Carleton College website asks: What can you do with a liberal arts degree? [parents want answers]

Minneapolis Star-Tribune ^ | November 2, 2013 | MAURA LERNER ,

[Cincinatus' Wife]

....she was a little nervous when her son told her he wanted to major in music in college.

She knew that was his passion. But as a mom, she was hoping he’d pick something a little more…practical.

That may explain why Hardy, a professor of classics at Carleton College, is so sympathetic to a new program designed to help her own students find a career that pays the bills.

This fall, Carleton launched an interactive website, called Pathways,as a “one-stop” shop for those who wonder how to turn a history or philosophy degree into a meaningful career.

At the same time, it’s asking professors who teach subjects from French to women’s studies to Shakespeare to take on a new role:advising students to start career planning as soon as they arrive on campus.

“When I got here 20 years ago, I know I would have found it almost offensive,” Hardy said. “But there’s been a culture shift.”

At today’s prices, even elite schools like Carleton, in Northfield,are feeling the pressure to justify the value of a liberal arts education. “[It’s]a hot-button issue,” said...associate dean and a professor of religious studies. Especially among parents.

“They’re spending all this money on a college education; they want their students to have something marketable when they finish,”he said.

Paths to ‘Life after Carleton’

Carleton, one of the most selective liberal arts colleges in the country, has no shortage of customers. In the past year,it had 14 applicants for every spot in its current freshman class of 527. It’s also the priciest college in Minnesota,at $58,000 a year for tuition, room and board.

.......The centerpiece of the site is the “career path visualization,”an interactive chart that shows where grads from individual majors ended up. Click on history majors,for example, and it shows them spread across the professions,from business,law and education to museum curators and actors....

[Some Fat Guy in L.A.]

Fact is, most Liberal Arts degrees only qualify you to teach the next generation of Liberal Arts majors - so if you can’t get a teacher or professor job you are out of luck. I have spoken with music and theater majors that think they are going to make a living playing an instrument, singing or acting. Good luck with that. A very few do, the vast majority teach or starve.

[Cronos]

Arts degrees should not cost that much -- what is the sunken cost for them? much lower than for engineering.

Also, I believe people should have these as minors, not majors -- I love history, but majored in mechanical engineering

[TurboZamboni]

Visualize whirled peas while living in mom’s basement.