In defense of liberal arts majors

[Skipper]

Be an engineer, they said. Be a CEO. A chemist. An accountant. Don’t, by all means, go to college and major in philosophy, history or English — aka the liberal

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[TreeFiddy]

Damn hippies.

😉

[MrStrange18]

Talk about defensive... this poor kid (no pun intended) has quite the chip on his shoulder.

[SCREAMING EAGLE-66]

Major in what-ever you want to major in ..... just be aware of what the job opportunities are  and the pay is after graduation...  Pay is often determined by what you can do that others can't ( or won't ) ..  I just have seen people who suddenly realize AFTER graduation that there are few good paying jobs for that major.  Most people go to college to qualify them for employment in the future... and not just to take fun or easy  classes. Just don't complain  about the lack of jobs or the pay then.. 

[GBarksdale]

I majored in polisci and worked in politics for 15 years.  But I have to say that my major had nothing to do with getting my first job in the field.  So, I don't have a problem with liberal arts degrees.  Having said that, I'm glad my daughter wants to pursue STEM.

[GTWT]

Students pursue liberal arts degrees to study subjects we are passionate about.

A well-paid job that you're bored with is a terrible way to go through life.  Find the thing you love & make it work for you.

[Salsa_Verde]

Do want you want to do, it’s your life. Just please don’t blame everyone else for your inability to repay your student loans or find a job or say that college needs to be free. Life is about choices and if you want to blow 100K on studying geography or underwater basket weaving then that’s your choice don’t make other people pay for it. 

Thank you and have a nice day 

[SCREAMING EAGLE-66]

---Different subject (mentioned above) but I absolutely oppose "free college" ...... Where I teach we did that for a while for recent grads... It was awful.  We had people sign up and go a few times and never come back once they discovered it was not HS part II.  .  It was a total waste of money and resources.     Students need to have some "money on the table" or they will not take it seriously. 

[UNTLifer]

7 hours ago, GTWT said:

 

 

A well-paid job that you're bored with is a terrible way to go through life.  Find the thing you love & make it work for you.

Exactly.

[chomp]

The advice that I give my students (liberal arts majors), is to focus on developing skills while they are in college rather than just think very narrowly about a particularly job for a specific major (ie; political science=law school, biology=med school, etc.). While most liberal arts degrees don't train students for a specific job, they can prepare students for good jobs - if students focusing on developing marketable skills. A liberal arts student that takes advantage of the opportunities that their courses give them to develop the ability to write well, communicate ideas, and analyze data can do quite well, particularly if that student has also developed some skills along the way in something like statistics, database management, a computer language, etc.