The value of a Liberal Arts degree

At a time when a post-secondary credential is almost a requirement for a satisfying career and when the cost of that credential encumbers many with student loans to be paid off over many years, education is, not surprisingly, seen more and more instrumentally. Fewer and fewer students can afford to see education as an end in itself — it must also provide good career prospects.

Hidden benefits

For many professional and technical degrees, the career paths are fairly clear and self-evident. For a Bachelor of Arts, this is often less so. Of course, a BA can become a stepping stone towards a Masters and/or Doctoral degree(s). But, statistically, less than 30% of graduates will go into graduate programs. Some will use a BA as an entry point for professional degrees, such as degrees in Law or Medicine.

Using your BA to enter the workforce

What are the prospects for a BA graduate joining the workforce? The answer to this question is not self-evident because the choices are so diverse. Graduates end up in a bewildering variety of fields and, according to labour market data, do just as well as or better than graduates with more specialized degrees.

Recipe for success

The reasons for BA graduates experiencing such success in their career is that a BA gives the graduate general skills which are in demand in many fields and are not necessarily acquired to the same extent in other degrees. Graduates typically will have taken a considerable number of courses outside their majors, giving them broad knowledge in many areas. The freedom to choose courses also inevitably results in exposure to a great variety of viewpoints and to problems to which there are no single correct answers. Thus students learn to think critically and creatively and learn to tolerate ambiguity.

The write stuff

Because many courses require written assignments and research, students acquire valuable communication, research and computer skills. In an age of information overload, BA graduates are more likely to be discriminating users of information.

In demand

These skills and others combine to make BA graduates desirable in so many fields, including the high-tech sector. A Bachelor of Arts creates an attitude, an approach to problem-solving and to life in general that will serve the graduate for a lifetime and the employer for many years. It now more than ever one of the best investments a student can make.

Check out Mount Royal’s Bachelor of Arts degree.