Here's a secret I don't share about myself very often. I have a Bachelor of Arts degree. That's right I said it. I have a BA in Physics and Math minor. How is that? Well, I went to a liberal arts college for reasons that I won't go into here but let's just say it seemed like a good idea at the time. Anyway, because of the program I was allegedly enrolled in I had to take 2 years of a foreign language and by their rules that qualified me for a BA. This was despite the fact that I took the maximum number of physics classes allowed, and 7 semesters of math, a grand total of 1 English class, and my only "humanities" class I took was anthropology. If I had any other room in my schedule I filled it with things like economics and accounting. Doesn't sound very artsy does it? Nonetheless upon filing the graduation paperwork I spent a half hour arguing with the registrar that I wanted to file for a BS not a BA until I simply gave up so I could go on with my life. I did however, get to spend the first few years of my career explaining that I had a real physics degree thanks to that little decision.
When it came to my academic choices I was pretty lucky. My father, a retired army colonel that had fought in WWII and Korea and then retired to work on the Apollo and Trident Ballistic missile programs, was very open as far as my academic choices. I could study anything I wanted as long as it was math, science or engineering. Want to study economics great! You can add that as a second major. End of discussion.
Having spent my formative years in a very liberal arts focused environment I developed an appreciation for the rounding the liberal arts provide. It helps provide a balanced perspective from the very black and white world of math, science and engineering. To this day there are some academic programs that are so technically focused at the undergraduate level that they produce students that are theoretically sound but can't communicate. That is extremely difficult to fix, particularly if the person goes into a technical field where in the early career focus is likely to be purely technical and there is little, if any, emphasis placed on communication and the so called soft skills. So, I believe balance is a good thing.
On the other hand, I have seen that the liberal arts programs tend to avoid exposing their students to math, science and engineering like the plague. Further, fail in developing critical thinking skills and rigorous logic development. I remember in one of the few liberal arts classes I took having to write a paper. I had done well enough on the exams to know that the paper wouldn't have much effect on my grade so, I chose to focus my energy on my other more challenging classes and left the paper to the last minute. The night before it was due I sat down at a computer terminal and cranked something out to turn in. Two weeks later I was shocked to discover that I had received an A- with a nice compliment from the professor followed by a comment that he had to deduct something because my only reference had been the course textbook. Huh? That was pretty much the story of my experiences in the liberal arts was that there was good content but the professors were largely pushing their own agendas and not really teaching critical thinking, logic development and research skills necessary for real life.
Over the years I have hired liberal arts majors and some have worked out and others not so much. I had one young graduate that was constantly arguing that we were doing stupid things and in one case had inserted them self into a hiring decision where they didn't belong. After a heated discussion on the subject they stormed out and I was left scratching my head because their entire argument was purely emotional and there wasn't a shred of logic. Further,, they simply refused to listen to my logic and just continued on with their emotional tantrum. The next time they came back, demanding that we put them in a larger leadership role I explained they simply lacked the business understanding and critical thinking skills to be successful leading a technical organization. I committed to putting them into roles where they could develop those skills but they would have to do the work. With the tables turned they went on the run from any any responsibility and every development role suggested wasn't quite right. In the end, we were never successful and had to part ways.
My point is that I think a balanced education is a good thing for both sides. Technically focused degrees need the communications and soft skills. Liberal arts degrees need technical and critical thinking skills. Universities need build this into their curricula. Regardless of a students field of study, the universities need to provide objective information about the job market for a field of study. If a student makes a choice to follow their heart in a particular field of study they should go in with their eyes wide open about their career prospects and can plan accordingly.
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