The Blogs on Higher Education website contains links to non-affiliated blogs from around the world, aimed at collecting and presenting helpful information to prospective students and parents on college-related issues. Blogs contained in Blogs on Higher Education and the opinions expressed within them are not affliated with Rosemont College and do not necessarily represent the official policies of Rosemont College.
1. What Can I Do With a Liberal Arts Degree?
The purpose of a liberal arts curriculum is to help students fulfill their responsibilities as citizens and grow into cultured and versatile individuals. A liberal education is concerned with the development of moral, spiritual, and aesthetic values as well as analytical abilities. Intellectually, a liberal arts education encourages students to develop their curiosity, embrace uncertainty, and explore. READ MORE
2. Are Liberal Arts Dead?
Far from it. In fact, liberal arts grads are in high demand in the corporate world. When Michele Schuh graduated from the University of California, Davis, in 1997, she had no idea what she wanted to do. As an American studies major, she had a broad background in culture and history. At first, she worked as a substitute teacher, but it wasn’t until she moved to San Francisco and started a job as a sales assistant at Rolling Stone that she found a job that matched her talents and interests. “With a liberal arts degree, you really learn how to write and communicate,” says Schuh. READ MORE
3. The Importance of a Liberal Arts Education
Historically, in the United States, there has always exist a tension in higher education between the education of the person and the achievement of specific and pragmatic objectives. Liberal arts colleges in the United States have traditionally tilted the balance in favor of educating the whole person. Character building was viewed as equal in importance to intellectual development. The core of the liberal arts experience is a commitment to the excitement of learning. READ MORE
4. Career vs. Liberal Arts Majors
Just because there's no clearly defined career path for the liberal arts major, doesn't mean that you won't pick up valuable career skills. Far from it. With a liberal arts education, you'll study a broad range of topics. You'll build a sophisticated vocabulary and develop intellectual skills, such as reasoning and judgment, as opposed to technical skills targeted to a specific profession. READ MORE
5. The Nation's Top Liberal Arts Colleges
The nation’s top liberal arts colleges have a rich and distinguished history. The undergraduate education currently practiced by these intellectually and educationally dynamic institutions of higher education has its roots in the founding of the nation’s first colleges in the 17th century. READ MORE
6. Choosing a College
Liberal arts colleges, like universities, come in almost unlimited varieties. Some small liberal arts colleges are part of major universities. The undergraduate college at Johns Hopkins and at Rice each has less than 3,000 students. On the other hand, Brooklyn College alone has a larger enrollment of undergraduates than either of these universities has total students enrolled at all levels. Huge colleges have many of the same characteristics as huge universities. The special characteristics of liberal arts colleges show up most clearly in the smaller institutions. READ MORE
7. College: Community or Commodity?
Why has Harvard Med School continued to choose applicants from private liberal arts colleges over state schools? It’s not the name, but the quality level of education that the name is believed to represent. A liberal arts college means several things to an Ivy-league admissions committee: this student has been given a low student-teacher ratio, has been exposed to a broad range of world knowledge — both historic and contemporary — and has been taught how to make connections within the world around her. READ MORE
8. Broader is Better: Liberal Arts Colleges in the US
One aspect of American higher education which may be unfamiliar to some newcomers to the US is the liberal arts college. These colleges, rather than preparing students for a specific vocation, aim to give them a broad base of general knowledge and to develop their critical and creative thinking skills. These schools, which comprise about 15% of all the institutes of higher learning in the US and generally offer a Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science degree, are small (often with fewer than 2,000 students), have low faculty/student ratios, and usually aim to create a strong sense of community among students and teachers on campus. READ MORE
9. Loving the Liberal Arts College
The very keen thing about going to one of the country's many small, tucked-away liberal arts colleges is that you do a lot less sitting still and a lot more participating. You write more (even in science classes,) you engage in more group discussion, you get encouraged to pick up and study abroad or take internships for credit. And there will be projects, oh yes. READ MORE
10. Liberal Arts Colleges to Drop from U.S. News Rankings
According to the New York Times this morning, dozens of liberal arts colleges have decided to end their participation in the U.S. News and World Report College Rankings. The Annapolis Group, an organization of small liberal arts schools, released this statement yesterday, claiming a majority of their members have agreed to boycott the U.S. News rankings system. READ MORE