The recent scarcity of jobs for graduating college students has provoked debate over whether a liberal arts education is worth the high tuition and burden of student loans.

According to Mark Smith, director of the Washington University Career Center, pre-professional majors may be more practical than other degrees in terms of finding employment after graduation.

“If you want to go into accounting, you’re not going to be able to do that without some kind of advanced degree in accounting,” Smith said.

Catalin Roman, chair of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, also stressed the value of pre-professional degrees.
“Salary offers for bachelor’s degrees [in computer science] are as high as $80,000 or $90,000,” Roman said. “That’s just for a bachelor’s.”

Despite the lack of jobs for liberal arts students in highly technical fields, Smith said that students with liberal arts degrees can still pursue a variety of careers.

“Some will go into corporations that have a training program,” he said.

In addition to securing careers immediately after graduation, liberal arts students may also enroll in graduate school.

“Typically it’s around 40 percent that will go straight out, and then you’ll see another third of the class will do it in one to five years,” Smith said.

“The most common outcome for history majors is to go to law school,” said Andrea Friedman, director of undergraduate studies for the history department.

Besides providing students with job opportunities, liberal arts majors teach students crucial skills that employers look for in job applicants.

According to Jean Allman, chair of the department of history, studying history teaches skills that are valuable in the workplace.
“You learn how to do research, you learn how to think critically, you learn how to write, you learn how to reference, you learn how to analyze, you learn how to debate—and these are things that translate to all different fields,” Allman said.

“What companies are looking for is future leaders,” Smith said. “People always need people to problem solve.”

Still, pursuing interdisciplinary studies puts students at an advantage when applying for jobs.

“There is a huge need for people that can cross disciplines,” Roman said. “If you are an anthropologist and graduate with an A+ GPA, and you’re from a great school, you’re going to have lots of opportunities, but you’re going to compete with all the others.

“On the other hand, if you actually have combined that with something else that makes you distinctive, that’s going to put you in a much better market position.”

According to Smith, while liberal arts degrees “can be practical, there are things you can do to make your liberal arts degree even more practical.”

“I would encourage a liberal arts student to think about where they might want to go in terms of a career, then think about what skills would be highly valued,” he said.

Smith suggested that students build specific skill sets through coursework and extracurricular activities, while Roman emphasized that “it is very important for most people today to have a computing background.”

“It is not a matter of use of computers. I use a computer the same way you do. But you understand the world, and you understand opportunities because of understanding what could be done,” Roman said.

A motivation to pursue liberal arts that is perhaps more influential than the job market is a student’s personal interest in a certain field.
“You should study what you love,” Smith said. “College is a time to learn, to think, to expose yourself to new ideas. We don’t know what the job market will be like in 15 years.”

For the most part, students at the University are doing just that.

Sophomore Greg Papakyriakou enrolled himself in the Text and Tradition program.

“I enjoy reading. I enjoy learning about how ideas have developed and progressed,” he said.

Sophomore Ella Fishman plans to declare an English major because she loves to write.

“I’ve considered going to law school,” she said. “It’s not really my passion, which is writing, but if I have to go to law school and become financially secure before I can write a novel then so be it.”