What do liberal arts majors do?
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Anonymous
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I agree that a liberal arts major is a blessing, a privilege, and you can do anything you want with it.
Also, there’s a good article in the Atlantic recently about how a liberal arts major was very important to one persons relative during WWII. I felt like the article was a little boomer and greatest generation-y, but I could see the point. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2024/05/philip-shribman-liberal-arts-wwii/677836/ |
Anonymous
+1 unless you are going into debt to travel. I love traveling. I wanted to travel in my early 20s, but I wasn't making enough to do that without going into debt, and I wasn't going to do that. Once I got into tech a few years later, started making more than double what I used to make, that's when I started to really travel. |
Anonymous
My bilingual kid considered this, but there a huge problem with this. What are you going to do after a while? Not much option for formal ESL teacher. |
Anonymous
bolded is key. Yes, 50 years ago, a liberal arts degree was good enough to get a good paying job. That was because there weren't lots of people with professional degrees. Much different today. |
Anonymous
what utter horse shite |
Anonymous
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I majored in Political Science at a SLAC. I then got an MBA and make 7 figures.
Both my DCs went to liberal arts schools (although one to the liberal arts school of a major university). One is a consultant, the other is in marketing. Both make 6 figures. One of them started in a relatively low paying job out of college but that only lasted about 18 months before significant increases. |
Anonymous
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Most cannot do the hard/quant majors.
That's why you have colleges with literally hundreds of majors. The colleges still make their money. The graduates are left to find a way to earn a living. |
Anonymous
As has been noted, college score card is ONLY kids getting FEDERAL (ie Pell) FA. That's a sliver. Do you know how many liberal arts majors from Williams and Dartmouth go to GS and McKinsey? A lot. Are they the Pell kids? No. And this data is for the 4th year out of college, which is hardly mid career. But I agree, in 2005 to 2020ish - CS was the fastest way to make money. It's also the shortest career ... which is fine, but understand you have to move into management or prepare to get aged out. ____ here's the fine print: The median annual earnings of individuals who received federal financial aid during their studies and completed an award at the indicated field of study. To be included in the median earnings calculation, the individuals needed to be working and not be enrolled in school during the year when earnings are measured. Median earnings are measured in the fourth full year after the student completed their award. |
Anonymous
Methinks thou doth protest too much. (That's a line from William Shakespeare's play entitled "Hamlet," spoken by Gertrude, who was Hamlet's mother. William Shakespeare is a famous playwright who was active in the 16 and 17th centuries; I feel the need to explain that to you since you were not a liberal arts major and probably have heard the expression before but didn't know where it came from). |
Anonymous
Disagree. Once you are on the treadmill it is very hard to get off. Very few do. And before you know it you have bought a place and the ties and obligations build up. Travel costs next to nothing. I wasn’t a trust-fund kid and I traveled the world with no money from my parents. I volunteered, worked doing everything from teaching English and tutoring to working in a warehouse, and spent very little. Had a great time and learned a lot. |
Anonymous
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Everybody has an anecdote, but you can only go based on the averages.
I would hazard nearly all the folks suggesting you pursue liberal arts have a certain caliber of school in mind. I doubt even you would suggest studying English at Frostburg State. So, I don't know the cut-off...but I think it's only a select group of schools that any PP really believes you should pursue a liberal arts degree with zero expectation of graduate school. As far as I know, there are zero liberal arts majors actually founding the AI companies that everyone discusses above. Go look at the Bios of OpenAI, Anthropic and others. The vast majority of the staffs have STEM/Math/Physics backgrounds. For that matter, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Ellison, Sergei, Larry Page...none have liberal arts backgrounds. That doesn't mean they don't value great communicators and critical thinkers. Perhaps the ideal graduate has a dual CS/Liberal Arts degree. |
Anonymous
A liberal arts major would know to inform you that you cannot, in fact, go by the "averages" since averages are skewed. If you, me, and Sally Lee are in a room with Jeff Bezos, we have an average income in the billions. But one of us is not like the others. |
Anonymous
| OP seems a bit ignorant of what liberal arts is |
Anonymous
Most shouldn’t do the hard/quant majors. We don’t need millions of mathematicians. Look at what actually needs to happen day-to-day in a corporation, government department, or university. Sales, services, HR, creatives, legal and compliance, marketing, management etc. All important, and liberal arts can prepare you well. |
Anonymous
This is a silly argument. Ok, you have to go by a statistically significant average or look at statistically significant median incomes. Didn't think I had to make that clear, but I guess I do. |