Liberal arts degree, yay or nay??

[drivinmecrazy]

DD is in the midst of UCAS applications at the moment.
She's pretty set on a JH in English and Spanish buthe is hard pressed to fill her five choices.
She's been looking at liberal arts because of the appeal to continue studying biology as well as spanish and english.
She's generally a good all rounder.
While the course content appeals will it be a great degree for her future?
TBH it's surprised me because previously I thought if it as 'namby pamby' until I looked in to it.
What are your thoughts and experiences? ?

What would her future goals be? Is Biology part of it? Personally I wouldn’t go down that route. The Spanish will take enough time to become fluent and I’d concentrate on that. English grads can have quite a tough time getting a job and the Spanish is an important skill in my view and more important than biology. My DD has to drop History and Politics to do MFL. Choice had to be made!

This is an interesting one. I went to a talk at Warwick on this which clarified what I’d been reading and also confirmed for my daughter that though it sounded a great course for some it wasn’t for her. To sum it up, Liberal Arts sounded great IF you want to concentrate on the interrelatedness of various subject fields and concentrate on studying then through a topic or theme related way. If you just want to study two or three favourite subjects you probably would end up thinking why am I doing all these other courses on (invented example) “living in the world” when I just want to get on and do courses in X, Y and Z. My conclusion was great for some but for others much better to look at the type of joint honours or combined or flexible honours where you can indeed just get on with studying your preferred combination of 2 or 3 subjects. Also, if you want to start or continue a language I have been really impressed by the provision that there is to do, even to the extent of prepping you to go and study X in the language of the country as a third (ie additional year) abroad. By the way, liberal arts didn’t come across as a flakey option but I think you do have to investigate the course and be clear that it really is what floats your boat -if so then there are some excellent new courses around it seems.

I think the fact that LA is generally only available at what many would consider top universities speaks volumes!

My DD’s friend did Mechanical Engineering and spent his third year abroad in a Grand Ecole in France. He had GCSE French upon entering university and did additional French to get him up to the required standard before going abroad for his third year. So I totally agree that prepping for a third year abroad from GCSE is possible but not for everyone: it’s hard work.

That’s a very interesting description of LA, Dustylaw. It’s also true that the vast majority of DC who have a whole host of top grade GCSEs have had to make hard choices over A levels let alone degree. However I think a certain amount of thinking about possible careers, how an interest can be pursued without studying it at university and what subjects are more important to you overall can concentrate the mind! If students didn’t think along these lines, Oxbridge would only offer LA degrees!

My DD was in the same boat, there were only three courses that really suited her, so she's applied for two Liberal Arts so she can do modules in her present A level subjects (which she enjoys) and also other subjects she'd like to learn more about. Her application is in and she'll decide when hopeful offers are in.

We actually talked to a tutor at my DD's school about Liberal Arts (who had worked abroad for many years) and she said particularly abroad it's thought of highly as they prefer a diverse background.

Some companies will look for a particular degree, others are looking to see you have a degree which shows you have certain skills. I know of a person with a Music degree working for a large well known oil company. A member of staff in St Andrews admissions has a History degree. For both of these jobs, I'm sure Liberal Arts degree could have been acceptable.

about thMy DD looked into Liberal Arts are Warwick and it wasn't what she wanted - I attended a lecture and session which her and it seemed very heavy going. There are plenty of other courses out there that may appear.

pressed too soon, so sorry for typos in last para!!