The Value of a Liberal Arts Education
From Silicon Valley to Wall Street, from nationwide surveys to iconic CEOs, employers say they want to hire grads who can think critically, communicate clearly and solve complex problems.
They agree these skills, provided by a liberal arts education, matter more than what students choose as their undergraduate major.
Learn more at www.liberalartspower.org, or check out the executives' opinions and studies below.
How These Humanities Graduates are Finding Jobs in Silicon Valley
The Future of Work series explores why students with "soft skills" are critical for
innovating and helping organizations run effectively.
Author Makes Case for "Surprising Power" of Liberal Arts Education
In his book You Can Do Anything, George Anders explains the remarkable power of a liberal arts education – and the
ways it can open the door to thousands of cutting-edge jobs every week.
Business Insider:
Hedge Fund Manager Reveals Why He Loves Hiring Liberal Arts Majors
"Students of history and literature are more trained to understand the existence of
multiple perspectives and to engage with them, and so can often more accurately understand
the human dynamics that drive stock market flows," said Daniel Rasmussen, founder
of Verdad Fund Advisors. This is why he exclusively hires liberal arts majors for
his undergraduate internship program.
Liberal Arts Education Can Lead to Career Success
Knoxville News Sentinel: According to the Department of Labor, professionals will have more than 10 jobs before
they are 40 years old. So success is more than just getting a job; it's having the
tools to build a lasting career over a lifetime. Regardless of their major, liberal
arts graduates have the diverse skill set that today's employers seek.
Scientific American: STEM Education Is Vital—But Not at the Expense of the Humanities
The need to teach both music theory and string theory is a necessity for the U.S.
economy to continue as the preeminent leader in technological innovation... Apple's
Steve Jobs once declared: "It's in Apple's DNA that technology alone is not enough—that
it's technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields
us the result that makes our hearts sing."
Wall Street Journal: Why I Was Wrong About Liberal Arts Majors
Wall Street Journal Small Business Expert David Kalt says his experience has proven a liberal arts education
produces the sharpest, best-performing software developers and technology leaders:
"A critical thinker is a self-learning machine."
The Atlantic: Why America's Business Majors Are in Desperate Need of a Liberal Arts Education
Students are clamoring for degrees that will help them secure jobs in a shifting economy,
but to succeed in the long term, they’ll require an education that allows them to
grow, adapt, and to build successful careers: They need a liberal arts foundation.
U.S. News University Directory: Study Links Liberal Arts to Success in Life
A study released this year showed adults with a liberal arts background had a 30-100%
increased chance of having positions of leadership. It also found a higher likelihood
of satisfaction and happiness among those who as undergraduates discussed issues with
those who disagreed with them and had in-class discussions on varied viewpoints –
all hallmarks of a liberal arts education.
Will a Liberal Arts Education Pay Off?
College graduates earn $1 million more over their lifetimes than those with just a
high school diploma. And in its first-ever college ranking, The Economist named Illinois Wesleyan graduates as top earners – with $54,600 median annual earnings
compared to the average college graduate’s $42,751.
University Parent:
Now (still) hiring: Job prospects for liberal arts majors
Liberal arts programs readily develop core competencies that leaders in the high-tech
work force most desire.
The Washington Post: Enough with trashing the liberal arts. Stop being stupid
For years now, business leaders have been saying loudly that the skills learned in
liberal arts education are exactly what they are looking for in employees.
Forbes: Why Tech's Most Valuable Teacher Is A Classics Major
Business savvy was folded into a liberal arts education for Tim O'Reilly, who has
built a formidable training institution for software engineers. "More broadly, all
it takes is a quick scan through the job ads to see how useful a liberal-arts education
can be — even in our tech-hungry society."
The liberal arts train students to synthesize multiple perspectives, to think differently about bigger questions, to translate complex information into clear language – and to adapt to changing circumstances, tech CEOs say.
Software companies are discovering that liberal arts thinking makes them stronger. Just ask philosophy major Stewart Butterfield, cofounder and CEO of Slack Technologies. And he’s far from alone, as Forbes reports.
Expert advice: "Just pursue your passion. Employers prefer to hire people who have decision-making, organizational and planning, problem-solving, writing and communication skills" – skills best learned in liberal arts programs. "Major in what interests you most and what you are best at." Also: There are "dramatic differences between the 'sticker price' and the tuition and fees families actually pay."
Liberal arts graduates joined the ranks of tech companies at a faster clip in the past few years than their engineering and computer-science counterparts, according an analysis by LinkedIn, which concluded, "These results reveal that the philosophy behind liberal arts, which encourages diversity of skills and flexible critical thinking, transfers to the workplace in various forms."
A star-studded panel of entrepreneurial leaders said liberal arts institutions produce graduates who bring the freshest ideas as employees.
Many factors explain why liberal arts colleges have produced a disproportionate share of MacArthur Fellows, valued as "self-directed original thinkers" who create groundbreaking work. Illinois Wesleyan boasts two MacArthur Fellows, 1982 grad and the first vocal artist to win the honor, 5-time Grammy winner Dawn Upshaw, and Chicago-based community leader Juan Salgado '91.
The New York Times: Starving for Wisdom
The humanities enrich us, in wisdom, understanding, and our pocketbooks. "A broad
liberal arts education is a key pathway to success in the 21st-century economy....
The economic return to pure technical skills has flattened, and the highest return
now goes to those who combine soft skills — excellence at communicating and working
with people — with technical skills."
Washington Post: What the 'liberal' in 'liberal arts' actually means
It's liberal, not as opposed to conservative, but as in free, in contrast to imprisoned,
constrained or subjugated. "A liberal education is designed to provide students with
the knowledge and abilities to become successful, productive members of a free society."
Washington Post: We don’t need more STEM majors. We need more STEM majors with liberal arts training.
If American science, technology, engineering and math grads are going lead the world in innovation, then their science education cannot
be divorced from the liberal arts.
Weighing the Cost of Public vs. Private Colleges
A high school guidance counselor advises families to look past the sticker shock of
private schools and consider their more generous financial aid packages and the much
greater likelihood of graduating within four years.
In the interests of hiring managers who want their companies to thrive, how you think is more important than what you know. A so-called "useless" degree can teach you to observe and understand patterns and be forward thinking.
Yes, science and tech are important, but a congressional report shows that employers prize a more broadly-based education that has taught them to write well, think critically, research creatively and communicate easily.
The ability to think, to conceptualize and to come up with creative ideas separates top performers in their careers, according to CEO Steve Sadove. These traits are hallmarks of a liberal arts education.
In a national survey, 80 percent of employers agree that – regardless of their major – all college students should acquire broad knowledge in the liberal arts and sciences.
Tech CEOs across the country agree that liberal arts training – with its emphasis on creativity and critical thinking – is vital to the success of their business.
A former Twitter and Google executive told The Wall Street Journal he was looking for good storytellers at his startup company – illustrating how businesses depend on "liberal arts-centric communicators."
Hamilton Place Strategies set out to determine when the cost of a college education is no longer worth the investment. Their answer: not until the year 2086, if tuition reaches $181,000 per year. Up to that point, a college degree brings a solid return.
The co-chairman of Carlyle Group, a private equity firm, said that the reasoning skills that come with a well-rounded education result in higher-paying jobs over time.
A new report documents that liberal arts graduates reach higher earnings and enjoy long-term professional success.
Edgar M. Bronfman, the former CEO of Seagram Company, Ltd., believes the work place of the future requires adaptable minds. "There is nothing that makes the mind more elastic and expandable than discovering how the world works," he writes.
A recent public poll found that American adults and employers favor graduates who can communicate and think critically and creatively, rather than receive narrow training and industry-specific skills. Also reported by Inside Higher Ed.
John Dearborn, president of venture development firm JumpStart Inc., joins the late Apple CEO Steve Jobs in his view that great innovations spring from the liberal arts.
Not only is a liberal arts education not as expensive as news stories lead us to believe, but there may be no better investment in America today.
In a survey commissioned by the Association of American Colleges & Universities, employers said today's workers need a broader range of skills and knowledge.
A rigorous education will ensure that students are prepared not just for their first jobs, but also for their second jobs, and especially for those kinds of jobs that do not yet exist.
The head of a billion-dollar software company argues that the skills necessary to succeed today are best fostered in a liberal arts environment.
It's true: Liberal arts graduates earn well above the median income, excel in their careers and find great satisfaction in them.
Students today can easily find information. The challenge is making connections, dealing with complexity.
A national survey found that alumni of liberal arts colleges such as Illinois Wesleyan are better prepared for their careers and more satisfied with their education than graduates of other institutions.
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