undergradly.
Major · Area, Ethnic, Cultural, Gender & Group Studies

A regional studies degree built around language, history, and the long arc of Asia

Asian Studies/Civilization (CIP 05.0103) is an interdisciplinary regional degree covering the histories, politics, cultures, and economies of Asia and its diasporas. About 433 students graduate annually across 141 colleges, and bachelor’s holders show a five-year median of $58,529.

Schools offering
141
Annual completions
433
Typical degree level
Bachelor's
Median earnings (5yr)
$59k

About this major

Asian Studies/Civilization carries CIP code 05.0103 and focuses on the history, society, politics, culture, and economics of one or more Asian peoples, including Asian diasporas overseas. Coursework typically pairs a regional language sequence — Mandarin, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Tamil, Tagalog, Thai, or Indonesian — with regional history, political science, religion, literature, and at times economics or anthropology. Strong programs treat the language as the load-bearing element, pushing students toward B2- or C1-level fluency by senior year, often through study abroad, a Critical Language Scholarship, or a FLAS Fellowship routed through a federally designated National Resource Center.

The major rewards students who like reading across disciplines, working in at least one non-English language, and tracing how history, politics, and culture move through a region rather than a single nation. Strong writing and synthesis matter, as does the patience to take humanities-style critical analysis into a region whose primary sources are not in English. Students who already know they want a single named region — East Asian Studies, Chinese, Japanese, or Korean as standalone CIPs — often pick those instead, since the transcript and graduate applications read more cleanly.

On scale, 141 colleges grant the degree and 433 students complete it each year. Top issuers include University of Maryland Global Campus (49 graduates, an unusual leader driven by online enrollment), Florida International University (33), UCLA (22), University of Michigan-Ann Arbor (17), and UT-Austin (15), with Kennesaw State, UNC Chapel Hill, Cal State Sacramento, Cal State Long Beach, and Dartmouth rounding out the next tier. Five-year median earnings for the bachelor’s track sit at $58,529. The packet lists one direct occupational match: area, ethnic, and cultural studies teachers, postsecondary, at $84,290 median wage with a doctoral typical-entry credential.

Section 3 · Careers

Where this major leads

Occupations most often associated with this major, from the federal BLS+O*NET crosswalk. Job-growth projections and median wages are national.

Occupation Median wage Job growth Typical education
Area, ethnic, and cultural studies teachers, postsecondary $84k +2.4% Doctoral or professional degree
Section 4 · Earnings

Earnings at a glance

Median graduate earnings from the federal College Scorecard, 5 and 10 years out.

Median 5-year earnings

$59k

Who this major is for

You may thrive here if you read across disciplines and want to trace how history, politics, and culture move through Asia rather than commit to a single country, if you’re willing to push through a Mandarin, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Hindi, or comparable language sequence to B2 or C1 by senior year, if you’re considering a master’s at a school of international affairs (SAIS, Fletcher, Georgetown SFS, Columbia SIPA, Princeton SPIA, Harvard Kennedy, MIIS Monterey) or the Foreign Service Officer track, if a Title VI National Resource Center campus or a strong Asia-focused liberal-arts department is on your list, and if the $58,529 bachelor’s five-year median is an acceptable starting point given graduate study is the typical follow-on.

Think twice if you want a single-country focus — East Asian Studies (220 completions), Chinese (CIP 16.0301), Japanese (CIP 16.0302), or Korean (CIP 16.0405) read more cleanly on a transcript than the broader Asian Studies umbrella, and the graduate-school destinations from those tracks are equally well-mapped. Reconsider also if you want the major to map directly to a named occupation: the only career destination tracked in the packet is postsecondary teaching at $84,290, which requires a doctorate, and there is no bachelor’s-level occupational match. Students hoping for a clear job pipeline straight out of undergrad should stack this major with a second skill — economics, computer science, finance, public health, or law — or plan explicitly for JET, EPIK, a Critical Language Scholarship, or fieldwork before applying to a master’s in international affairs.

Section 6 · Where to study

Top colleges for Asian Studies/Civilization

Ranked by annual completions at the associate's or bachelor's level — a proxy for program scale.

College Location Assoc. Bach. Total
University of Maryland Global Campus Adelphi, MD 0 49 49
Florida International University Miami, FL 0 33 33
University of California-Los Angeles Los Angeles, CA 0 22 22
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor Ann Arbor, MI 0 17 17
The University of Texas at Austin Austin, TX 0 15 15
Kennesaw State University Kennesaw, GA 0 14 14
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Chapel Hill, NC 0 13 13
California State University-Sacramento Sacramento, CA 0 12 12
California State University-Long Beach Long Beach, CA 0 11 11
Dartmouth College Hanover, NH 0 11 11
Section 7 · Explore sideways

Related majors to explore

American/United States Studies/Civilization

721 completions/yr

Area Studies, Other

451 completions/yr

East Asian Studies

220 completions/yr

Latin American Studies

130 completions/yr

Near and Middle Eastern Studies

97 completions/yr

Ancient Studies/Civilization

85 completions/yr

African Studies

80 completions/yr

Asian-American Studies

59 completions/yr
Section 9 · Frequently asked

Common questions

What does an Asian Studies/Civilization major actually cover day-to-day?
The CIP definition centers on the history, society, politics, culture, and economics of one or more Asian peoples, including Asian diasporas overseas. In practice, you take a regional language sequence (Mandarin, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Hindi, Urdu, Tagalog, Indonesian, Thai, Bengali, or Tamil), pair it with regional history and politics, and round out with anthropology, religion, literature, or economics. Strong programs require B2- or C1-level fluency in the working language by graduation, often through study abroad, the Critical Language Scholarship, or a FLAS Fellowship. Expect heavy reading, regular writing, and at least one capstone or thesis grounded in primary-source work.
How does this differ from East Asian Studies, Chinese, Japanese, or Korean language majors?
Asian Studies/Civilization (05.0103, 433 completions) is the broad pan-Asian umbrella; East Asian Studies (05.0104, 220) narrows to China, Japan, and Korea; Latin American Studies (05.0107, 130) and Near and Middle Eastern Studies (05.0108, 97) cover other regions in the same CIP family. Single-language majors like Chinese (CIP 16.0301), Japanese (16.0302), Korean (16.0405), or Other Asian Languages (16.0399) sit in the foreign-language taxonomy and emphasize literary and linguistic depth. Asian Studies trades some linguistic depth for regional breadth and disciplinary range, which graduate programs in international affairs and policy tend to favor.
What kinds of jobs do graduates actually end up in?
The packet lists one direct occupational match — area, ethnic, and cultural studies teachers, postsecondary, at $84,290 median wage and a doctoral typical-entry credential. That is not a bachelor’s-level destination. In practice, bachelor’s completers move into research-assistant roles at think tanks (Asia Society, Stimson Center, CSIS, Brookings, Carnegie Endowment, RAND), program coordinator slots at Asia-focused NGOs, entry-level analyst tracks at the State Department or USAID via the Pathways program, regional-affairs slots at multinationals (Apple, Google, Meta APAC offices, Sony Interactive Entertainment, Nintendo of America), localization and translation work for game studios and streaming platforms, and English-teaching abroad through the JET Program in Japan, EPIK or TaLK in Korea, or NET in Hong Kong. Entry wages typically run $40-55K. Senior tracks — Foreign Service Officer, IC China analyst, NGO country director, McKinsey or BCG regional consultant — usually require a master’s and reach $70-110K mid-career, with $130-180K available 10-15 years in.
Is the bachelor’s standalone, or a graduate-school launching pad?
Mostly a launching pad. The packet’s $58,529 five-year median sits modestly above many liberal-arts averages but below most STEM and business benchmarks, and the only career destination tracked in the packet requires a doctorate. The conventional path is bachelor’s plus one to two years of fieldwork, JET, or a Critical Language Scholarship, followed by a two-year master’s at a school of international affairs — Johns Hopkins SAIS, Tufts Fletcher, Georgetown SFS, Columbia SIPA, Princeton SPIA, Harvard Kennedy, or MIIS Monterey. Foreign Service Officer hopefuls run FSOT exam, FSOA assessment, conditional offer, then medical and security clearance — and language bonus points for Mandarin, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, or other critical languages can be the difference between a register call and the cutoff.
How much does language fluency actually matter for ROI?
Almost everything. Asian Studies compensation outcomes split sharply on whether a graduate builds credible B2- or C1-level fluency in the region’s working language. Without it, the degree reads as humanities-generalist and competes with English-major graduates for the same entry-level roles. With it, the graduate qualifies for State Department language-bonus points (worth up to 17 of 100 register points on the FSOT track), translation and localization roles that pay 15-30 percent above generalist analyst slots, and regional-affairs positions at multinationals where the language premium is real. FLAS Fellowship support — federal Title VI funding routed through National Resource Centers for East Asia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia — is worth applying for early, and Boren Awards subsidize a year abroad in exchange for a federal-service commitment.
Should I worry about machine translation and AI displacing this field?
Partially. Machine translation has closed most of the gap on routine document translation, and large language models handle competent first-pass summary of regional press. The durable lanes are high-context cultural translation where ambiguity matters, regional-policy analysis that depends on relationships and on-the-ground source networks, fieldwork-driven research, and language pedagogy. The fragile lanes are routine localization, generalist briefings, and entry-level desk-research roles where AI is a serviceable substitute. The honest read is to stack this major with a second skill — economics, computer science, finance, public health, or law — so the regional knowledge translates into employment outside the small area-studies-only labor market.
Does the school I pick matter, given how thin the major is?
It matters a lot. Title VI National Resource Centers — the federally funded East Asia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia centers concentrated at UC Berkeley, UCLA, the University of Michigan, Cornell, Wisconsin-Madison, Washington-Seattle, and a handful of others — control FLAS Fellowship funding, bring in visiting faculty, and run intensive summer language programs. The packet’s top issuers run from University of Maryland Global Campus (49 graduates, an unusual top-line driven by online enrollment), Florida International University (33), UCLA (22), Michigan (17), and UT-Austin (15), through Kennesaw State (14), UNC Chapel Hill (13), Cal State Sacramento (12), Cal State Long Beach (11), and Dartmouth (11). Research-flagship programs and NRC-host campuses tend to feed graduate programs, the Foreign Service, and IC tracks more directly than smaller departments.