March 2018

There is a common narrative that going to a liberal arts college leads to a worthless degree because grads can’t get jobs, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. The reality is that career options are almost limitless. Here are two interactive tools that help visualize this:
- Carleton College’s interactive tool helps both current and prospective students understand that majors can lead to many types of careers. It shows the major of graduates and their career field, connected by a line. These lines have different thicknesses corresponding to the number of graduates with a specific major and a specific career. Learn more about the tool.
- The Hamilton Project’s interactive career path tool looks at career paths and earnings of graduates within a college major. The results can also be filtered for specific genders and age groups.
And consider this: employers say that a college grad’s major matters less than their soft skills, such as the highly sought after critical thinking, problem solving and communication skills taught at a liberal arts college. So remember to look beyond specific majors.
Read the insights from the presidents of two of our colleges on how the liberal arts prepare students for today’s — and tomorrow’s — workforce.
If you’re craving more about how a liberal arts education or majors actually work in the workplace, check out the following articles:
- Business schools’ new artsy edge
- The surprising thing Google learned about its employees — and what it means for today’s students
- Yes, your kid will do something with that philosophy degree after all
- Liberal arts education prepares you for life in a rapidly changing world
- The unexpected value of the liberal arts
- Why we need the liberal arts in technology's age of distraction
- Six reasons why your college major doesn't matter
- Will picking the right college major land you a better job?