Exploring Your Choices... Choosing an Arts & Sciences Major
What People Are Saying About the Value of Liberal Arts Degrees...
“Many of the country’s top professional employers recognize the value of a liberal arts education. They hire liberal arts graduates because they demonstrate a combination of academic preparation, intellectual versatility and strong leadership skills that makes them indispensable in the workforce.”
“This broad knowledge base increases your frame of reference. It helps you exercise your mind, problem-solve and generate ideas.”
“By seeing solutions from many different angles, you become an asset to the project, and professionals recognize your creative and subjective abilities. These capabilities instill confidence and perseverance.”
Source: Liberal arts creates life after Anderson. (2002, August 16). USA Today.
"A liberal education is what teaches people how to write and how to think and makes them much more valuable in the job market over a 40-year career than graduates of a preprofessional program," says James Freedman, retired president of Dartmouth.
Source: Rimer, S. (2003, February 19). Justifying a Liberal Arts Education in Hard Times. New York Times, p. B7.
“Future chief executives may require a broader liberal-arts education and wider international experience. They also need to take charge of their own career development because companies are less likely to groom entry-level professionals for lifetime careers.”
“It’s about maturity and leadership rather than how many accounting courses did you take… Companies are going to start to look at the fundamental value set of an individual and their basic education. Did they study philosophy and culture and history rather than just accounting, finance, and engineering? Fast-forward 20 or 30 years, we’re going to find business leaders who maybe majored in philosophy rather than business.”
Source: Knight, R. (1998, May 20) Liberal arts gave me a liberal dose of life lessons. USA Today, pp. 15A.
“Tomorrow’s world of work will be characterized by rapidly changing careers, shifting relationships with employers, and many other dramatic changes in work life. In such a dynamic environment, the specialization paradigm of a university education won’t work well; a liberal arts education may be much more valuable.”
“Already, new challenges and opportunities pop up practically every day in all sorts of organizations, and grasping these new opportunities demands an ability to think creatively. Insightful leaders now recognize that a liberal arts education prepares graduates to think more broadly, to conceptualize at a multidisciplinary level that’s more responsive to the increasingly broad issues confronting people in all walks of life.”
Source: Herman, R.E. (2000, July/August). The case for liberal arts. The Futurist, 34 (4), 16-17.
“Future chief executives may require a broader liberal-arts education and wider international experience. They also need to take charge of their own career development because companies are less likely to groom entry-level professionals for lifetime careers.”
“A number of today’s CEOs graduated from state universities or little-known colleges with undergraduate degrees in subjects like business administrations, engineering or accounting...Some management professors think a liberal- arts degree may offer future chief executives a broader foundation to operate in an increasingly complicated, global and fast-moving business arena...”
Source: White, E. (2005, April 12). Future CEOs may need to have broad liberal-arts foundation. Wall Street Journal (Eastern Edition), pp. B-4.
“Business executives appreciate long-term outcomes of a college education, the preparation not simply for a job but for a long and varied career. According to a study commissioned by Hobart & William Smith Colleges, business leaders value liberal arts grads for their critical thinking and problem-solving skills, strong writing and speaking skills, self-discipline, exposure to diverse ideas, and global perspective. And they hire them because it makes good sense in a global business environment marked by constant change. Rather than developing a trade good for one particular job, liberal arts graduates develop a broad base of knowledge and skills that prepare them for evolving challenges over the long haul.”
Source: Studley, J. (2003, September/October). Are liberal arts dead? Careers & Colleges, 24(1), 17.
Click here for more references about the value of liberal arts degrees
Created by Lynne Higa