Liberal Arts degrees

[LonePine]

I know this thread if kinda old, but I'll ask my question anyway. Are you all saying a BA in Liberal Arts/Studies is worthless? Or am I misinterpretating something?

[ryoder]

Define worthless.
If you mean that with zero experience and just a college degree on your resume, can you get a good paying professional job?
I think the answer is probably no with a liberal arts degree.

Think about it like this. Look at monster.com for jobs in your area in a field you have an interest. Make sure that the jobs are plentiful. If there is 1 job posting for your interest then move to another city or pick another interest.

Now say you found a job category that interests you, pays enough and that has enough coverage in your town. What are the minimum requirements for that job. I have never ever seen "Requires Liberal Arts Degree or similar"
However, I have seen "Requires Computer Science, Information Technology or similar plus 4 years of experience"

Knowledge is never ever worthless and I have been employed for many years with no degree and I do very well. I do have a skill in computer programming and project management however. That is how I market myself.

If my only qualifications were a liberal arts degree I don't think I could convince someone to pay me to do something like accounting, programming, management, finance, or anything specific.

If you want to go into an MBA or law school maybe it doesn't matter but its certainly not a job preparation degree.

[P00057870]

Although the above is true for certain careers, there are a lot of other careers were HR is more interested in your ability to learn. There are a set of skills that many business are happy to have, and they do not necessarily look for a specific degree. Some are looking to see if you can communicate (write and speak) clearly, able to comprehend a certain level of difficult information, complete assignments in a timely fashion (deadlines), etc. In this day and age, some degrees that had values even 5 years ago, today the persons who have them are finding it difficult to get a job and are back retraining for another career.

Bottom line is that it depends on what you are doing or plan to do.

One of the things nice about EC is that you can have a "focus" for your liberal arts degree. If you plan it right, you may have two of them. One has to be in science or arts but the other can be in your professional development area. It allows you to have your cake and eat it too. This would allow you to get your degree more easily and less expensively but still have a lot of courses in your chosen career, which certainly will please my employer.

Again, no it will not get you a career in areas like accounting, engineering, medicine, etc., but for many it will be what they need.

[burbuja0512]

Many degrees need something else other than what you'll learn in a four year college. To bring it back to the point of the OP, an LPN degree will get you a job doing what you studied for. An LPN may not be glamorous, but you have learned a skill. Can you say the same about a liberal arts degree? What are you going to do? Be a liberal artist?

Don't take this the wrong way.. I think a liberal arts degree is as good as many other degrees, like business or psych or history or sociology, etc. But it's hard to jump right out of school into a solid career with one of these degrees unless you add something else, like a graduate degree or work experience.

For many of us working adults, a degree is just a check box. It's the one thing that our resumes are missing. I could literally get a degree in underwater basket weaving and my boss would be pleased. He doesn't care, but wants to see that someone at my career level has the piece of paper.

For a brand new student, if liberal arts is what interests you, then do it! However you will need to plan your future out and make sure that you are focused on what your next steps will be. If you don't want graduate school, then I would suggest either several really good internships or volunteer work to add experience to your resume, or quite frankly, look at different degree options.

I know I'm rambling a bit now, but let's look at it from the perspective of an employer. If I hire a recent college grad, I already know that I'm going to have to train them on office basics and basically teach them how to work. However, if they have a relevant degree in the field, then they will add something to enhance the knowledge base of the team, so it could be worth the hassle.

The question with any job is "what do I bring to the team? Why am I a better choice than the 500 other candidates that applied?" If your only answer is that you have a degree and lots of enthusiasm and that you're a quick learner, you probably need to study more or gain more experience. (did I mention volunteer work or internships?) Or just be prepared to take the lowest possible entry level job and anticipate that it will take years to work your way up.

I REALLY do not mean this post to be negative in any way, shape, or form. It's just very important to be totally realistic about what different degrees will get you. I feel so bad for kids that think that the world will open up to them once they have their undergrad. I would compare it to when little girls read fairy tales. You learn that you get married and it's "Happily ever after." Just like when you get a bachelors, you think that you'll get the job of your dreams and make enough money to support your family in luxury. It can be true, but does require a lot more work than the diploma, unless you're really lucky or incredibly well-connected.

[MA2]

I know this thread if kinda old, but I'll ask my question anyway. Are you all saying a BA in Liberal Arts/Studies is worthless? Or am I misinterpretating something?

A BA degree in liberals arts is worthless about 99% of the time, in my opinion.

[ryoder]

There is a stigma among intellectual elites that was common before the age of exploration that work and commerce are ignoble and are tasks left to the slaves and the lowest in society.
The pursuits of law, government and art were the only noble professions.
It was the demonization of commerce that held the entire world back until finally through the protestant reformation in Europe, the stage was set for capitalism. The protestants believed that your work on this earth was to be done for the glory of God. They thought that by "finding your calling" you were serving God. This allowed the pursuit of capitalism and fueled American productivity for many years.

Only in capitalism are economic pursuits considered noble.

This is why a liberal person would be ashamed of a professional degree and proud of a liberal arts degree such as philosophy, womens studies, history etc.

I am reading The History of Management Thought right now and its an excellent reading.

[alleycat]

Is a Liberal Arts degree any good or relevant in this society? Of course it is. Most teachers have a degree in Liberal Arts. The director of Stanford University's MBA program as saying his program doesn't prefer applicants who had business as an undergraduate major; instead, liberal-arts majors are among the program's preferred applicants.

While the specialized skills that come with other majors may seem to be an advantage, the universality of liberal-arts skills truly is your ace in the hole because you are not limited by a specialization. Employers can train new hires in specialized skills on the job. But they can't train workers to have the critical-thinking skills, problem-solving skills, and the capacity for lifelong learning that today's organizations require. Experts say that most people will change careers five to seven times in a lifetime; thus, specialized skills may be of limited value in the long run, while the depth and breadth of liberal-arts skills are limitless.

Now being a liberal arts major can change ones focus from "what I do" to "what I can do". Sometimes liberal-arts majors struggle a bit more than other majors when launching their careers, but the evidence shows that they tend to advance farther and be more sought out by CEOs for high-level jobs than non-liberal-arts graduate do." Liberal-arts majors in particular are the "what I can do" people.

Please, most employers don't care what your undergraduate degree is in--they just want to know if you can get long with others, can write and think critically, and you don't run with scissors. A liberal arts education is more than looking for a job--it is a about a quality of life. We have done nothing but reduce education to jobs in this country and have forgotten creativity, interdisciplinarity, and thinking outside the box that the humanities demands of you.


The more you believe in the great choice of major you made, the better you will be able to market yourself to employers.

[learflyer]

A BA degree in liberals arts is worthless about 99% of the time, in my opinion.

I don't know. It seems a Liberal Arts degree isn't any more worthless than a business degree these days. Most people have degrees in one field, but work in a totally different field. It all depends on the economy as well. If companies aren't hiring (like what's been happening over the past three years) then even an MBA is worthless. Welcome to the new America! My wife has a Finance degree from a prestigious B&M school, worked several years in the banking industry, has a law degree from another prestigious school in new england, and she has been reduced to working at a University as an Instructor (not professor) for $40,000 per year. A figure she used to double in bonuses alone. It sucks out there.

[MA2]

While the specialized skills that come with other majors may seem to be an advantage, the universality of liberal-arts skills truly is your ace in the hole because you are not limited by a specialization. Employers can train new hires in specialized skills on the job. But they can't train workers to have the critical-thinking skills, problem-solving skills, and the capacity for lifelong learning that today's organizations require. Experts say that most people will change careers five to seven times in a lifetime; thus, specialized skills may be of limited value in the long run, while the depth and breadth of liberal-arts skills are limitless.

Now being a liberal arts major can change ones focus from "what I do" to "what I can do". Sometimes liberal-arts majors struggle a bit more than other majors when launching their careers, but the evidence shows that they tend to advance farther and be more sought out by CEOs for high-level jobs than non-liberal-arts graduate do." Liberal-arts majors in particular are the "what I can do" people.

Please, most employers don't care what your undergraduate degree is in--they just want to know if you can get long with others, can write and think critically, and you don't run with scissors. A liberal arts education is more than looking for a job--it is a about a quality of life. We have done nothing but reduce education to jobs in this country and have forgotten creativity, interdisciplinarity, and thinking outside the box that the humanities demands of you.

Nothing you said isn't also true, or more so, of a "real" degree. I would much rather prove my "critical thinking skills" with an engineering or economics degree instead of a "I just studied each subject a little bit" degree.

While it is true that not everyone can be an engineer, I would get a liberal arts degree as a last resort. As mentioned earlier, no company says "Liberal arts degree required" on their employment page.

Also, here is a link of the top 10 CEOs along with their degrees:

Education Level of The Top 10 CEOs in America |

While it does indirectly say that you don't need a degree to be successful or rich, it does show that no one on there has a liberal arts degree. The only one that even comes close is #7 the CEO of Starbucks with a communication Bachelors.

And in this job market how are you going to set yourself apart with a liberal arts degree? If I was a hiring manager and 2 people were identical, but one had a bachelors in math, English, science, economics, accounting, finance, etc, vs someone with a liberal arts degree, I would hire the first guy.

I think most people would agree.

[skyfall123]

A liberal arts education is more than looking for a job--it is a about a quality of life.

:hurray: If you don't believe that check out the girls masterpiece
http://www.degreeforum.net/off-topic/134...-vote.html