Aha! Liberal Arts Degrees Aren't Useless!

[Winter Storm]

Funny this article should come out when we were just talking about this, I believe a week ago.

Few topics we've addressed here recently have inspired as much reader comment as the column a couple of weeks ago, in answer to a newly minted English major who wondered if her degree would turn out to be useless in the job market...."Too many times people with very narrow planes of study find themselves fitting in only in particular areas," agrees John Ramirez. A liberal-arts degree, he says, gives graduates "a broad field in which employment can be found."

http://money.cnn.com/2006/05/09/news/economy/annie/fortune_annie0509/index.htm?cnn=yes

[lonestar]

Couldn't agree more...my liberal arts degree plus some accounting background and computer knowledge has provided me with a firm foundation for the business world.

[yankeeyosh]

Yup...I don't disagree with this.

I think that if I were to do it over again, I would have stayed as a math major in college, since it's a "broader" field than a specific area such as meteorology. I could have done the meteorology in grad school if I chose, but math, like liberal arts, gives you more avenues to explore.

[wordsmith]

One of the best things in the world about getting a humanities-based degree from a liberal arts college is that it doesn't lock you in or pigeonhole you, IMO.

I have fewer than zero regrets about majoring in English...I wholeheartedly recommend it to any and all people who want real flexibility and across-the-board usefulness in their arsenal as they embark on their professional lives. It's been fantastic for me so far.

[hello_kitty83]

I have fewer than zero regrets about majoring in English...I wholeheartedly recommend it to any and all people who want real flexibility and across-the-board usefulness in their arsenal as they embark on their professional lives. It's been fantastic for me so far.

I agree - I don't regret majoring in English either. It bothers me that people I've talked to assume that teaching is the only option. They don't realize that there's so much you can do with it.

[wordsmith]

Hah...I have to laugh.

I GOT a teaching cert. in English...and I doubt I'll ever use it. There's so much more you can do.

[Spinney]

This is why I took an arts degree / history major along with my computer science degree. While the CS by itself opens up some pretty nice careers, the research, writing and critical thinking skills from the arts side make me a lot more flexible. Whereas most of my peers are basically stuck in programming, I could very easily move into technical writing or even leave the IT field completely. The combination definately opens up some possibilities in gov't too.

[SpaceMonkey]

The only thing I regret is that, in addition to my political science major, I didn't also double major in economics or statistics.