are liberal arts degrees worthless?

[Semidevil]

so I have a B.A in mathematics, and I am thinking of getting a Masters degree. There are a lot of choices, but I am thinking about the Masters in Administrative leadership from the college of Liberal Arts.

1st question is does any one have any thoughts on this? First, about a liberal arts degree in general, and second, about this particular degree from this school (oklahoma)?

I understand it is not as hardcore as an engineering degree, or a MBA from a top school, but are liberal arts degrees still considered 'worthless'?

This is not for a career change. This is 1) for knowledge, 2) Having a masters degree (should i ever need a career change).

thoughts?

 

[TridenT]

Maybe ask the school's career counselor/advisers/whatever what you could do with a degree in that?

Many are considered worthless or near worthless or just so insignificant in comparison to an EE degree, ME, CS, etc.

 

[Gibson486]

Not worthless, just not in demand.

 

[Zeze]

All depends on how you sell yourself on 'soft' skill degrees.

I know a friend who majored in music, did jackshit.
Another friend went to Berklee School of Music, got great connections and leads a good band quite popular to local scene and growing

A friend majored in Economics, became a marketing consultant.
My ex also in Economics, did some odd contract jobs at Navy (wtf?), went back to grad school.

 

[God Mode]

It's worthless by itself. Its great for entrepreneurs with a vision to combine their different skillsets together.

 

[Capt Caveman]

Plenty of liberal arts majors making huge amounts of money.

ie. Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, a medieval history and philosophy major (Stanford '76)

Walt Disney CEO Michael Eisner, double major in English and theater (Denison '64)

 

[RocksteadyDotNet]

They good if you want to work at Maccas.

 

[postmortemIA]

They are worth it - for schools that 'produce' them and firms that give you school loans.

 

[Leros]

It's worthless by itself. Its great for entrepreneurs with a vision to combine their different skillsets together.

Also try pairing your interest with something a bit more career worthy.

For example, if you're interested in a foreign language you could double major in that language and international business.

 

[IGBT]

it's a feel good degree for the flunkTards who can't make it in science and math.

 

[zerocool84]

I know people that got a LA degree but what they eventually got into had nothing to do with that degree. If you're going to spend the time, energy, and money into a degree, you need to make sure it's something that is going to worthwhile to you.

 

[Rumpltzer]

LOL. Masters in math... and liberal arts, huh?

My roommate in grad school was going for a PhD in math. They let 8 of them in, kept them around for 2 years allowing them to work as TAs, then they failed all but 1 of them when qualifying exams came around.

He already had a masters in math when he showed up for the PhD, so he essentially wasted 2 years for a PhD that never transpired. Got a job as an actuary; hardly works, passes tests, and makes tons of money.

 

[kooroo]

not worthless in that, it's still a degree and the state of having a degree is a baseline requirement for a lot of opportunities.

mebbe worthless if your goal is career opportunities.
If you are studying liberal arts, then you MUST build out your professional networking early and often because your degree on its own merit will give you very little.

Studying music history and locking yourself in your room all day is not worth a hill of beans.

 

[HybridSquirrel]

+1 on networking early and often.


Art History is the worst IIRC Economics is the highest.

 

[xSauronx]

theyre only mostly worthless, which means that they are very slightly not worthless

 

[between]

...

 

[BrokenVisage]

I'm surprised there isn't a 'conservative arts' degree at some of these high and mighty schools by now, amirite??

 

[Vette73]

does anyone believe that an education can have value other than contributing to your pay check? in the sense of it being a good thing, somehow, to be more educated and to have broadened intellectual horizons...

I can learn anything with time and the right books, why pay a pile of money to get a piece of paper if it does nothing more than what I can do on my own?

I was running my business and knew about most major Corps, taxs, etc... before I got into business school. A lot of it was easy but I stayed in school, did a double, because I knew I had to have that piece of paper or nobody would even look at me.

 

[ShawnD1]

I'm surprised there isn't a 'conservative arts' degree at some of these high and mighty schools by now, amirite??

You mean like become a creation scientist?

 

[QuantumPion]

does anyone believe that an education can have value other than contributing to your pay check? in the sense of it being a good thing, somehow, to be more educated and to have broadened intellectual horizons...

Sure, but you do have to weigh the costs (unless you are a spoiled brat that gets everything paid for him). Is that worth ~$50,000-$100,000 in tuition and an additional $100,000-$200,000 in unearned wages over 4 years, possibly taking decades of your life to make up for, just to have "broadened intellectual horizons"? Just about anyone that has to make this decision would say no.

The people that get liberal arts degrees are either getting a free ride on someone's back, have not thought things through, or are using a liberal arts degree as the quickest easiest way to get to law/business/medical school.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

does anyone believe that an education can have value other than contributing to your pay check? in the sense of it being a good thing, somehow, to be more educated and to have broadened intellectual horizons...

That's why I'm required to take 12 credits of humanities.

 

[Capt Caveman]

Sure, but you do have to weigh the costs (unless you are a spoiled brat that gets everything paid for him). Is that worth ~$50,000-$100,000 in tuition and an additional $100,000-$200,000 in unearned wages over 4 years, possibly taking decades of your life to make up for, just to have "broadened intellectual horizons"? Just about anyone that has to make this decision would say no.

The people that get liberal arts degrees are either getting a free ride on someone's back, have not thought things through, or are using a liberal arts degree as the quickest easiest way to get to law/business/medical school.

Are you serious? You don't think an English degree has worth in Marketing, Copywriting, Editorial, etc positions?

Again, check out the number of liberal arts majors that are CEOs of some of the biggest companies in world. For many positions, the degree isn't as important as someone's intelligence, work ethic, ability to learn, vision, work/communicate/lead others...

 

[Scotteq]

Plenty of liberal arts majors making huge amounts of money.

ie. Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, a medieval history and philosophy major (Stanford '76)

Walt Disney CEO Michael Eisner, double major in English and theater (Denison '64)

I'm not sure CEOs are a good example of what one should learn in college, mostly because by the time one could be expected to attain such a position (s)he would have graduated some 30 years prior. A sustained record of superior business performance and *highly* superior office~political skills serve a lot better than whether a given individual studied Poetry or Engineering.

And for the record: Philosophy (done right) is not so much a history lesson as it is about "How To Think And Reason In A Disciplined Manner". The curmugeon in me would like to see (certainly US) schools bring it back more into their mainstream curriculum.

Having said that - Eisner is one of the finest CEOs in Amereica. Carly Fiorina... not so much.

 

[Vette73]

Plenty of liberal arts majors making huge amounts of money.

ie. Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, a medieval history and philosophy major (Stanford '76)

Walt Disney CEO Michael Eisner, double major in English and theater (Denison '64)

Carly Fiorina = Fiorina received a Master of Business Administration (MBA) in marketing from the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, College Park in 1980. She received a Master of Science in management from the MIT Sloan School of Management under the Sloan Fellows program in 1989.
She did not get any real major job until AFTER her MBA.


Michael Eisner = Parnets had contcas and got him started with NBC or ABC. He then built on that. So without the contacts he be just like anybody else.


So the undergrad degrees mean little if they got MBA/etc... and/or had contacts most don't. As already said many go the LA degree to keep their GPA up to get into MBA programs.

 

[ProfJohn]

so I have a B.A in mathematics, and I am thinking of getting a Masters degree. There are a lot of choices, but I am thinking about the Masters in Administrative leadership from the college of Liberal Arts.

Sounds like a good degree if you want to be in management in a corporate structure.