It is also common for people to enroll when they are looking for a life or career change but are unsure of which direction they should take, said Terry Shtob, the director of Arts and Humanities at the New York University School of Continuing and Professional Studies.

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First, Gates took a job in the humanities division of the University of Chicago with the mandate to help the school better connect to its surrounding neighborhoods, whose residents resented its perceived aloofness and perpetual expansions into their blocks.

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The kernel of Churchill's interest in the humanities dates back to his teenage studies at the Harrow School, where he wrote for the school magazine.

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Majoring in the humanities strikes him as particularly unwise, since it so often leads to the default choice of law school.

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With 43 per cent of the incoming Harvard MBA class coming from humanities and social sciences disciplines, and a record 45 per cent women admitted to the Wharton School class of 2013, there are clear signs of progress.

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