What is a Liberal Arts Degree -

[autisticdragonkin]

People always talk about how they are useless soft degrees and I know that womens studies and critical theory are arts. But at my university so are economics and mathematics. Are these normally in liberal arts and just glossed over by critics or does my university categorize things weirdly. Also general liberal arts degree discussion

 

[RepQuest]

A "liberal arts" degree is a degree in a field that would traditionally be considered among the liberal arts or humanities, such as history, philosophy, fine art, and the like. Economics is usually classified under the social sciences. While mathematics could be considered a part of the liberal arts and humanities, it often has a "practical" purpose that could be a foundation for further graduate work, either in mathematics, economics, or another related field. Also, the system of liberal arts education depends on the country. In the US, most tertiary institutions require liberal arts education that isn't germane to the major/subject for an undergraduate degree (which nominally takes four years), whereas a lot of other countries have three-year undergraduate degrees that don't necessarily require a liberal arts core curriculum that isn't germane to the major/subject.

 

[sugoi-chan]

In the US, liberal arts basically means anything that isn't a hard science (chemistry, biology) or a specific career-related field. Some schools include pure math majors. Some don't. It really depends on the school, but in general it refers to a degree that isn't geared towards a specific career and doesn't include lab work.

 

[dabluearmedbandit]

It's the degree rich kids get when their parents make them go to college so that that they don't lose their allowance and also don't have to learn anything.

 

[XYZpdq]

A MISERABLE LITTLE PILE OF SECRETS

 

[chimpburgers]

At my school, they do require that people in the business school take microeconomics and macroeconomics intro courses but the major itself isn't offered by the business school at all so I guess that degree itself would be more in the liberal arts category. I can see why there would be confusion over it though and I'm sure that it's probably a your mileage may vary scenario depending on the college.

 

[Dudeofteenage]

Regardless of any given university's system of classification, when the term is used in a general sense, it means anything outside of STEM/professional training (e.g. law, accounting, finance).

Also liberal arts degrees are for worthless SJWs who are too dumb to join the STEM master race and hang out with Neil Degrasse Tyson.

 

[Queen of Tarts]

Liberal arts is code name for Pretentious Elitist.

 

[Abethedemon]

It's a degree that provides a grounding in many different fields, and not just a career oriented one. A bachelor of arts degree (BA) would be considered liberal arts, whereas a bachelor of science degree (BS) would be more focused and demanding. I'm going into a liberal arts section of a medium sized university, and they have a wide selection of majors from Chemistry to Religious Studies.

 

[Grand Number of Pounds]

What’s a liberal arts degree? It’s what you make it to be, just like anything else in life.

I don’t want to get a liberal arts degree, but I also hate hearing people say getting a liberal arts degree is a waste of time and money. I have a passion for foreign languages, but fortunately I don’t need to go to college to learn them, there are other ways to learn languages. I don’t think anyone will have Jace’s (well, maybe more like Tyce’s) level of intellect and think those faggots should just learn English.

As far as getting a job with your degree, there are a lot of variables, and I heard an economics major say he and his friends were trying to crack the code of what employers wanted. By the way, the econ major had his edge by being fluent in Japanese.

About 20 years ago, the most common degree that CEO’s had was an English degree, but today it’s an engineering degree. The one CEO I met when I was in college had an undergraduate degree from Harvard in English from the 60’s.

Let’s say you’re hiring and you have two candidates –

Candidate one is a business major with excellent grades and a few summers of fulltime work


Candidate two is an English major with good grades, but he’s worked his way through college and was a shift supervisor his last year in school

He organized some campus events

He was a member of some clubs and was in leadership positions as an upperclassman

He has a blog and YouTube channel of his book and movie reviews, which are actually fairly entertaining

He managed to learn a few languages, and while he isn’t fluent, he can get by fairly comfortably in the countries where the languages are spoken

He taught English as a second language to students over Skype as a side business


Now, who do you think would be a bigger asset to the company?

I’m candidate one, but I’d much rather be candidate two.

 

[Teddy]

My sister got a liberal arts degree (Women's studies). She also a liberal feminist. Luckily she got a job.

I mean, I'm sure some of the majors could lead to someone getting an actual thus being productive, but just from buying coffee from Starbucks or getting a burger at In and Out, that doesn't happen often. You see a lot of 20 year olds who have these degrees either working in fast food or not having a job at all. It's really depressing.

 

[OtterParty]

It's one of those strange things that's worth somewhat less than the paper it's printed on

 

[Kazami Yuuka]

Figure 1 - A Liberal Arts Diploma (Source: The Online Smithsonian Museum)
(I am joking, but honestly, you are better off with a degree in Library Science and working at a library)

 

[Dudeofteenage]

Liberal arts majors are snobby elitists and I'm better than they are

 

[HG 400]

Liberal arts majors are snobby elitists and I'm better than they are

Am I remembering wrong, or do you have a liberal arts degree?

 

[Cuck Norris]

The most expensive toilet paper you've ever bought.

 

[Dudeofteenage]

Am I remembering wrong, or do you have a liberal arts degree?

I was really hoping that somebody would spot that I was trolling based on the sillyness of my statements rather than remembering personal information about me. But yes, I do.

 

[Bronchitis that Lingers]

Most universities require liberal arts classes for underclassmen, so if you want to bypass this the cheap way, you can go to community college and get a core liberal arts transfer so you don't have to pay a grand for humanities 101. That's what I did, so while I'm majoring in administration at my uni, I'll also be receiving an AA in liberal arts from my community college after my math course from the former transfers over.
I can't say that I'm going to hang it up in a classy frame, or anything. It's one thing to get an liberal arts degree in something that's not just...liberal arts. But it was a hell of a lot cheaper than paying university prices and I recommend doing it to anyone who doesn't have a full ride to a four year.

 

[HG 400]

I was really hoping that somebody would spot that I was trolling based on the sillyness of my statements rather than remembering personal information about me. But yes, I do.

They weren't silly though. Fuck those subhuman liberal arts untermenschen, Stemlord pride forever.

 

[Superior Watermelon]

I hate liberal arts degrees, but as much as all of you are shitting on them I'd like to point out that liberal arts degrees are usually a way for kids who don't know what they want to do with their life to get a degree and have some freedom on where they go after that. Granted it's not amazing compared to a degree in a specific field, I had a friend who went for one and ended up becoming a police officer (which pays great, and isn't really a liberal occupation).