Should I Do a Concentration With My Liberal Arts Degree
Liberal arts degrees get a lot of shade. Y'all could say that "liberal arts" has even go a kind of epithet, shorthand for privileged, idealistic out-of-touchness or mopey fecklessness. (Yes, I majored in English with a focus in creative writing—I mean Creative Writing—at a liberal arts college. I'thousand non existence defensive! You're being defensive.) If everything I'm saying sounds unfamiliar, just watch the 2012 movie Liberal Arts and y'all'll become the thought.
Googling "why liberal arts degrees…", the first option that pops upwardly to complete your thought is "why liberal arts degrees are worthless"; the second is "why liberal arts degrees are important." This seems to sum upwards a lot about the public's ambivalence on the topic.
The public'south perception of liberal arts degrees can be murky for another reason: not everyone understands what they are. I know this considering I realized, in writing this article, that even I—someone with a liberal arts degree—wasn't quite sure how to define them.
Wait, what exactly is a liberal arts caste?
It seems safe to assume that, if you graduate from a liberal arts institution, you volition have a liberal arts degree. But, wait, what constitutes a liberal arts institution?
"The phrase 'liberal arts higher' itself is cryptic," wrote Joel Clemmer in The Academic Library Director: Reflections on a Position in Transition. "To define the set of institutions to be discussed, the statistical approach used by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advance [sic] of Teaching was selected. From this list were culled primarily undergraduate individual institutions that honor more than 50 pct of their baccalaureate degrees in the liberal arts."
Unpacking that, it sounds like the Carnegie Foundation for the Advocacy of Instruction divers liberal arts institutions, at least circa 1997 (The Academic Library Manager'southward copyright date), as individual institutions that focus on undergraduate education with over one-half of their undergraduates getting bachelor's degrees in the liberal arts.
But what exactly are the liberal arts?
Many people mistakenly use "liberal arts" and "humanities" interchangeably. In fact, humanities—the umbrella over subjects that explore the homo condition like literature, history, theology, music, art, speech, theater, strange languages, and film—is just i subsection of the liberal arts. Surprising for some to realize is that liberal arts also include maths and sciences—subjects like biology, statistics, and physics. It is this expansiveness that defines a liberal arts education: in social club to graduate, students must complete courses in all of the disciplines that inform the man feel, meaning arts (fine arts, music, performing arts, literature), mathematics, natural science (biological science, chemistry, physics, astronomy, earth scientific discipline), philosophy, and religious studies.
Sounds pretty legit, right?
Why do so many people call liberal arts degrees useless, then? They say that a lot.
It's true—people dearest to throw that phrase around. While some run across the value in cultivating a more varied intellectual capacity rather than focusing solely on the acquisition of specialized vocational skills, others argue that the more generalized liberal arts curriculum doesn't ready students for the demands of the current job market.
Fifty-fifty every bit the real-earth value of today's liberal arts education has been chosen into question, its price tag is prohibitive. (Then again, this is just the nature of the U.S. college machine. "Tuition costs have soared in recent decades," The Atlantic reported in 2014. "In 1973, the average cost for tuition and fees at a private nonprofit college was $10,783, adjusted for 2013 dollars. Costs tripled over the ensuing 40 years, with the average jumping to $30,094 last yr. Even in the last decade the increase was a staggering 25 percent.")
Participating in the business concern of American higher education can feel at one time like a concession to some repugnant organization and a requirement—a requirement unless you're one of those rare exceptional people who, through grit, luck, and innovativeness, is able to "go far" in the world without some institution's official vetting. Only, the thinking seems to go, every bit long every bit your caste is in something "practical," it's worth it.
All degrees are non created equal.
We've established that liberal arts degrees can include the maths and sciences. Then, it'south completely possible that a person could go a liberal arts engineering degree and and so continue to be an engineer—it but ways that they will have a more expansive educational runway than those getting their engineering degrees through research universities. These aren't the folks people are referring to when they're talking trash most "useless liberal arts degrees."
The "useless liberal arts caste," instead, seems to be reserved for those individuals who have taken on the double-whammy of impracticality: a liberal arts degree in a humanities bailiwick.
"We keep telling young Americans that a bachelor'south degree in history is as valuable as, say, a chemical engineering caste—but it's only not true anymore," equally entrepreneur Scott Gerber wrote in The Atlantic in 2012. "All degrees are not created equal."
The nearly maligned, perhaps, is the English major. (When the 35-year-erstwhile protagonist of Liberal Arts is asked what he majored in, he jokes, "I was English, with a modest in history, just to make sure I was fully unemployable.") One could debate that annihilation in the arts is besides on this level. And yet, here we are, then many of united states! What have we done with our "useless" liberal arts degrees?
Allow's look at a few case studies.
What are some people doing with their "useless" liberal arts degrees?
Like I said, I majored in English. My available's degree is from Westminster College, in a minor Missouri town called Fulton. In high school, I had been genuinely interested in learning about topics that interested me (people and their stories), but I wasn't likewise fussed virtually colleges, aside from knowing that I wanted to go to one. I call back I applied to iii or four in total, and Westminster was the only one that gave me a scholarship, so I went there. (Luckily information technology was peradventure the but one that fulfilled my 2 criteria—not in Arkansas and a liberal arts college—which is either a testament to how poor of a planner I was or how much faith I had in my own dumb luck.) I'd applied to information technology because a guy in my friend grouping was going there, and I thought he was really smart.
It'southward hard to say how differently my life would've played out had I not gone to this schoolhouse, simply probably pretty differently? Because of its small size—it was supposedly just under i,000 people when I got at that place—I felt empowered to put my hands in more areas than I might have in a larger schoolhouse. I believe information technology was also this small size that allowed me to be awarded a study abroad scholarship, something I dubiety I would've bothered applying to if I'd felt the competition had been more numerous.
I would never take ended up in Spain had I non studied Spanish. And Spain is the all-time identify for me to do what I'yard doing, so I have no regrets.
In Spain (my minors were political science and Spanish), I met Sara Reinbold, from Minnesota. It was 2009. She was attention Arizona State University, getting her degrees in art history and Castilian linguistics through the academy'south College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. ("I think I took more than liberty with my degrees because it was all paid with grant money," she explains.)
At the time, her plans were to star in a telenovela or become an fine art thief. Today, she's an entrepreneur and a fitness instructor, teaching pilates and barre in Madrid through the company she founded, Fresh to Death Fitness Madrid. "I feel extra happy most it," she says. "I would never accept ended upwardly in Spain had I not studied Spanish. And Kingdom of spain is the best identify for me to practice what I'm doing, so I accept no regrets."
"Also," she says, "sometimes I call up virtually falling back on the fine art history and pursuing a more than advanced degree and becoming a museum curator when my body becomes too quondam and decrepit to teach fitness."
Asked if anyone ever tried to talk her out of her caste, she says, "Yeah, briefly. My parents mentioned engineering. But it was a pretty [one-half-hearted] try. And they are the concluding people from whom I would accept advice about life choices."
Sara and I stayed friends later on our semesters abroad and ended up living together in southern Spain later college in 2011, then downward the street from each other the next year in Madrid. This was where I fabricated the somewhat random decision to move to New York City, influenced more than than I care to admit past the fact that, traveling on Christmas holiday, I met a Parisian boy who was studying film at NYU. (He was no longer at that place by the time I moved; he'd only imprinted the city in my brain every bit a romantic identify to be.)
Even so hella proud of my English degree, as it'southward helped in a lot of unexpected ways—catching typos, writing scripts for videos, coming upward with social copy, etcetera.
My get-go fourth dimension visiting NYC was when I moved here in February 2014, with no job and no friends. That summer I got a copywriting internship at a digital media startup that I found through Craigslist, the selection procedure for which was writing a haiku. At that place, I met Kara Cummings, an almost-graduate from Staten Isle.
Past 2015, Kara would complete school at Fairfield University in Connecticut. Her major was English with a focus in creative writing, and her minor was in film/Television/new media. She says she had "no real concrete plans" with her degree.
"I teased the thought of going into publishing somehow—copywriting, editing, proofreading," she says. "I applied to an internship at Scholastic my junior year only didn't get it … so I was kinda like, [screw] this publishing matter, information technology'south as well competitive."
"Surprisingly," she says, no one actually tried to talk her out of her degree. "Well-nigh family members were supportive—like, 'You tin can do so much with an English caste!' It was mostly other college students … talking up the importance of getting a business degree or something 'useful,' but my fam was all well-nigh information technology—probably due to my grandfather being a playwright and English language professor."
Later interning with me that summer, Kara went on to do piece of work in marketing earlier pivoting to social media strategy and video production at Business Insider. Today she works in Los Angeles as a video editor and producer at a small digital media startup, where she focuses "mainly on social video and growing our brand audition by creating content that gets a lot of views."
"I feel okay about it right now," she says, drawing out the "okay." " … mostly proud of myself for learning Premiere and other programs I never learned in schoolhouse. Even so hella proud of my English degree, every bit information technology'southward helped in a lot of unexpected means—catching typos, writing scripts for videos, coming up with social copy, etcetera. I think digital media is a hard place to 'brand it'—probably just as competitive as print publishing—just I think the English degree stands out in this industry [compared to film and communications degrees]."
Her ultimate plan is "obv not to make viral videos until I die." Instead, she's "just trying to effigy out every twenty-four hours how to contain what I learned in schoolhouse—and life, and previous jobs—to something that will carry me through to something greater?" She'd be interested in something related to documentary filmmaking or nonfiction narratives, she says—annihilation related to "telling important stories that inspire."
What's next for the "useless" liberal arts caste?
Importantly, I'm not suggesting nosotros get rid of liberal arts departments—I'm suggesting we create more employable English and pic majors.
In the summertime of 2016, Pew Research Center and Elon University'due south Imagining the Internet Centre surveyed technologists, scholars, practitioners, strategic thinkers, and teaching leaders virtually the future of workplace grooming. Some 1,408 people answered, specifically, how they thought it might evolve by 2026.
A full general theme was the importance of developing the skills in workers that, every bit of yet, are unable to be replicated by bogus intelligence (AI) and machines—skills like collaboration, emotional intelligence, and adjustability to diverse environments.
"The most important skills to have in life are gained through interpersonal experiences and the liberal arts," responded data and policy annotator Frank Elavsky. "Human being bodies in close proximity to other human bodies stimulate existent compassion, empathy, vulnerability and social-emotional intelligence."
In other words, despite its flaws, the "useless" liberal arts degree isn't going anywhere. But, of course, change is inevitable.
Gerber, at least five years ago, was a vocal proponent of this evolution.
"Importantly, I'yard not suggesting we get rid of liberal arts departments—I'm suggesting we create more employable English and motion-picture show majors," he says. "Well-rounded' and 'cocky-sufficient' shouldn't exist mutually exclusive concepts, and combining experiential learning with access to business concern role models and public/private partnerships can fundamentally transform the style nosotros think virtually workforce development."
Off-white enough—and prescient. This year, Inside College Ed reported that "liberal arts college students are getting less artsy." They reasoned that the uptick in math and sciences enrollments and the shift abroad from humanities observed in a number of liberal arts institutions is likely due to some combination of job market place anxieties and changing gender norms that permit more than women to comprehend fields where they've been historically underrepresented.
As for me and my English language major? Since graduating college I've traveled the world and I've lived at home. I've bought health insurance and I've been on Medicaid. I've worked as a server, an administrative banana, a nanny, a shot girl, an ESL teacher, a journalist, a creative copywriter, a web log editor, a book editor, a magazine editor, a fact-checker, a freelance writer, an art model, in corporate communications, at a film festival, and packing boxes in a warehouse. Next week, I'm beginning a task equally the brand development manager for a health-related startup.
Information technology'south been a wild ride—merely I can't say I'm likewise mad at my useless liberal arts degree.
Source: https://www.urbo.com/content/the-useless-liberal-arts-degree-and-what-to-do-with-it/
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