Liberal arts? Good? Bad?
15/08/12 10:37
Q. What is liberal arts, and would a liberal arts education make it harder to get a job?
A. “Liberal arts” is a semi-well-defined term generally applied to colleges. A liberal arts education is intentionally broad and tries to cover a lot of subjects in the humanities, arts, and sciences – that’s like studying why and how people and things work within the world, used to work, and maybe will work in the future. It is probably easier just to explain what “liberal arts” usually doesn’t include. A typical liberal arts college, like Bowdoin, Bates, and Colby, offers Economics courses and English, History, Sciences, and weird humanities courses like psychology and sociology and philosophy and anthropology and psychobiology and ethnomusicology, but they don’t usually offer business and accounting and engineering and culinary arts and poultry science and forensic entomology and turf management and other “preprofessional” courses that help you prepare for a specific job. In truth, the large majority of universities offer all of the above; they have a liberal arts program among many other “preprofessional” programs. Interestingly, many community colleges, which have in the past been focused on preparing students for a particular trade, are now expanding their liberal arts programs, and will continue to do so, if they don’t loose their courage.
So much for my more boring answer to your first question. To me, the second half of your question is much more interesting. At least to me!
If there is a subject within a liberal arts education that interests you a lot, I encourage you to pursue that. You will be more successful in college and in your career if you are working on something you care about.
Honestly, a liberal arts education is usually closer to subjects you have studied in high school, so if you really need a change of pace, you may want to pursue a more preprofessional program that seems more useful, and interesting, to you. But, if you announce that you plan to pursue a Peace Studies major instead of Molecular Genetics, be prepared for the adult world (which includes many parents) to groan a collective sigh covering over “how’s that kid ever going to get a job?”
You spend sixteen or seventeen years in education, if you go to a four-year college, and the adult world falls apart if their child can’t find a job in the first month after college. If finding a quick job is your priority, a liberal arts curriculum may not be the way to go. Liberal arts majors are generally slower to get jobs, but usually end up making more money over a lifetime. There is research on this, but it is complicated. A liberal arts education will help you integrate many different sets of knowledge to solve complex problems of the world, of a business, of your career. A good liberal arts education will help you reason and analyze, but if that doesn’t “float your boat,” you should pursue something of greater interest and a more immediate return, like naval architecture.
The “most liberal arts college in the country?” I cast my vote for St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland. Least liberal arts college? I will split my vote between NASCAR Tech and Cosmotech. But even Cosmotech has a course on theory. That sounds very liberal arts!
A. “Liberal arts” is a semi-well-defined term generally applied to colleges. A liberal arts education is intentionally broad and tries to cover a lot of subjects in the humanities, arts, and sciences – that’s like studying why and how people and things work within the world, used to work, and maybe will work in the future. It is probably easier just to explain what “liberal arts” usually doesn’t include. A typical liberal arts college, like Bowdoin, Bates, and Colby, offers Economics courses and English, History, Sciences, and weird humanities courses like psychology and sociology and philosophy and anthropology and psychobiology and ethnomusicology, but they don’t usually offer business and accounting and engineering and culinary arts and poultry science and forensic entomology and turf management and other “preprofessional” courses that help you prepare for a specific job. In truth, the large majority of universities offer all of the above; they have a liberal arts program among many other “preprofessional” programs. Interestingly, many community colleges, which have in the past been focused on preparing students for a particular trade, are now expanding their liberal arts programs, and will continue to do so, if they don’t loose their courage.
So much for my more boring answer to your first question. To me, the second half of your question is much more interesting. At least to me!
If there is a subject within a liberal arts education that interests you a lot, I encourage you to pursue that. You will be more successful in college and in your career if you are working on something you care about.
Honestly, a liberal arts education is usually closer to subjects you have studied in high school, so if you really need a change of pace, you may want to pursue a more preprofessional program that seems more useful, and interesting, to you. But, if you announce that you plan to pursue a Peace Studies major instead of Molecular Genetics, be prepared for the adult world (which includes many parents) to groan a collective sigh covering over “how’s that kid ever going to get a job?”
You spend sixteen or seventeen years in education, if you go to a four-year college, and the adult world falls apart if their child can’t find a job in the first month after college. If finding a quick job is your priority, a liberal arts curriculum may not be the way to go. Liberal arts majors are generally slower to get jobs, but usually end up making more money over a lifetime. There is research on this, but it is complicated. A liberal arts education will help you integrate many different sets of knowledge to solve complex problems of the world, of a business, of your career. A good liberal arts education will help you reason and analyze, but if that doesn’t “float your boat,” you should pursue something of greater interest and a more immediate return, like naval architecture.
The “most liberal arts college in the country?” I cast my vote for St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland. Least liberal arts college? I will split my vote between NASCAR Tech and Cosmotech. But even Cosmotech has a course on theory. That sounds very liberal arts!