Liberal arts continue to be a hard sell for many parents, who worry that a broad and often costly education — a year at many liberal arts colleges can top $65,000 — won’t prepare their children to compete in today’s job market.
But many schools, both large universities and small colleges, are newly intent upon helping liberal arts grads translate their skills into successful careers, by emphasizing experiential learning, funding internships and turbocharging career services. They argue that the skills grads acquire — critical thinking and the ability to communicate effectively, for starters — are highly prized by employers.
A 2013 survey of employers by Hart Research Associates revealed that 93 percent agreed that candidates’ ability to think critically, communicate clearly and solve complex problems is more important than their undergraduate major.
[Learn how to get the best return on investment for your liberal arts degree.]
Educators point out that a liberal arts education can offer a host of marketable skills to students who may want to work in many types of organizations and rise into leadership roles.
Many schools are implementing “high-impact” practices that develop critical thinking, writing, leadership and teamwork skills even as they do a better job of bonding freshmen to each other and faculty. Seminar-style instruction, original research and study abroad, for example, are eminently practical.
The job market demands “nuanced communication, the ability to collaborate, the ability to travel comfortably across borders, the capacity for nimbleness and creative thinking, and the ability to connect ideas in novel ways,” Connecticut College President Katherine Bergeron says. “If you put all that together, and ask what prepares you for those kinds of skills, the answer is liberal arts.”
Connecticut College has retooled its curriculum to focus on problem-solving and training students to make connections between very disparate subjects. Sophomores choose a pathway based on a question or a problem that matters to them.
Someone interested in how climate change affects indigenous communities, say, would choose applicable courses, which might range from Environmental Studies to Cases and History of Equality. The third year might find her studying abroad and doing an internship in South America. A senior capstone project pulls the experiences and insights together.
Dickinson College offers a more traditional curriculum but has added opportunities for students to apply what they’re learning to contemporary problems. For instance, students might take a sustainability class in which they might learn about the economics of energy systems and work on solutions to reduce campus energy use. Students in the sciences begin conducting research with faculty as early as freshman year.
Liberal arts programs within universities can deliver similar experiences, often at considerably lower cost, albeit with much less hand-holding and generally bigger classes. And university students can benefit from a wider array of interdisciplinary course choices and expansive research facilities.
They “are working in labs with professors who are at the top of their field,” says Donald Hall, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania. Choosing between a college and a university may come down to personal preference.
[Consider both liberal arts colleges and national universities.]
Recognizing the importance to employers of critical thinking and an expansive worldview, many schools are even broadening professional tracks like business and engineering by making room for humanities and social science classes.
The University of Kansas, for example, adopted a new curriculum in 2013 called the KU Core that expanded flexibility for students wishing to pursue dual degrees — to combine, say, a business degree with a foreign language major — and still graduate in four years.
Another trend: Many schools are doubling down on their efforts to thread career preparation through all four years of the program. Real-world learning through internships, study abroad and courses that integrate community service, for example, are increasingly common.
[Read how colleges are taking steps to prepare students for careers.]
At Bennington College in Vermont, students are required to take on internships or “field work” for seven weeks each winter. Mount Holyoke in Massachusetts is among a growing group offering students stipends so they can accept an unpaid internship.
Career counseling, too, is becoming much more intentional. Last year, for example, Dickinson launched the Dickinson Four, a road map of programs intended to foster better planning from the beginning.
Freshmen, for example, are urged to forge connections with peers, mentors and faculty; sophomores, to focus on their priorities by attending a dinner series on “what matters most” and doing January externships. Juniors typically participate in internships and/or study abroad. Seniors reflect on what they’ve accomplished through career and leadership seminars.
Alex Emmanuele, a 2016 graduate of Hampshire College in Massachusetts who specialized in the science of learning, says the exploratory nature of his experience has had much to do with his career success. That process of discovery led him to dream up and pitch an internship to the education consulting firm where he now works as director of innovation and eventually to even design his job.
“In most liberal arts settings, not everything is prescribed for you, so you have to figure out how to get it done,” he explains. “If you need more support, you ask for it. If you need funding, you ask for it.”
More than 90 percent of Hampshire graduates get job offers within the first year, says Jonathan Lash, president of Hampshire College. Lehigh boasts that 93 percent of its graduates land opportunities “within their plans,” and liberal arts grads have been matching almost exactly the success rates of business and engineering grads in finding jobs or grad-school placements.
Hall points to an alumna he recently saw who spun her liberal arts degree into a sales job and climbed the hierarchy faster than colleagues with business degrees. How’d she do it? he asked. ” ‘I learned how to be interesting,’ she said. And that’s what liberal arts students are.”
This story is excerpted from the U.S. News “Best Colleges 2018” guidebook, which features in-depth articles, rankings and data.
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