The ever-increasing demand of higher education has left many students struggling to navigate through the maze that is college courses, curriculum, and strategies for success. Students are overwhelmed with too much information, making it difficult to know what they should be studying and which opportunities are best for them.
Many undergraduate degree programs require only two or three math courses per student, but how these courses are taught varies widely across colleges and universities. Some may teach concepts clearly while others can be extremely abstract and hard to relate to outside the classroom setting. This makes completing the course material increasingly difficult as students must figure out how to apply the lessons in their daily lives.
Liberal arts degrees typically do not emphasize mathematics as much as other areas like humanities or natural science disciplines. These departments focus more on teaching about literature, history, and sociology than pure numbers theory.
However, there are several non-mathematical career paths that use advanced mathematical principles. For example, engineers and architects rely heavily on geometry and spatial relations to create designs. Financial advisors develop theories about money to help people spend more wisely. And scientists study patterns of matter to understand why certain materials bond together and lead to new inventions.
Overall, being able to describe, analyze, and manipulate ideas using logic is an important skill that all educated individuals need to have.
Definition of a liberal arts major
A liberal arts degree focuses not only on how to learn, but also on what to learn. You will get general education courses that focus more on concepts than skills. This includes things like philosophy, literature, history, art, and music theory.
General education is important because it helps you prepare for other areas of study. For example, a philosophy major might be able to transfer into business or psychology because both require strong reasoning abilities.
A English major can take classes in journalism, advertising, or writing, all of which require literacy and communication skills.
An economics student could go onto careers such as accounting, finance, or even teaching elementary school because they are good at math.
There are many ways to fit an educational program with your dreams and career goals.
Examples of liberal arts majors
Many people associate only college with expensive, large scale courses that have little to do with each other. However, there are many ways in which colleges make use of the liberal arts.
Liberal arts degrees frequently focus more on studying literature, history, or art. This is because these subjects help you understand how ideas spread through different cultures and mediums — important things we all live our lives under.
Literature students study stories and essays written by past and present authors. History students read novels about historical figures and learn from them. Art students explore different styles and shapes and apply it to new projects.
These skills can be applied anywhere so most employers don’t care whether you’ve got a degree in English, Philosophy, or Visual Arts.
Touchstone topics in liberal arts
One of the biggest questions that students ask is how hard are these courses? They wonder if they will get enough practical applications from their studies to be worth it. It can also seem like there’s not much connection between what you learn in literature, psychology, or sociology and your career as a doctor, lawyer, or business person.
While some academic fields do emphasize theory over practice, I would argue that this is only because most people who study those subjects already have an understanding of why theories matter.
The reason that science, math, and economics work so well is because they connect directly with things we all do in our daily lives — creating products, figuring out costs, knowing when something makes sense to buy.
