Forbes Disputes Notion that Liberal Arts Degrees are Useless

The world wants liberal arts students to believe that their majors are useless. Politicians tell them as much on the news almost nightly, causing the widespread belief amongst parents that they must push their children into pursuing more economically savvy careers, such as engineering or business. While these careers are valuable and do pay well, a new report in Forbes disputes the notion that liberal arts majors are useless, and instead argues that they are more valuable to the labor market than ever.

Written by Rob Sentz, the article utilizes information from a new, prototype database developed by Emsi, a student-employment company, to show that the career options available to liberal arts graduates are far more diverse and attractive than the general populace assumes.

“Why? Because employees hailing from a liberal arts background have honed valuable skills that might be left underdeveloped in other majors. Businesses value these graduates’ critical thinking skills, communication abilities, and creativity. While poetry, architecture, or anthropology may not prepare you for a career in software development in one blow, their breadth of focus will help students thrive in a wide variety of fields,” writes Sentz.

Taking a look into two majors especially pertinent to graduates of Christendom College, history and English, Sentz uncovers a variety of positions available to such graduates, and companies eagerly seeking them out as well. Rather than the widespread notion these majors can “only teach” being true, the career options revealed by the Emsi database include intelligence analysts, communications specialists management consultants, and more, with companies such as Booz Allen Hamilton, Oracle, and Amazon seeking these majors out.

“Liberal arts students (and those who look longingly from the outside) have been on the defensive for years…but job postings tell a different story. And as long as the liberal arts student can answer the question “What are you going to do with that?” with a strategy instead of a shrug, they should be encouraged to press on with confidence that they will be truly valuable to the labor market,” concludes Sentz.

With this knowledge in hand, graduates from Christendom College should have more confidence than ever that their education will open up more career paths than they might have anticipated — even more career paths than they might find from a specialized education. With the soft skills of writing, communication, and creative thinking imparted to them through the time-tested, authentically Catholic liberal arts education at Christendom, students have the chance to find great success in a variety of career paths, and truly “restore all things in Christ.”

To try out the new Emsi database for yourself, click here.