The Benefits Of A Liberal Arts Education

Choosing a major in college is one of the most critical decisions in your academic career – or not. Facts are, quite a few, if not most, men and women wind up working in fields that have absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with their undergraduate areas of concentration. Indeed, the world is full of physicists-turned-cabdrivers and English-majors-becoming-sales-managers.

The phenomenon is particularly pronounced with those who spent their time in the humanities, including certain social sciences for instance psychology (but not economics). Many students, not to mention their long-suffering parents, bemoan the fact that they graduate with massive amounts of debt while job prospects are few or non-existent and certainly by no means financially rewarding.

But in point of fact, nothing at all is amiss. The promise of a liberal arts education was never a guaranteed meal ticket, but that of a well-rounded individual, able to alternately distinguish and appreciate nuances. Usually speaking, people who are more intelligent will make far more money, particularly in a knowledge-based economy.

This knowledge or information economy demands that people be far more analytical, that they have a command of the facts. Nonetheless, such an economy – in this kind of a world – raises the bar for all, such that a college degree is but the equivalent of a high school diploma decades ago.

Thus despite the need for education, it is actually worth less, in terms of financial recompense down the road, than it used to be. People with degrees will still tend to make more money over their lifetimes than those who do not, but this kind of statistics, governing whole populations, do not promise anything to any specific individual.

And mainly because an undergraduate degree is now in effect the minimum standard for ever more entry-level jobs in more and more fields, it truly does not matter what you select to major in – unless you’re doing software engineering (and even then an employer will likely choose real-world experience over mere paper credentials).

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