A liberal arts degree is such a versatile degree, that it can prepare you for dozens of distinct careers from archaeologist to legislative researcher to United Nations staff. It may be difficult to believe, but this unique degree is nothing new and it has never really been considered an “experimental” or “alternative” degree. Liberal arts study has been around since ancient Greek and Roman times, but liberal arts colleges didn’t begin to multiply in North America until the early 1800s. In medieval European Universities, liberal arts covered seven subject areas including arithmetic, astronomy, geometry, grammar, logic, music, and rhetoric.

Today, there are more than 200 liberal arts colleges across the United States. These liberal arts degree programs promote the study of history, languages, literature, mathematics, philosophy, and science—subjects that form the basis of a general or “liberal” education. Many institutions describe the liberal arts curriculum as the study of three main branches of knowledge including: the social sciences, humanities (literature, language, philosophy, the fine arts, and history), and the physical and biological sciences. In addition to studying the three main branches of knowledge, liberal arts colleges allow students to focus on a particular major. Typical liberal arts majors include:

• Biology
• Chemistry
• History
• Languages (French, German, Russian, Spanish)
• Liberal Studies
• Literature or other Humanities
• Philosophy
• Physics
• Psychology
• Social Sciences
• Sociology

While the liberal arts curriculum is basically the same at all liberal arts colleges, these unique colleges come in all shapes and sizes. Liberal arts colleges may be secular, religiously affiliated, gender-specific, public or private, urban, rural, residential, independent or part of a larger college or university.

Graduates with a liberal arts degree are an attractive option for employers mainly employers feel that liberal arts graduates have developed the skills necessary to deal with today’s evolving career world. Employers also see a liberal arts graduate as an individual that has demonstrated the ability to learn and become successful in today’s working world. Liberal arts graduates have proven that they have the ability to uncover problems, find solutions, and implement them.

Although liberal arts degrees have benefits on a personal, community, and career level, this type of degree also has benefits on a financial level. Liberal arts graduates entering professional fields can expect starting salaries ranging from $38,620 (anthropologists and archaeologists) up to $80,560 (political scientists). Earnings increase significantly with  master of liberal arts degree (MLA).

If you are interested in obtaining a liberal arts degree, you should start by contacting one of the top schools for liberal arts. The following colleges ranked high on U.S. News & World Report’s National Liberal Arts Rankings for 2011.

• Amherst College, Amherst, MA
• Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME
• Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA
• Carleton College, Northfield, MN
• Claremont McKenna College, Claremont, CA
• Davidson College, Davidson, NC
• DePauw University, Greencastle, IN
• Furman University, Greenville, SC
• Grinnell College, Grinnell, IA
• Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, CA
• Haverford College, Haverford, PA
• Middlebury College, Middlebury, VT
• Occidental College, Los Angeles, CA
• Pomona College, Claremont, CA
• Scripps College, Claremont, CA
• Sewanee: University of the South, Sewanee, TN
• Southwestern University, Georgetown, TX
• Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA
• University of Richmond, Richmond, VA
• Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY
• Washington and Lee University, Lexington, VA
• Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA
• Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT
• Willamette University, Salem, OR
• Williams College, Williamstown, MA

For more information about the top liberal arts colleges and universities in the United States, visit U.S. News & World Report rankings for 2011 at http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/liberal-arts-rankings.

Jobs for Liberal Arts Graduates

• Account executive trainee
• Administrative assistant
• Affirmative action officer
• Anthropologist
• Archeologist
• Benefits manager
• Caseworker
• Caseworker
• Choreographer
• City manager
• College recruiting specialist
• Compensation manager
• Compliance officer
• Congressional relations officer
• Congressional staff member
• Consul
• Copywriter
• Cultural affairs officer
• Customer relations officer
• Customs agent
• Customs inspector
• Dancer
• Economic development coordinator
• Employee relations officer
• Employment interviewer
• Exporter
• Foreign language teacher
• Foreign service
• Fund raising/development
• Geographer
• Historian
• Immigration agent
• Importer
• Intelligence officer
• Interpreter/translator
• Investigator
• Job analyst
• Labor relations manager
• Labor relations researcher
• Legislative analyst
• Legislative assistant (federal, state & local)
• Legislative researcher
• Lobbyist
• Media buyer
• Organizational development specialist
• Personnel generalist recruiter
• Politician
• Press relations officer
• Producer
• Program analyst
• Program information officer
• Promoter
• Public affairs officer
• Public relations officer
• Publicity assistant
• Recruiter
• Research assistant
• Researcher
• Researcher
• Sales promoter
• Sociologist
• Speechwriter   
• Stage manager
• Training & education supervisor
• Training specialist
• Travel agent
• United Nations staff