How valuable is a Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Arts?

Student Lounge College Life
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<p>Hi all, I would like to ask a few questions re a degree BA in Liberal Arts. I don't mean a degree received at a liberal arts college in a specific major, but colleges where only a "major" in the Liberal Arts is offered.</p>

<p>What are some of the post-graduate implications of such a degree? How do employers and graduate schools look upon it? It's a strange concept to me really, that every student receives the same academic distinction. Does it all come down to skill set and personality offered (for employment) in the end? </p>

<p>Would a BA in Liberal Arts limit one's post-graduate career options to humanities related work? And study to humanities related study?</p>

<p>I would love to hear from anyone who's gone to a college where this is the case. Your opinion is appreciated!</p>

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<p>First and foremost, it’s a bachelor’s degree, and outside of the academic world, most people don’t actually care what your major field is. Skills are what count. Even for admission to a graduate program, a thoughtful and competent liberal arts student could be quite competitive for a humanities program.</p>

<p>That said, the college where I work offers a “bachelor of general studies” degree which sounds similar to what you’re describing. The people who end up graduating with that usually fall into one of three categories: (a) transfer students who have enough credits to graduate but insufficient credits to fulfill a complete major, (b) older returning students who are taking classes for their own knowledge, or © students whose GPA in their senior year falls below the requirement for the major they are enrolled in.</p>

<p>At other schools, a degree in “liberal arts” may well represent a rigorous and interdisciplinary program of study, so be sure to check your intended university’s documents.</p>

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Are you talking about some sort of Great Books college (like St. John’s) where everyone studies essentially the same curriculum?</p>

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<p>Well, such schools are built for those specifically interested in those fields. Musicians go to music schools… art students go to art schools… Babson for business, Webb Institute for marine engineering, etc.</p>

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<p>@ctesiphon No, I’m talking about colleges like Sarah Lawrence where every student receives a BA Liberal Arts after four years. </p>

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<p>“First and foremost, it’s a bachelor’s degree, and outside of the academic world, most people don’t actually care what your major field is. Skills are what count.” </p>

<p>Thank you @‌
Are you saying that so long as you have the required skill set for a particular job, you don’t need a relevant degree to prove it? </p>

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<p>Not at all. If that were the case, why worry whether your surgeon has a medical degree? :wink: What I’m saying is that someone who can, for example, take excellent photos might be a strong candidate for a photography position even if they didn’t major in photography. Plenty of music majors get into medical school (of course, they have taken the prereq bio classes etc as electives on top of their music curriculum) - but their lack of a Bachelor of Science degree doesn’t stop them.</p>

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<p>In a case like this, the name of the degree on your diploma doesn’t matter. Sarah Lawrence has areas of study in which you can concentrate; a student might not formally major in computer science at SLC, but he or she can take 12-15 computer science courses - which would leave him or her just as well-prepared as a computer science major from any other college. I suppose that it is possible for a student at a school like SLC to just willy-nilly take a bunch of courses in a bunch of different areas and never really specialize - but given that college students at SLC (and other schools with this type of program) are advised by professors, those professors will usually help a student put together a program with an appropriate level of both breadth and depth.</p>

<p>It also is going to matter what the curriculum is like and the reputation of the school. A Great Books college like St. John’s with a good solid reputation and a history of turning out well-prepared students is going to be regarded very well, and the BA in Great Books is not going to hinder students coming out of there. I mean, they might not be able to be engineers and nurses (not without additional training anyway), but they probably didn’t go to St. John’s for that anyway. Notre Dame also has the three-year Program of Liberal Studies, but their students go on to be very successful in a variety of fields. These programs seem to be extremely broad but they actually cohere very well and have a set of skills and competencies that they aim to teach students. They’re just using the great literature of the Western tradition rather than secondary textbooks.</p>

<p>It would be a very different thing if an unknown college just allowed students to select any 120 credits they wanted to without any sense of coherence or depth.</p>