some of the most common skills needed for careers associated with this major:

• 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.
• Reading Comprehension - Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents.
• Writing - Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.
• Speaking - Talking to others to convey information effectively.
• Critical Thinking - Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.

Abilities for Museum Studies Majors

As you progress with your museum studies degree, there are several abilities you should pick up that will help you in whatever related career you choose. These abilities include:

• Near Vision - The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
• Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
• Written Comprehension - The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
• Written Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
• Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.

What Can You Do With a Museum Studies Major?

Below is a list of occupations associated with museum studies:

Job Title	Job Growth Rate	Median Salary
Archivists	14.7%	$52,240
Curators	13.7%	$53,780
Museum Technicians and Conservators	12.7%	$43,020

Who Is Getting a Bachelor’s Degree in Museum Studies?

This is a less frequently chosen undergraduate major. Only 39 students graduated with a bachelor’s degree in museum studies in 2021, making it rank #308 in popularity. This major is dominated by women with about 71% of recent graduates being female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

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

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	1
Black or African American	1
Hispanic or Latino	2
White	30
International Students	0
Other Races/Ethnicities	1

Amount of Education Required for Careers Related to Museum Studies

Some careers associated with museum studies require an advanced degree while some may not even require a bachelor’s. Whatever the case may be, pursuing more education usually means that more career options will be available to you.

Find out what the typical degree level is for museum studies careers below.

Education Level	Percentage of Workers
High School Diploma - or the equivalent (for example, GED)	0.4%
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)	5.7%
Some College Courses	1.3%
Associate’s Degree (or other 2-year degree)	2.6%
Bachelor’s Degree	13.5%
Post-Baccalaureate Certificate - awarded for completion of an organized program of study; designed for people who have completed a Baccalaureate degree but do not meet the requirements of academic degrees carrying the title of Master.	4.2%
Master’s Degree	56.2%
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.	2.7%
Doctoral Degree	13.2%
Post-Doctoral Training	0.8%

Online Museum Studies 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)	4	0
Certificate (2-4 Years)	0	0
Associate’s Degree	4	0
Bachelor’s Degree	36	3
Post-Baccalaureate	0	0
Master’s Degree	39	3
Post-Master’s	6	0
Doctor’s Degree (Research)	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Professional Practice)	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Other)	0	0

Majors Related to Museum Studies

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

Major	Number of Grads
Other Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies	29,596
Biological & Physical Science	28,469
Interdisciplinary Studies	9,341
Data Analytics	7,294
International Studies	6,458
Nutrition Science	5,514
Behavioral Science	4,777
Data Science	4,416
Sustainability Science	4,382
Cognitive Science	2,959
Human Computer Interaction	2,324
Natural Sciences	2,275
Computational Science	2,167
Human Biology	2,016
Mathematics & Computer Science	1,489
Systems Theory	1,080
Peace Studies & Conflict Resolution	1,074
Gerontology	951
Geography and Environmental Studies	809
Science, Technology & Society	805
Dispute Resolution	652
Multicultural & Diversity Studies	584
Marine Science	436
Historic Preservation	423
Cultural Studies & Analysis	375
Classical & Ancient Studies	290
Biopsychology	208
Philosophy, Politics, and Economics	153
Mathematical Economics	139
Climate Science	110
Medieval Studies	105
Environmental Geosciences	102
Economics and Computer Science	89
Maritime Studies	68
History and Political Science	68
Holocaust Studies	67
Accounting & Computer Science	55
Digital Humanities and Textual Studies	54
Anthrozoology	47
Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature	40
Earth Systems Science	25
Economics and Foreign Language/Literature	12
Thanatology	8
Linguistics and Computer Science	4
History and Language/Literature	1
Geoarcheaology	1
Linguistics and Anthropology	1
Geobiology	0

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

More about our data sources and methodologies.