Some people love to hate on the liberal arts degree. They might claim these degrees are useless and don’t lead to good jobs after college.
That’s simply not true. Case in point: Oprah Winfrey studied communications at Tennessee State University. But besides Oprah, here are four reasons why a liberal arts degree is better for your career than you might think.
Build your communication skills (verbal and written)
Liberal arts degrees can help students build their communication skills, which is invaluable in the working world and something many managers are looking for.
Now more than ever, employees have to be a jack of all trades, which means they need to be able to stand out in meetings, communicate effectively (whether it’s verbally or in the written word), and so much more. While naysayers tend to think of arts or humanities when it comes to liberal arts, people who hold these degrees are well-rounded — liberal arts degrees are multidisciplinary, after all.
Your major classes might involve English courses, which come in handy for the real world in the form of communication skills (emails, press releases, blogs, presentations, meetings, documents, etc.). But you’ll also take science, math, and other classes that aren’t typically associated with a liberal arts degree.
Unlimited job prospects and a healthy living
Believe it or not, there are plenty of jobs available to liberal arts students, and according to PayScale, the average salary for a person who earned a Bachelor of Arts is $61,000 a year.
A person with a journalism degree could become a reporter, news anchor, or writer at a publication. This person could even work in marketing or advertising. Since social media plays a big role in all of these fields, a person with a journalism degree could even work with a company that manages online cloud photo storage, which specializes in protecting people’s privacy. After all, journalists are known for their codes and ethics, and some experts say liberal arts degrees can actually help people live more ethical lives.
Liberal arts students find themselves in business, media, medicine, and law all the time, and that’s because — once again — they’re well-rounded. Not to mention, you don’t necessarily need to take biology to enter the medical field.
Graduate program prospects
One obvious path for an English major who wants to write fiction for a living is a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing degree program. With that said, English majors have other graduate program prospects.
For example, a person who wants to pursue medicine doesn’t need to have a biology or chemistry degree (depending on the school and program, of course). However, this person would likely need to take certain prerequisites during his or her undergrad years to, let’s say, enroll in medical school. Even then, an English major could still (in theory) become a doctor as long as he or she takes the prerequisite courses.
You can enroll in classes online
Not every major offers online courses. Luckily, an online liberal arts associates degree is possible. This is especially beneficial for your career, because you can realistically work full-time while taking classes online and further building your skills and knowledge for the working world.
Employers are looking for people with the skills that a liberal arts degree teaches. While not everyone takes this education route, a liberal arts degree is better for your career than you might think, with the four points above only being the beginning.
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