Here are some excerpts from Wesleyan President Michael Roth’s article “Why the Liberal Arts Matter”

 “This means that your courses will be in general areas of study–philosophy, mathematics, literature, art history, economics, languages, and so on–rather than in applied or specialized fields. A liberal arts education is not intended to train you for a specific job, though it does prepare you for the world of work by providing you with an invaluable set of employability skills, including the ability to think for yourself, the skills to communicate effectively, and the capacity for lifelong learning.” 

What Will I Study as Part of an Arts Education?

You will study a variety of subjects, looking at the world and its people from various points of view. You will learn about ideas and beliefs that have guided human beings and shaped civilizations for thousands of years.

Rigorous expectations of learning with the development of critical thinking and creativity – essential for success in the 21st Century.

You don’t have to make a choice between the sciences and the rest of the liberal arts. Indeed, the sciences are a vital part of the liberal arts! Some liberal arts colleges have the best science and research programs in the US!

Because it makes no sense to train people as narrowly as possible in a world going through cataclysmic changes, for you are building specific strengths that leave you merely muscle-bound, not stronger and more flexible.

A Liberal Arts education generates further curiosity, new needs, experiences to meet those needs, more curiosity and so on.

An education isn’t just an object that you use to get started in a career; education is a catalytic resource that continues to energize and shape your life. This is the focus of the Liberal Arts.

A liberal arts education enhances your ability to develop new skills and capacities for connectivity that allow you to solve problems and seize opportunities.