The Pros and Cons of a Liberal Arts education

College Search & Selection
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<p>I need everyone's help. Also, I'm not sure that this is in the right section so let me know.</p>

<p>Anyway...
I decided to only apply to small LACs out-of-state (I live in Florida). I want to major in English and political science. But here's the deal...</p>

<p>My parents believe that a liberal arts education is worthless and INSIST I go to the University of Florida (the chances of me not getting accepted there are very small for many different reasons). My argument is that I'd be a liberal arts major even at UF, so I may as well go to a school that does the liberal arts education the right way. I want small classes, etc. They want me to major in business since liberal arts degrees are "worthless." They INSIST that no one has ever heard of ANY of the schools to which I'm applying (they like to pick on Macalester a lot because it's in Minnesota and also because they're ignorant and have never heard of it, thus assuming that no one else has).</p>

<p>I've been searching the internet, but can't find articles from reliable sources that chronicle the benefits of a LA education, so I've come here. Help me, please. I really don't even want to apply to UF, let alone end up there, majoring in something that I absolutely hate. Unless I make a really convincing case, my parents might force me to do so, and I know that it is the absolute wrong environment for someone like me (not to mention that I get very physically ill every time I'm in the town of Gainesville...coincidence?).</p>

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<p>As far as I know, LACs have a much smaller student population than most other major schools. You generally tend to get to know professors a little bit more and because the classes are so small, you HAVE to interact with the other students. I have a friend that goes to Middlebury in Vermont and that population is about 2k. She says that you see the same faces on campus all the time and you know who belongs and who doesn't. The work load is alot more intense because of the smaller class size and the unability(forgive my spelling and word choice) to skip class. So theres my 2 cents if it means anything. Hope it helped (at least a little!) Oh, and if they INSIST you do business, tell them economics is a liberal arts major</p>

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<p>An argument I often hear in favor of a liberal arts education is that it prepares you for anything--a college major is not always a one-way track to a career. People with one degree are quite capable of doing a job that doesn't seem related to the degree. Sometimes people major in one thing in college and pursue career-oriented study in grad school.</p>

<p>[url=<a href="http://www.swarthmore.edu/bulletin/archive/00/june00/useful.html%5Duseful.html%5B/url"&gt;http://www.swarthmore.edu/bulletin/archive/00/june00/useful.html]useful.html[/url&lt;/a&gt;]
Check that out. Swarthmore hands it out in the form of a brochure.</p>

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<p>Have you considered New College of Florida, it's a public school, so in state tuition will be cheap, and there was a ranking of top 50 or so schools that are feeder schools to top mba/law/medical schools, and New College of Florida was the second highest public school< i think after berkeley</p>

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<p>This is a link to a collection of essays from which you may be able to assemble a persuasive argument.</p>

<p>Editorials</a> and Commentary from the Nation’s Leading Liberal Arts Colleges</p>

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<p>It sounds like your parents are practical thinkers. I would show them the recent study showing how well grads of LAC's do salary wise (Forbes.com) and show them matriculation lists for any top MBA program.</p>

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<p>Let's try that again -- an accidental keystroke prematurely sent my first reply, and the system refused to accept the edit.</p>

<p>The main purpose of any liberal arts college is to teach you to think critically. Any good liberal arts college will help you to reason through the consequences of a stated claim, to see internal contradictions in an argument, to identify unstated assumptions, and to recognize bias in an argument, whether it's the other side or your own. These are essential skills for any job, whether your major is chemistry, political science, business, or English.</p>

<p>I majored in chemistry at a small liberal arts school and now teach chemistry at a major state university. Some of my English major friends are now Hollywood screenwriters, and one is an agent after working as a television producer for CBS. Another English major works for Citibank in New York. A friend of mine majored in Russian because he wanted to play chess against Russians, and now he negotiates business deals with Russian businessmen. All of these guys came from tiny Knox College that nobody ever heard of.</p>

<p>At a liberal arts college your schedule in any given semester is likely to include chemistry and philosophy, or biology and theater, or philosophy and phychology. The juxtaposition of ideas helps you understand things in ways you otherwise probably never would. My students at the state university have schedules loaded with chemistry, biology, and math.</p>

<p>Large state universities do offer benefits that small liberal arts schools don't -- they have a wider selection of majors, and some students thrive in the larger, more open community of a state school. But there are others who enjoy life at a small residential school where everybody stays there on evenings and weekends, and where you spend the small hours facetiously arguing about Descartes until the debate inevitable descends into an exchange of Shakespearean insults. That's what we did, and we all got jobs afterward.</p>

<p>BTW, in the past four years, Knox's commencement speakers have included Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Stephen Colbert, and Madeleine Albright. Apparently not everyone thinks liberal arts colleges are a waste of time. I would recommend you call the alumni office of whatever liberal arts school you're considering and ask them about some recent and some notable alumni, commencement speakers, and honorary degree recipients. It might help your parents realize that even if they've never heard of a place like Macalester (which is a great school, by the way), lots of other people have, and for good reason.</p>

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<p>Checkout this sites which provides links to a variety of articles and research on the value of a liberal arts education and the contributions of residential liberal arts colleges </p>

<p>Additional</a> Resources</p>

<p>Center</a> of Inquiry in the Liberal Arts - RESEARCH</p>

<p>Also, show them college guides which rank colleges, e.g., The Fiske Guide and Barron's. Let them see Macalester's ranking compared to UFL.</p>

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<p>Thanks so much for all of this! I'm definitely going to be able to form a great argument...I hope, anyway!</p>

<p>Also, RE: New College. I knew this would get brought up. I looked into the school and decided it wasn't for me. I felt it was TOO small (I want at least 1,000 students...preferably somewhere between 1500 and 2500, though some schools I'm applying to are slightly bigger), I didn't identify with the student body, and overall, found that it wasn't a good school for me. Not to mention that I want out of Florida.</p>

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<p>mp153 you mentioned Macalester earlier. What other schools are you considering?</p>

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<p>There is nothing wrong with a good liberal arts education. You will be in fact and educated person, relative to some who have specialized (e.g. engineering). There are many careers that will take a Liberal Arts degree. However, it forecloses engineering for example. Those who are willing to look long-run might choose Liberal Arts then get an MBA for job related interests.</p>

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<p>I'm with fvladad, I'd love to hear your list</p>

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<p>Some other schools I have on my list are Barnard, Franklin and Marshall, Muhlenberg, Oberlin, Goucher, and Haverford (though I know that one is a MAJOR reach). I also have some smaller privates like Brandeis and Tufts (though both are also probably reaches) and then some other privates that are medium-largeish, like BU, NYU, and Fordham. The last three made the cut because I felt like they were smaller than they actually were when I visited.</p>

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<p>As far as no one ever hearing of Macalaster, Kofi Annan graduated from there. He was a former secretary general of the UN.</p>

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<p>^^^^Hikids wrote: "There are many careers that will take a Liberal Arts degree. However, it forecloses engineering for example."</p>

<p>I just want to say that's not true. Plenty of LAC grads go into engrineering. You can go get a graduate degree in engineering without an undergrad degree in engineering... So, LAC grads still go get grad degrees in a range of professional fields of study: engineering, journalism, business, architecture, public health, design, education, etc. They use their sound undergrad education as a foundation for a wide range of studies.</p>

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<p>Bumping, as it is the weekend and I decided to make a quick powerpoint presentation and would like some more opinions.</p>

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<p>People that I have known with parents who are overstepping their bounds and insisting that their offspring follow a specific career path have double majored. For example, my sister has a friend whose parents are for cultural reasons convinced that no good could come of their daughter's studio art degree, so she is double majoring in engineering. I had a buddy in college who completed all the pre med courses and majored in music performance. Even if you end up in Gainseville, try to keep an open mind as some of the benefits might not be apparent until you are a student there, you can balance your passions with your parents' desires.</p>

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<p>Also, it might make your parents feel better if you tell them about the consortiums that most of these schools belong to. For example, Barnard students can take all/most/some of their classes at Columbia University, right across the street. Haverford students can take classes at Bryn Mawr, Swarthmore or UPenn. Wellesley students can take business courses at Babson and engineering/science at MIT. So it’s not like you’ll be cloistered away on some small campus studying obscure and/or dead languages! (not that there’s anything wrong with that!)</p>

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<p>One of the big questions when I graduated from HS MANY years ago is whether a “Liberal Arts” education was worth it. Back then, we all realized that it didn’t train you for anything. Nice to see that things haven’t changed.</p>

<p>With certain exceptions – engineering, architecture, etc. which require years of highly technical training, I don’t view University as being a vocational school. When you graduate with a liberal arts degree, you are not qualified for any specific job, but will be qualified for an entry-level position at many.</p>

<p>Many many college students change majors – this is normal and natural. Students have no idea what will ultimately interest them, and college gives them a chance to try things out. Similarly, a first job may not be the career you wind up with. That’s why I personally prefer a broader education that teaches you how to think rather than a narrower education that trains you for a specific position.</p>

<p>I think a vocationally based education deprives you of the natural and normal chance to grow.</p>

<p>Anyway, this debate was going on when I started school, and undoubtedly it will continue when my great grand children apply.</p>

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<p>The various liberal arts majors do vary in terms of job prospects and graduation (e.g. economics, math, and statistics versus biology, literature, and history), and many students majoring in liberal arts subjects choose them for specific pre-professional reasons.</p>