I am interested in learning about what it is like to recieve a liberal arts education and about whether a graduate can use the degree sucessfully in the real world.
Here are some questions that I have;
-How does a liberal arts education (curriculum, learning method, etc) differ from a non-liberal arts education?
-Is a liberal arts degree sufficient job training? Should it be considered as “education” only?
-How much do prospective employers respect a liberal arts degree?
-Are a graduate’s prospects limited?
-Does the average liberal arts graduate need additional education or training in order to find a good job?
-I have heard it said that a liberal arts education enables a person to pursue almost any career beause it teaches one to think critically. Is this an overstatement?
-Which of these degrees is more valuable or useful; a liberal arts degree, or a specialized degree in a non-Math or Science field (ex. History or English) earned at a non-liberal arts college?
-Would the varied curriculum offered at a liberal arts college and use of critical thinking help a student to discover talents which they may not have disovered if they did not pursue a liberal arts education?
-Do those who graduate with a liberal arts degree have a realistic view of their abilities and are sure of what occupation they want to pursue?
Sincere, well-written responses to any of these questions would be much appreciated.
If you consider the curriculum at, and outcomes from, an emblematic liberal arts university such as Yale, then many of your questions will be answered.
A degree in History or English is a liberal arts degree, regardless of whether it’s earned at a liberal arts college. Likewise for math and science.
Professional and vocational degrees are not liberal arts degrees. Engineering, accounting, and nursing, for instance.
Liberal arts degrees aren’t intended to be job training. But even degrees that are intended to train you for a specific career don’t produce graduates who can work independently from Day One; they produce graduates who have enough of a foundation to be trainable. The liberal arts give you that foundation for jobs where a broad range of generalist skills are useful but no particular specialist skills are required.
The liberal arts consist of:
[ul][]Arts (dance, music, visual arts, etc.)
[]Humanities (art history, Classics, English, philosophy, religion, etc.)
[]Math
[]Sciences (biology, chemistry, geology/earth science, physics, etc.)
[li]Social sciences (anthropology, geography, history, political science, sociology, etc.)[/ul][/li]Most liberal arts colleges and universities require students to select a major from among these fields. Some colleges require students to complete a core curriculum or distribution requirements (e.g. at least 2 classes each in the sciences, humanities, arts, and social sciences), whereas other colleges have no specific graduation requirements outside of completing a major. Amherst and Brown are examples of colleges that have open curriculums.
Colleges also offer “pre-professional” degrees, which prepare students for a specific career. This includes many popular majors like these:
[ul][]Architecture
[]Business
[]Engineering
[]Journalism
[]Nursing
[]Public Health[/ul]
Students majoring in these fields may be required to take liberal arts classes on top of completing their major requirements.
Though seemingly somewhat informal in its methodology, this Forbes article on expensive colleges worth their costs emphasizes those with primarily liberal arts curricula:
Those tend to be degree completion programs, for working adults who have some prior college coursework and need a degree to advance, but the credits they have don’t fulfill the requirements for any particular major. The goal is to get a college degree as quickly and efficiently as possible while working.
IMHO they’re a poor choice for people with the luxury of being full-time students.
In response to #5, I’ll say that B.A. liberal arts programs can develop strong specialized skill sets. In a meaningful sense, a student can be considered to be a chemist or a geologist after graduating with a B.A. degree. Actually, when liberal arts colleges express their missions, developing student proficiency within a chosen area of study typically appears as a core institutional priority.
Perhaps more representative for most potential college students would be the curriculum and outcomes as a liberal arts (science, social science, humanities, arts) major at a moderately selective state university or public liberal arts college.
You mean like a Bachelor of Arts from The Evergreen State College, which has no major or general education requirements beyond completion of 180 quarter credits (equivalent to 120 semester credits)? https://www.evergreen.edu/registration/degrees
Presumably, it will qualify you for a credential-creep job or promotion where a bachelor’s degree but no specific major or course work is required. Given how many jobs are now in this category, that is a non-trivial number of jobs, although the career growth potential and pay level certainly varies.
But note that some students choose specific liberal arts majors for pre-professional reasons. For example, some math, statistics, and economics majors choose those majors intending to go into finance or actuarial jobs. Some economics majors choose it as a substitute for a business major. Some students choose majors like English, math, history, or a science intending to go into high school teaching of the subject after earning the teaching credential.
Poli sci majors often end up with jobs related to government or politics. Math or Econ majors can land positions with consulting firms like Deloitte or Accenture. One of my kids got a job as a researcher with a consulting company with her liberal arts degree, and has worked her way into several interesting positions and promotions with the firm since college.
A lot has been written on this topic because Americans still believe a broad based, widely accessed familiarity with “how the world works” is essential for democracy to function well. Some have gone even farther to suggest that America owes its trademark ability to innovate to its willingness to allow its young a prolonged period to experiment with different ways of learning.
The questions seem to revolve around the length and depth required before someone is required to go on to more practical vocational, professional, or technical training. The age of 21 has traditionally been the arbitrary transition period. In Great Britain and many parts of Europe, one can pursue law and prepare for careers in college teaching at 18 and 19 years of age. But, some would argue that is because their secondary schools are stronger and cover much of the same territory earlier.
I understand “liberal education” to mean “education for freedom” (and not just “education in many different subjects”, as the term in English might suggest). It teaches people to make disciplined use of free time, both their own leisure time and also the largely self-regulated hours employers make available to them for leadership activity and innovation. Successful, innovative companies employ liberally educated “thought leaders”, pay them well, and give them some measure of freedom/autonomy to solve challenging problems. They also tend to encourage these employees to live rich personal lives.
A liberally educated person can be trusted without coercion - but not without accountability - to make good use of one’s own time and the time of others. They are expected not only to solve problems, but also to be able to account for their solutions (or failures) by describing repeatable approaches and evidence sources. Good scholarship would appear to involve widely transferrable skills.
Such a person can be expected to understand (or try to understand) problems from the perspective of times, places, or conditions that may be unfamiliar (but also to recognize the limits of one’s own knowledge). A good liberal education probably does require exposure to a variety of subjects (typically including literature and history) but not necessarily to the exclusion of practical training.
Intparent: My daughter has been accepted to many colleges and she is interested in pursuing International Relations under Political Science major. All her friends are going to major in computer science or business. We always encouraged her to pursue what she is interested in. We are wondering what kind of job opportunities are available in this field.
