Are There Any Liberal Arts Degrees Worth Going to Collegefor
- A liberal arts degree can teach y'all in-demand soft skills, such as disquisitional thinking.
- Due to its broad curriculum, a liberal arts degree prepares you for diverse career paths.
- Cons of a liberal arts education include lower earnings and more than career planning.
In May, Missouri Western State University announced major cuts in response to a historic budget shortfall. In addition to laying off 30% of its kinesthesia, the public university eliminated majors in history, political science, economic science, English, philosophy, and folklore.
The skills gained from a liberal arts education consistently rank amidst the most in-need skills for the future.
Equally higher instruction faces new challenges in the 21st century, a growing number of colleges are responding by cutting liberal arts majors.
Enrollment numbers accept besides decreased for many liberal arts degrees. Philosophy degrees declined 21% from 2010-2016, while English language degrees dropped xix%, co-ordinate to the National Center for Education Statistics. In that aforementioned period, social sciences and history saw a 9% dip, while liberal arts and sciences degrees equally a whole vicious 7%.
Despite these drops, a recent study establish that 80% of employers want all students to study the liberal arts and sciences. Moreover, the skills gained from a liberal arts instruction consistently rank amidst the most in-need skills for the future.
Clearly, a liberal arts didactics holds value in today'due south job market. But do the skills you acquire from a liberal arts caste truly brand it worth pursuing?
What Skills Can a Liberal Arts Caste Give You?
Recently, 92% of executives said American workers don't have the skills needed to succeed at their jobs. But the skills gap isn't merely almost technical knowledge — nearly one-half of executives think workers demand more than soft skills, like critical thinking and communication. While an employer can teach difficult skills, it's much more difficult to train someone in soft skills.
This skills gap is bad news for employers but good news for liberal arts majors, every bit these in-demand competencies are exactly what a liberal arts education emphasizes.
A liberal arts teaching builds potent communication skills, both in writing and speaking.
For case, a liberal arts education builds strong communication skills, both in writing and speaking. Undergraduates acquire to make persuasive arguments backed by evidence and communicate their ideas to diverse groups. A liberal arts caste also encourages creativity and fosters universally of import skills, such as research, analytical reasoning, and creative trouble-solving.
Many industries look for these same abilities in candidates. In fact, Udemy ranked communication, creativity, and critical thinking among the top-ten in-demand soft skills in its 2020 Workplace Learning Trends Study.
Although a professional major like accounting or engineering might teach helpful hard skills, these technical abilities tin apace go dated. By dissimilarity, the soft skills of a liberal arts degree can last for decades.
What Can You lot Do With a Liberal Arts Degree?
A liberal arts teaching prepares graduates for careers in pedagogy, the nonprofit sector, regime, and professional person services. Liberal arts majors as well often work in public relations, marketing, and advertizing — fields that require strong communication skills.
According to a recent report from Emsi and the Strada Institute for the Future of Work, employers want the "human being" skills gained from a liberal arts instruction, such as communication, leadership, and problem-solving. The survey found that 82% of liberal arts majors held jobs that earned them an boilerplate salary of $55,000.
List of Liberal Arts Degree Jobs
A liberal arts degree can also set up professionals for more technical careers. Math majors do good from strong demand in the tech manufacture, while English language majors can piece of work as technical writers.
Rather than looking for a detail major, many employers focus on cardinal skills. Over 90% of employers rank a candidate's critical thinking, communication, and trouble-solving skills as more than important than their specific major.
"When people enquire, 'What are you going to do with that liberal arts degree?' the answer is: 'Any I want,'" said Lynn Pasquerella, president of Mountain Holyoke College. "It'due south your capacity to run across how the skills yous caused tin can be transferred that's of import."
Pursuing a Graduate Degree in the Liberal Arts
Many liberal arts majors go along their education at the graduate level; in fact, 40% of liberal arts majors earn a graduate caste. By doing so, they increase their average salary past more than $twenty,000 per year.
Liberal arts careers like political scientist, economist, and sociologist typically crave at least a primary's caste. Students with a liberal arts caste may too pursue graduate programs in mathematics, history, a foreign linguistic communication, statistics, or biotechnology to increase their earning potential.
For the many liberal arts majors who become into teaching, a master'south caste tin enhance their salary. Some universities offer an interdisciplinary liberal arts graduate caste that blends the humanities and social sciences.
If yous intend to pursue a graduate degree in a liberal arts subject you're passionate about, information technology'southward important to ensure you are fully funded.
Additionally, a liberal arts degree can help applicants gain admission to competitive professional graduate programs. In 2016, police schools accepted more than 85% of applicants with an economics, linguistics, or math major, just less than 70% of business administration and criminal justice majors.
Medical schools often admit liberal arts majors also. The acme 10 undergraduate majors for doctors include English, history, economic science, psychology, and biology.
All the same, if you intend to pursue a graduate caste in a liberal arts subject you're passionate about, information technology's important to ensure you are fully funded. Any legitimate Ph.D. programs volition fund their students, and paying out-of-pocket for a last master's degree may be inadvisable depending on your fiscal situation.
Is a Liberal Arts Caste Worth Information technology?
A liberal arts instruction isn't for anybody and, like every field, contains certain disadvantages.
Dissimilar a professional degree that prepares graduates for a specific career path, liberal arts majors must invest in career planning. While information technology's true that a liberal arts degree appeals to many potential employers, candidates must be able to sell their skills.
By their peak earning ages, liberal arts graduates tend to outearn their counterparts with professional degrees.
On the surface, a liberal arts degree might too look more expensive than other options. For example, private liberal arts colleges typically accuse the highest tuition rates. That said, many liberal arts colleges offering institutional scholarships and financial aid to help lower costs.
Students put off by the loftier price tag of a liberal arts college might consider earning a liberal arts degree at an in-state public school, which typically charges the lowest tuition rates.
Liberal arts majors also earn slightly lower salaries than professional majors in the years immediately after graduation. Withal, by their elevation earning ages, liberal arts graduates tend to outearn their counterparts with professional degrees.
The Future of Liberal Arts and the Humanities
Workers built-in between 1957 and 1964 held an average of more than 12 jobs from ages eighteen-52. This trend will keep into the future, according to data from LinkedIn, which reported that 2006-2010 higher graduates worked for virtually twice every bit many companies in the 5 years after graduation compared with 1986-1990 graduates.
In an increasingly changing work surroundings, transferable skills can aid candidates stand out. In other words, a liberal arts degree can ameliorate weather condition a volatile chore marketplace.
Paul Timmins, manager of career services at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, points to the longevity of a liberal arts educational activity: "Liberal arts report helps students develop strong foundational competencies. It gives them tools to succeed beyond their first job."
Robert Vega, managing director of liberal arts career services at the University of Texas at Austin, agrees. "The basis of liberal arts teaching is a broad, multidisciplinary foundation," he said. "Nosotros're graduating thinkers who will solve bug of the hereafter that we don't even know are problems today."
"Liberal arts study helps students develop strong foundational competencies. It gives them tools to succeed beyond their commencement job.". Source: — Paul Timmins, Director of Career Services at the Academy of Minnesota in Minneapolis
Likewise, Pasquerella believes that "the breadth and depth of a liberal arts education allows people to transfer their skills into new contexts. Where apace changing technology means rapid obsolescence, that adjustability is more of import than e'er."
Take, for instance, the function of automation. In the time to come, bogus intelligence threatens to replace millions of jobs. But roles that require inventiveness and disquisitional thinking are robot-resistant, according to entrepreneur Mark Cuban. "Knowing how to critically think and assess [information] from a global perspective I think is going to exist more than valuable" than technical skills, said Cuban.
Jonathan Rosenberg, a Google executive and advisor to Alphabet CEO Larry Page, too sees a brilliant future for the liberal arts. In 2017 he told CNBC, "We need more traditional liberal arts grads."
Whether you are passionate well-nigh a particular liberal arts subject, or you lot merely want a well-rounded education that will prepare you for the time to come workforce, a liberal arts education is worth the investment of time, money, and energy.
Source: https://www.bestcolleges.com/blog/is-a-liberal-arts-degree-worth-it/
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