Liberal arts education: Waste of money or practical investment? Study’s conclusions might surprise you.
Liberal arts education: Waste of money or practical investment? Study’s conclusions might surprise you.
Liberal arts education: Waste of money or practical investment? Study’s conclusions might surprise you.
By Susan Svrluga
January 14, 2020
Summary
Twenty-some years later, now director of global sales for Google, Hagberg credits her wide-ranging liberal arts education with preparing her for a demanding business career.
Some small liberal arts colleges have closed, or considered closing, in recent years.
The Georgetown study finds that the return on a liberal arts education is not typically immediate - at 10 years, the median return is $62,000 - but over the decades of a career, it is solid.
The median 40-year return of $918,000 at liberal arts colleges is more than 25 percent higher than the median for all colleges, researchers found.
"That's why over a 30-to-40-year period, a liberal arts education does well," he said.
The Georgetown study follows a more sweeping analysis by the center using federal data to calculate net present value to estimate return on investment at more than 4,500 colleges and universities across the country.
In this case, they examined institutions listed by the Carnegie Classification system as Baccalaureate Colleges: Arts & Sciences Focus - what most people think of as liberal arts colleges, schools primarily offering bachelor's degrees, and not large research universities.
The researchers found considerable variability within the group of liberal arts schools, with the most selective schools producing significantly higher returns than the median.
Harvey Mudd College, with its emphasis on science, engineering and math, had the highest ranking among the 200-plus liberal arts colleges for net present value at 40 years: $1.85 million.
Coming from a Richmond high school emphasizing math and science, a liberal arts school wasn't the obvious choice, especially for someone interested in medicine and in developing plant-based polymers.
Reference
Svrluga, S. (2020, January 14). Liberal arts education: Waste of money or practical investment? Study's conclusions might surprise you. Retrieved January 22, 2020, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/liberal-arts-education-waste-of-money-or-practical-investment-studys-conclusions-might-surprise-you/2020/01/13/5a197b14-3649-11ea-bb7b-265f4554af6d_story.html