Are Liberal Arts Degrees Worth the Cost in This Economy?

ABC NEWS ^ | 5/23/2009 | STACY TEICHER KHADAROO

[SeekAndFind]

As Nicole Marshall posed for photos on the eve of her commencement, someone joked, "Smile -- think of all the loans you took out for this!" She says she chose St. Michael's, a Catholic liberal arts college near Lake Champlain in Colchester, Vt., because it offered the biggest aid package, "but I'm still leaving with quite a bit of loans" -- about $20,000.

Her debt is a little lighter than the national average for graduates of private, four-year schools who borrow: nearly $23,800 as of 2007, according to the College Board in New York.

But if there's any time that students and parents can take such costs in stride, it's during the heady rush of commencement, when the campus is fragrant with fresh blossoms and abundant hope. For added inspiration to help them focus on the value of learning, these families heard a commencement speech from Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.

Standing head and shoulders above the others on stage, clad in academic regalia, the former basketball player and superintendent of Chicago's public schools acknowledged the costs:

"With those college loans to pay back, you're probably wondering, 'Just how much is a liberal arts education really worth?' Albert Einstein said the value of a liberal arts education is not to learn facts, but to train your mind to think about things that cannot be learned from textbooks. So now you're probably wondering why you spent all that money on textbooks. The point is not that the facts are useless; it's just that the facts alone don't make you educated. It's how you put those facts together and what you do with them that matters. The real value of a liberal arts education is that it teaches you ... how to analyze a situation and make a choice."

[SteamShovel]

The applied engineering courses don’t require much math.

A good understanding of algebra and a year of basic applied calculus (no theorems or proofs).

I'm not sure what you mean by "applied engineering courses".....

.....But this BSME had to take Calculus though triple integrals and differential equations. Then we used this advanced calculus in Fluid Dynamics, Thermodynamics, and System Dynamics classes.

I enjoyed the challenge and did well. I haven't used that type of advanced math in 20 years, but I am happy to have learned it. Just don't ask me to do it today because I can't remember half of the Calculus I learned then!

[Hyzenthlay]

‘Liberal arts’ degrees, today, are completely useless. They essentially mean “you just took classes for four years and still couldn’t decide on a major, so here’s a diploma anyways!” However, if you’re talking about ‘the humanities’ it depends on what the person wants to do - if they end up working in an office a history degree is useless and having business experience would have been much better, but if they want to become an archaeologist all the business experience in the world won’t help them much and the history degree will suddenly mean everything!

So, I guess there are a couple issues: First of all, not every person is cut out for being an entrepeneur. Second of all, self-employment is not feasible in every career field and especially not the sciences - being self-employed in the computer industry is quite easy, but have you ever heard of a truly self-employed entomologist? That leads to the third issue, which is that while there are business people who don’t have college degrees, who ever heard of a physicist or chemist who only has a high school diploma?

And, last but not least, there is the ‘diploma issue’ with being homeschooled. Something I’ve noticed is that if you’re in college, or have graduated college, people don’t tend to ask you if you have a piece of paper that says you’ve graduated high school, but assume that you’ve graduated. It’s a great way to overcome the ‘high school diploma required’ stipulation on some job applications.

[Nailbiter]

Sorry for delay in answering your question.

I do think that I get as much from independent reading as I would from classroom.
I might miss some divergent views, but from past experience most divergent views in classroom were from libs and their logic is tiresome.