Social Sciences at Harvard University

If you plan to study social sciences, take a look at what Harvard University has to offer and decide if the program is a good match for you. Get started with the following essential facts.

Harvard is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts and has a total student population of 30,391. During the 2020-2021 academic year, 218 students received their master's degree in social sciences.

Want to know more about the career opportunities in this field? Check out the Careers in Social Sciences section at the bottom of this page.

Harvard Social Sciences Degrees Available

• Master’s Degree in Social Sciences
• Doctorate Degree in Social Sciences

Online Classes Are Available at Harvard

Don't have the time or the flexibility in your schedule to take traditional classes? Online courses may be the perfect solution for you. They allow independent learners to study when and where they want to while offering the rigor of in-person classes.

Harvard does offer online education options in social sciences for the following degree levels for those interested in distance learning:

Harvard Social Sciences Rankings

There were 77 students who received their doctoral degrees in social sciences, making the school the #2 most popular school in the United States for this category of students.

Social Sciences Student Demographics at Harvard

Take a look at the following statistics related to the make-up of the social sciences majors at Harvard University.

Harvard Social Sciences Master’s Program

Of the 218 students who graduated with a master’s in social sciences from Harvard in 2021, 54% were men and 46% were women.

In the social sciences master's program at this school, racial-ethnic minorities make up 33% of degree recipients. That is 10% better than the national average.*

The following table and chart show the race/ethnicity for students who recently graduated from Harvard University with a master's in social sciences.

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Students
Asian	29
Black or African American	7
Hispanic or Latino	25
White	68
International Students	61
Other Races/Ethnicities	28

Concentrations Within Social Sciences

If you plan to be a social sciences major, you may want to focus your studies on one of the following concentrations. The completion numbers here include all graduates who receive any type of degree in this field from Harvard University. Some of these focus areas may not be available for your degree level.

Concentration	Annual Degrees Awarded
International Relations & National Security	149
Economics	113
Political Science & Government	79
Anthropology	29
Sociology	18
General Social Sciences	2

Related Majors

• Family, Consumer & Human Sciences
• Communication & Journalism
• History
• Area, Ethnic, Culture, & Gender Studies
• Psychology

Careers That Social Sciences Grads May Go Into

A degree in social sciences can lead to the following careers. Since job numbers and average salaries can vary by geographic location, we have only included the numbers for MA, the home state for Harvard University.

Occupation	Jobs in MA	Average Salary in MA
High School Teachers	26,420	$80,020
Market Research Analysts and Marketing Specialists	20,070	$74,510
Managers	8,660	$131,450
Statisticians	3,090	$108,670
Social Science Research Assistants	2,040	$55,310

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
• National Center for Education Statistics
• O*NET Online
• Image Credit: By Elisa.rolle under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.