Professional education in engineering, for example, is necessary to be a successful engineer. For some professions, this is admittedly true. What are the Advantages of Professional Education?īecause professional education programs are focused on teaching students what they need to know to be a doctor, nurse, or engineer, students that graduate from these programs are supposedly better prepared to enter the workforce than their liberal arts educated counterparts. Unlike the liberal arts, professional education focuses less on developing a broad range of knowledge, and instruction is oriented only towards the skills necessary to succeed in that field. Any pre-med, nursing, engineering, business, or other similarly specialized program is an example of what is called professional, career-oriented, or vocational education. While a liberal arts education includes instruction in a variety of topics and emphasizes the development of critical skills, a professional education seeks to educate students in one specific topic and prepare them directly for entrance into the professional world. How is Professional Education Different than a Liberal Arts Education? The value of these skills is their wide applicability and ability to adapt with the evolving technological and economic state of the world. Classes in the liberal arts are designed to develop critical thinking, problem-solving, communication, and teamwork skills that happen to be precisely what employers seek in potential employees.
While at a liberal arts university you may major in anything from neurobiology to comparative literature, the most important facet of your education is the skills you’ve developed. Proponents of liberal arts education claim that the broad base of knowledge it instills in all students allows them to be both successful in their specific line of work while also having a comprehensive understanding of the world around them.
Rather than specialization in a sole field or skill set, your undergraduate experience at an LAC or at a school that features general education requirements will include exposure to a wide range of topics beyond what’s directly relevant to your major. What are the Advantages of a Liberal Arts Education?Ī liberal arts education emphasizes dynamism and diversity. However, nearly all students are familiar with a liberal arts education, even if they haven’t encountered it in these contexts general education requirements at any public or private school are examples of a liberal arts education. Many large universities also include liberal arts colleges within the university, such as Harvard College and Northwestern’s Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences. Liberal arts educations are the focus of aptly-named liberal arts colleges (LACs), typically small, residential institutions where pre-med, business, nursing, and other professional programs are usually not offered to students. Rather, a liberal arts education is one that includes instruction in broad, central disciplines such as English, history, math, and science, and focuses on developing skills like problem-solving, critical analysis, and effective written and oral communication. Contrary to what some initially believe, the “liberal” in liberal arts doesn’t mean politically liberal.
With the prospect of applying to college and choosing a major looming over many of your heads, we at CollegeVine have decided to break down the differences between a liberal arts and professional education to help you figure out which is best for you.īefore we start talking about the relative advantages of a liberal arts education, it’s probably smart to first define what exactly it is. Liberal arts and professional education programs provide different experiences to their students, and debate has begun to surface over which is most advantageous in the long run. Despite these arguments in favor of career-oriented education, many highly-respected schools, such as Williams and Amherst Colleges and most of the Ivy League universities, still focus their undergraduate education on the liberal arts. The purported advantages of a professional education are that they better prepare students to enter the workforce, arm students with practical skills necessary for success in their chosen fields, and offer more stable, high-paying employment prospects straight out of college. The result is a shift in the educational world towards “professional” or “career-oriented” programs – paths that prepare students specifically for one field of work, such as NYU’s Stern School of Business or UCLA’s School of Nursing. As the job market becomes more competitive, students and parents alike are increasingly wary of spending the money for a degree they fear won’t help them get a job.