What is it like to be a liberal arts student? Well for starters, when you first announce that you are going to attend a university that offers only liberal arts degrees and that isn't neccessarily on everyone's radar of "exceptional schools," you will be met with doubt. According to many adults that you will encounter, saying that you are going to a liberal arts school is you metaphorically signing yourself away to a wasted four years of trying new things. Some will think that if you aren't going to enter into a specified professional track, you will fall behind your peers who do and that you are therefore making a mistake.
Thankfully, those of us who have actually experienced life as a liberal arts student know that our educational journey will go much to the contrary. Liberal arts students thrive in every area of the "real world" every day. What many don't understand is that those who choose to go to liberal arts colleges don't view their decisions as experiments. Not knowing what you want to study when you enter college or giving yourself the opportunity to take classes in a myriad amount of subjects outside your major simply doesn't intimidate us students. It excites us. It gives us the chance to explore through an individualized path on how we can best make an impact on the world around us.
At the heart of the liberal art's mission, just like all other higher education institutions, is positive outcomes. The overall goal of all colleges and universities is to create a better society by educating individuals to go on and make a difference in the world. So, why should the fact that liberal arts schools do so without pidgeon-holing their students into strict academic paths make them any less effective at achieving this aim? Our society widely accepts the fact that the only way to achieve success is through a direct path, yet graduates all over the nation serve in sometimes over 10 jobs in their lifetime. In learning to network through relationships formed in various departments, in learning to think critically through how all academic areas perceive the world, and in forming a resume of experiences in many different areas, liberal arts students learn the skills necessary to succeed in a wide variety of jobs.
I write this as a student at a liberal arts university who wants to make sure that no one undermines the next generation of students who chooses to pursue degrees in the liberal arts. I want to make sure that those who receive degrees from large schools with strict paths to their dream jobs do not undermine the hard working physics and cinema double major at a smaller, lesser known liberal arts school. And, I write this because I am grateful that I have the ability to be educated and believe that anyone who feels the same way, no matter what school they attend, will succeed.
