Switch before it’s too late? Assessing a degree in liberal arts
If you’re working for a degree in liberal arts, should you switch before it’s too late?
Changing your major is a hallmark of college culture.
Like the infamous freshman 15, it’s pretty much inevitable. Most everybody does it, some more than once, and others, every semester.
But, if you’re working for a degree in liberal arts, should you switch before it’s too late?
Your family and friends might say that a major in business accounting would serve better because you’ll look more employable when you graduate. A degree in computer science or chemistry could be a more socially acceptable major with a clearer path to a paycheck.
If you’re an English major, you might be unhappy that everybody outside of your field seems to have a comparatively high probability of success in the labor market while you, on the other hand, can only answer questions about your future with a shrug and a prayer that you don’t end up a screenwriter in a coffee shop.
But the liberal arts can be more benneficial than you might realize.
Not only are they terrific for a career in education, but they also yield promising futures in the tech industry, sales and marketing, and law programs.
Liberal arts degrees are the mark of a classic education.
These majors are designed to open doors. They show not only that you learned things, but that you know how to learn.
A liberal arts degree is a degree in people.
Even as careers in STEM research and computer science boom, what employers are truly looking for is somebody who can take charge, understand a goal, and manage a team effectively. That’s true of any profession.
Money aside, a decision on what to major in should always account for personal happiness.
Your adviser never asks you what you think. They ask what you want. The amount of happiness you expect to get from declaring and earning a degree in a major should weigh heavily in your conciderations.
Liberal arts degrees are worth it and should be stuck with to the end. You’ll be prepared for whatever future you want, wherever you want it.
Fake Pres. Bardo • Aug 26, 2017 at 5:02 pm
Yes! change your major and stay in school longer! You pay for innovation campus and for me to get a 6 pack in the YMCA. Most liberal arts degrees have the same outcome anyways: Expect to work at call centers or customer service in retail stores.
As always,
Fake Pres. Bardo
omars • Aug 25, 2017 at 10:30 pm
Firstly, the education field sucks. Starting teachers do not make anything.
Law is jammed with too many lawyers, and the field has suffered.
Liberal arts don’t teach “taking charge, understanding goals.” Sociology teaches you sociology. Point blank. Look at LinkedIn profiles of classmates who graduated with liberal arts degrees. There is a solid chance they are not doing anything substantive. My brother is in marketing. Unhappy and doesn’t pay well. But if you must work in marketing, why not major in that anyways.