Liberal Arts Degree

Improved Essays
Achieving a degree in the Arts involves taking courses in what are traditionally referred to as the “liberal arts”. The main area of study for these courses are literature, art history, philosophy, economics, languages, and so on. The scope of liberal arts is generally not to train you for a specific job, but more importantly prepares you to for a career, serving an invaluable set of skills, which includes the ability to think for yourself, communicate effectively, and the capacity for lifelong learning. A liberal arts degree is portrayed as passé, but the reason it is heavily required in every individual’s life is because it is a great economical investment, it plays an important role in our society, and modernising doesn’t always have positive …show more content…
A study done by Hart Research indicated that most workplaces value communication, analytic, and team work skills the greatest. The main purpose of the degree is to prepare you for these skills, which gives you the upper hand outplaying other competition lacking these skills, trying to land a good job. To add on, the employment rate of regular graduates versus the graduates in the arts field nearly have the same employment rate, which resides at 91% (2013). These are just some facts to consider when a stereotype against liberal arts is made. Liberal arts are definitely without an objection a great economical investment. Secondly, Liberal arts clearly play a very important role in society. The education in this field enhances your knowledge and improves your understanding of the world and its people. Knowledge leads an individual to do wise actions. The education in this field can also help you perceive and understand the system of failure. The education in this field leads you to become a better citizen, parent, neighbour, and overall a better human …show more content…
It seems to outweigh any other factor playing an active role in society, in every single aspect. The love for innovating gadgets and apps around the world today is unbelievable. The era of enlightenment was the growth of literacy and the expanding awareness of diversity and knowledge in cultural, literary, and scientific thought and on the other hand, the era of justification changing its concerns and beliefs of the value of something only existing if viewed though a prescribed lens at the current moment, a phrase Alan Wildeman, a President and vice chancellor of university of Windsor, distinctly compares. Many countries around the world have taken the initiative to emphasize liberal arts to the extent it needs to be. The National University of Singapore and Yale University have partnered have a liberal arts campus in Singapore. Clearly, the see the value and importance of this degree.
The main courses our society mainly depends on are Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math, also known as STEM. Although they play an important role in society, liberal arts convey the basis of these courses and the skills humans need to essentially make the world a modern place. These skills will assist our society in the era of

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Higher Education To begin with, this essay deals with two authors and their opinions about higher education. Sandford J Ungar is the president of Goucher College in Baltimore, Maryland . He wrote “The new liberal arts”, in this essay he clarified the misperceptions of obtaining a liberal arts degree. The second author, Charles Murray works at an American enterprise institute, conservative think tank in Washington, DC. He wrote” Are too many people going to college? ” .…

    • 1368 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the essay, “ 7 Major Misperceptions About the Liberal Arts” Sanford J. Ungar discusses the “misperceptions” related to a liberal arts education. In total, Ungar lists seven reasons as to why a liberal arts education is an appropriate choice despite the onset of the American recession. In order to inform his audience and prove why these misconceptions are in fact not accurate; he develops his argument by sharing supporting details on the popular opinions people have regarding this matter. Some of the misconceptions he clarifies to his audience is the fallacy of focusing strictly on career, educational opportunities, the inability of finding adequate jobs with a liberal arts degree, and vocational training being the standard way of securing…

    • 159 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Sanford Ungar argues the importance that a liberal arts degree holds today in America to those who are skeptic in his article, “The New Liberal Arts.” There are several points Ungar disproves. Ungar states that the job market was tough to crack into among all majors. Liberal arts have nothing to do with politics and can’t be related to democratic ideology according to Ungar. Several institutions that provide secondary education have liberal arts degrees which gives several opportunities for students to attain an education accessible to them.…

    • 581 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In paragraph 4, Gitlin asks his readers, “How shall we find still points in a turning world? How shall we learn to govern ourselves?” By asking these broad questions, he persuades his audience to think of the liberal arts as a solid foundation for understating today's society. Throughout the rest of his article, the author discusses these questions to give his audience an idea of what liberal arts in about. In a world where information is constantly throw around and always changing, humanities will be a solid basis to help interpret what the information…

    • 513 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Mark Edmundson in his “On the Uses of a Liberal Education: As Lite Entertainment for Bored College Students” attempts to dissolve the notion that we take full advantage of a Liberal Education. He claims that colleges and the students within them are too obsessed with an ever-abundant consumerism that damages their potential for growth. As a result of being addicted to this culture of consumption, students do not have the ambition or drive they once did to achieve academic excellence. He claims that many tend towards an easier topic within liberal art rather than more vigirous courses. While one can easily find much to critique in his methods and solutions, it can be seen that he does have a strong basis for his argument.…

    • 639 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The article also gives a better understanding of what should be taken into account before choosing whether or not to study the liberal arts. By understanding what Stanford Ungar is saying in, “The New Liberal Arts,” readers are able to make decision on future plans based on fact rather than belief alone. By knowing that studying liberal arts is not irrelevant, or impractical for any background a reader is shown that race or income is not as important as earning a degree which allows student to think critically, and communicate effectively no matter the career…

    • 1009 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Yoni Applebam’s essay titled “A Liberal Arts Education for Business Majors” was published in The Atlantic on June 28th, 2016.This article is about why business majors should consider getting educated in liberal arts. To summarize the article, it mainly talked about how business majors are too focused on their business degrees, when they should be focusing on liberal arts, too. The reason for this is while people can still get jobs in their field, more and more businesses and companies are looking for people who also have a degree in liberal arts, as well as what their actual job requires them to have. They find liberal arts majors more innovative. Applebaum also states that they want someone with “an education that allows them to grow, adapt,…

    • 1014 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    I was incredibly doubtful at first, but after being here for three months, I believe that I am seeing the value and purpose of a liberal arts education. A liberal arts education stills involves specializing in a certain area, but it also involves branching out and learning about other individuals’ areas of study. In the past, I have been unable to comprehend how some majors could have any use in the world and I unfortunately looked down upon certain people who majored in these areas. However, I have come to view everyone more equally since I have come to Wheaton. I have taken English writing classes and music classes and these have helped me understand how people majoring in these areas can use their gifts to glorify God.…

    • 1540 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Liberal Arts Education

    • 947 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Charles Murray expresses in his article that a liberal arts education should not be so important to everyone and that for many people, it can be very difficult and…

    • 947 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    The academic system of current society attempts to prepare students for working in the real world. The majority of students are encouraged to pursue studies in areas such as business and technology because it will ensure a high paying job and promote economic growth. Lately, students have begun to question whether studying the humanities are worth the tuition costs, and if a technical or science based major is a better option. Martha Nussbaum, in her essay “ Education for Profit, Education for Democracy”, brings attention to how “the current focus on education as a form of career training fails to teach students the skills necessary to participate in the political process” (61). Liberal arts schools aim to strengthen a student’s range of knowledge through the studies of arts and humanities.…

    • 1546 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    They Say I Say Analysis

    • 2196 Words
    • 9 Pages

    With the questioning of the traditional educational system, many offer alternate solutions to combat these misperceptions such as the article written by Sanford J. Ungar, “The New Liberal Arts”. While liberal-art degrees rarely statistically illustrate much success,…

    • 2196 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the article “Only Connect…”, William Cronon writes about the qualities gained through a liberal arts education. Cronon (1998) believed, that best type of education, is based off “nurturing human talents to expand the amount of freedom”, experienced in a society (p. 1). Even though not many people really understand how a liberal arts education work, it instills values that make effective leaders. Liberal education has changed quite a lot throughout history. This education was once solely for aristocrat males that focus on bettering themselves, to separate themselves from the population.…

    • 876 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Cognition is something that must be owned by anyone who has a goal of finding a place in today’s job market. This is because the ability to process and acquire information through thought experience and sense is crucial in ones working environment. In Sanford J Ungar’s essay “The New Liberal Arts” he believes that obtaining a college education focused on liberal arts is the best way that the workers of tomorrow will be prepared for the constantly changing job market that they will soon have to explore in the future. Because of Ungar’s argument one may ask the question, is a liberal arts degree the only way to obtain the skills needed in the workplace? While some may jump to answer yes to this question others may have something else in mind.…

    • 1428 Words
    • Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In his arguments, Ungar points out that while many believe a “liberal-arts degree is a luxury,” it is not (227). It may indeed be true that pursuing such a degree is more expensive and that families are struggling financially, but Ungar argues that it “a better investment” as it teaches the students how to communicate in an effective way and how to be critical thinkers which allows for them to be “innovative and creative” (227-228). He then supports this by making a claim based off a survey in 2009 that the majority of the employers are indeed looking for those with a liberal arts education instead due to them possessing the abilities already mentioned. Another argument he makes is that one should not just focus on the STEM fields and that one should expand and diversify their learning, which is what a liberal arts education can provide (229). While Ungar admits that while it is possible to gain such an education through a larger university, it does not provide “a close interaction between faculty members and students” and that there isn’t a “sens of community” (232).…

    • 770 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    He evokes Tom Gillis, writer for Forbes magazine, to lead into this assertion, “The next billion-dollar company will be run by history majors who are skilled in wading through a massive jumble of facts and who have the ability to distill these facts down to a clear set of objectives that a global team can fulfill.” (Jones 28). Jones goes on to say that because of all of these skills that were acquired through liberal arts degree programs liberal arts degree holders are not at any kind of significant disadvantage compared to other degrees. Edward Conard, American businessman and author, challenges this claim in “We don’t need more humanities majors,” where he talks about the inadequacy of Liberal Arts degree holders filling in jobs in STEM-related fields, “It’s true some advanced degree holders may have earned undergraduate degrees in humanities, but they quickly learned humanities degrees alone offered inadequate training, and they returned to school for more technical degrees.” (Conard 42).…

    • 1426 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays