General Mortuary Science

Types of Degrees General Mortuary Science Majors Are Getting

The following table lists how many general funeral service & mortuary science graduations there were for each degree level during the last year for which data was available.

Education Level	Number of Grads
Associate Degree	1,526
Undergraduate Certificate	277
Bachelor’s Degree	151
Basic Certificate	118

What General Mortuary Science Majors Need to Know

People with careers related to general mortuary science were asked what knowledge areas, skills, and abilities were important for their jobs. They weighted these areas on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being the highest.

Knowledge Areas for General Mortuary Science Majors

This major prepares you for careers in which these knowledge areas are important:

• 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.
• 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.
• English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
• 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.
• Psychology - Knowledge of human behavior and performance; individual differences in ability, personality, and interests; learning and motivation; psychological research methods; and the assessment and treatment of behavioral and affective disorders.

Skills for General Mortuary Science Majors

A major in general mortuary science prepares you for careers in which the following skill-sets are crucial:

• Speaking - Talking to others to convey information effectively.
• 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.
• Service Orientation - Actively looking for ways to help people.
• Social Perceptiveness - Being aware of others’ reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
• Coordination - Adjusting actions in relation to others’ actions.

Abilities for General Mortuary Science Majors

General Mortuary Science majors often go into careers where the following abilities are vital:

• Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
• Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
• Problem Sensitivity - The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.
• Speech Clarity - The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
• Speech Recognition - The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.

What Can You Do With a General Mortuary Science Major?

Below is a list of occupations associated with general mortuary science:

Job Title	Job Growth Rate	Median Salary
Funeral Service Managers	7.0%	$79,180
Morticians, Undertakers, and Funeral Directors	3.8%	$52,650

Who Is Getting a Bachelor’s Degree in General Mortuary Science?

The major attracts more women than men. About 79% of the recent graduates in this field are female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

At the countrywide level, the racial-ethnic distribution of general mortuary science majors is as follows:

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	1
Black or African American	13
Hispanic or Latino	11
White	110
International Students	0
Other Races/Ethnicities	16

Amount of Education Required for Careers Related to General Mortuary Science

Some careers associated with general mortuary science 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 general mortuary science careers below.

Education Level	Percentage of Workers
High School Diploma - or the equivalent (for example, GED)	3.0%
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)	9.4%
Some College Courses	2.7%
Associate’s Degree (or other 2-year degree)	64.0%
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.	4.0%
First Professional Degree - awarded for completion of a program that: requires at least 2 years of college work before entrance into the program, includes a total of at least 6 academic years of work to complete, and provides all remaining academic requirements to begin practice in a profession.	4.5%

Online General Mortuary Science 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)	14	3
Certificate (2-4 Years)	1	1
Associate’s Degree	55	6
Bachelor’s Degree	0	0
Post-Baccalaureate	0	0
Master’s Degree	0	0
Post-Master’s	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Research)	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Professional Practice)	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Other)	0	0

Majors Related to General Mortuary Science

You may also be interested in one of the following majors related to general mortuary science.

Major	Number of Grads
Funeral Direction/Service	263
Mortuary Science & Embalming/Embalmer	64
Other Funeral Service & Mortuary Science	52

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.