Yes, a Liberal Arts Degree Is Worth It

Starving artists, overeducated waiters, and unemployed graduates — this is the stereotype associated with obtaining a liberal arts degree. This stigma has been associated with the fear that such degrees won’t produce high-paying managers or satisfy any successful career. Instead, business, STEM, engineering, and hard sciences majors are supposedly the more potent route. As governments defund state liberal arts programs and students become more cost-conscious surrounding their degree choice, liberal arts majors continue to be seen as the less viable option. 

Yet, how much of these assumptions are true?

The highly-disputed culture war between the humanities and the sciences has been around since the 1980s. As heavy targets of political criticism, the humanities’ shift towards leftward scholarship has been perpetually scrutinized by conservative critics as these disciplines have been labeled as less “practical” subjects that won’t guarantee jobs. Once the 2008 financial crisis hit, this aversion to the humanities materialized. Individuals were increasingly concerned with earning a salary and finding a stable job, pushing them to pursue degrees in STEM-related fields. Today, this shift has become the norm. The University of Wisconsin recently claimed that they were cutting six majors from their liberal arts department, including geography, history, and several European languages. Responding to backlash within the community, Scott Walker (former governor of Wisconsin) claimed that these budget cuts were necessary in order to tailor students to workforce needs. Australia’s government has taken similar action. By raising fees for arts and humanities degrees, Education Minister Dan Tehan stated that the country aims to produce more “job-ready” graduates. From the outside, this seems like no major change. What is so bad about bringing more people into technical fields that will support the current needs of the workforce? However, that isn’t the question we should be asking ourselves. 

Instead, we should be asking: What does it mean to be “job ready?”

Today, employers are placing an increasingly large emphasis on the need for "soft" skills. Technical and specific knowledge-based skills are important, in part, to assure that employees are able to do the job at hand. However, this is only part of what employees need to thrive in the workplace. In the last 30 years, the fastest growing jobs in the U.S have required high levels of soft skills, according to a 2017 study. Elon Musk claims, in relation to this, that there will come a time when computers will be able to program themselves. As such, dealing with people will become the most important and necessary skill for tomorrow’s workforce. Dale Carnegie, author of How to Win Friends and Influence People, claims that dealing with people is the number one ability needed to set oneself up for a successful career and fulfilling life. Along with this, communication, emotional intelligence, critical thinking, storytelling, and adaptiveness skills are favored in the workplace as they spur collaboration and innovation. Warren Buffet states that “the one easy way to become worth 50 percent more than you are now — at least — is to hone your communication skills — both written and verbal.” 

A specific degree might get you noticed in a resume screening, but what will get you past the interview? What will ensure your continued success in the work environment?

Not noticeable from the surface but present at its core, a degree in the humanities provides these most desired “soft” skills. Whether or not you study liberal arts, graduating with any degree will ensure you have the foundations for being a good communicator and critical thinker. However, no other degree is as targeted in these areas as one is in the liberal arts. From writing twenty-page thesis papers to discussing the relevancy of poetic texts in small seminars — the humanities are particularly focused on reading, speaking, writing, and critical thinking. This is an advantage for liberal arts graduates, as the tools learned in English, history, political science, or economics can be applied to any setting regardless of the field in which one chooses to work. Those in more industry-oriented degrees may have a leg up against liberal arts graduates, as they enter the labor market with specialized technical skills. However, by studying the humanities, students may obtain more broadly applicable skills and have more freedom in choosing a career path. What’s more, a study looking at over 30 countries found that most individuals in leadership positions held a social sciences or humanities degree. Another study found that doctors who were exposed to the humanities in university graduated with higher levels of empathy, tolerance for ambiguity, emotional intelligence, and self-efficacy. 

Not only should we shift our perspective away from that of the humanities as being a barrier to success, but also see what happens outside the classroom as being a factor in one’s advancement. Success shouldn’t only be associated with the degree that you choose to pursue. On-the-job experience, such as internships and apprenticeships, are all factors in developing these so-called “soft” skills. Networking with the right people ahead of time, involving yourself in extracurricular activities, and being able to present yourself in a room—these are just as important as doing well in the classroom. No matter what, choosing a degree should be based on what genuinely interests you. As career coach Anne Mangan says:

“There is only one expert. I’m the expert on me, you’re the expert on you, they’re the expert on themselves. And nobody, I really mean nobody, can tell them how to do what they should be doing.”