The Value of a Liberal Arts Degree: Debunking the 3 Biggest Myths of a B.A.

By Ian Donnelly

Pursuing a Bachelor of Arts degree is no walk in the park. There’s a stigma surrounding liberal arts education that adds some obstacles to your journey right from the get-go. Every student who decides upon a liberal arts major will inevitably have their sanity called into question with charming remarks like, “What do you plan on doing with that?”, “Do you have a backup plan?”, and the ever-so-lovely, “How will you turn that into a career?”

Despite popular opinion, the liberal arts are not dying. A Bachelor of Arts degree is not a worthless scrap of paper, and liberal arts students are not destined to become penniless, aimless, or card-carrying members of the Unemployed Philosopher’s Guild. While it may take some time to reverse the public view of a liberal arts education, you’ll find some ideas that come up again and again in the debate of your degree’s worthiness.

This blog examines the three most prevalent misconceptions about liberal arts degrees and reveals why they’re nothing but tall tales. Feel free to use these myth busters to curb the negative rhetoric with a little something those Bachelor of Science seekers seem to understand—cold, hard facts.

”A liberal arts degree doesn’t teach you any concrete skills.”

This is one of the most common complaints about a Bachelor of Arts, but it’s also the most transparent. Saying a liberal arts degree doesn’t teach you real-world skills is like saying that a well-built foundation has nothing to do with a strong and stable house. Sure, liberal arts students don’t leave college with a super-specific, technical know-how, but they are armed with cognitive tools that make them well-rounded, innovative, and sought-after employees.

A liberal arts education fosters creativity, problem solving, and critical thinking, which are all vital foundations to success. These strengths aren’t just invaluable life skills—they’re also hot commodities in the job market. Strong communication is also at the core of liberal arts education, and while you may think that communicating is more of a basic requirement than a talent for college grads, you’d be surprised by how coveted speaking and writing skills are to employers.

A recent study by the American Association of Colleges and Universities found that 93 percent of employers consider someone’s ability to think critically and communicate clearly to be more important than their college major when making hiring decisions.

“STEM jobs are higher paying, more in-demand, etc. etc.”

As a group that commonly gets painted as numerically challenged, this is one of the most satisfying liberal arts myths to debunk. STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) is the most buzzed about acronym of the decade and traditionally goes hand-in-hand with a Bachelor of Science degree. They make up the classic tit-for-tat argument that usually goes something like this: the science and tech industries are booming so the demand for skill-specific tech jobs will continue to rise, making a B.S. the safest bet for a high paying career. But, thanks to that Logic 101 class that every liberal arts student is required to take during freshman year, we recognize a fallacy when we see one.

While it is statistically true that liberal arts graduates earn slightly less than their Bachelor of Science peers upon graduation from college, the long-term careers of liberal arts students look brighter. A 2017 study by David J. Deming, an associate professor of education and economics at Harvard, found jobs requiring both the soft skills and thinking skills inherent of a liberal arts education have seen the largest mobility and pay over the last three decades.

Science and tech may be on the rise, but that doesn’t mean that opportunities are confined to skill-specific jobs. Scientific innovations and new technologies create fresh demand for high-paid trainers, coaches, workshop leaders, and salespeople. The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that by 2022, two million Americans will enter the workforce in these roles while software engineers’ ranks will only grow by 279,500, or barely 3 percent of overall job growth. So, for once, liberal arts students and numbers are on the same side—STEM jobs aren’t the answer when it comes to long-term employment growth. When you add it all up, it’s hard to see a liberal arts degree as a bad investment.

“If you have a liberal arts degree, you’re going to become a barista.”

This remark usually comes out when the debate begins to get a little personal. Sure, artsy students like quiet, cozy coffee shops, and tend to spend enough time in one that they find work there. But who doesn’t like quiet, cozy coffee shops? Everyone likes coffee shops!

Before I completely fly off the handle, I’ll hand the mic over to Howard Shultz, the long-time CEO of Starbucks who would beg to differ with this statement. Shultz was a communications major before he rose to the top of the coffee shop world, and while he no doubt makes a mean cup of coffee, he didn’t rely on any barista training to lead this Fortune 500 company. He credits his liberal arts degree to his success. In his 1999 business memoir, Pour Your Heart Into It, he writes that “earning a college degree gave me the courage to keep on dreaming.”

Schultz isn’t the only business mogul touting a B.A., either. Steve Ells, the co-founder and CEO of Chipotle, has a B.A. in art history. Susan Wojcicki, YouTube’s CEO who was crowned one of “the most important women in tech” by Forbes and “the most powerful woman on the Internet” by Time Magazine, has a B.A. in history and literature. Paypal’s co-founder, Peter Thiel, studied philosophy as did LinkedIn’s founder, Reid Hoffman, and Slack’s Stewart Butterfield.

So, as you can see, a liberal arts degree can take you far in life. It’s an invaluable education that makes you adaptable, creative, and constructive, which are sought-after characteristics in the professional world today. Plus, with sharpened critical-thinking and communication skills, any liberal arts student will definitely be able to “school” anyone who throws one of these myths their way—as a liberal arts grad, you can take my word for it.

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