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[njs1010]

Any information out there on Liberal Studies programs, particularly masters?  There seems to be a smattering of them around the country.  Sounds like an interesting field, but I've yet to come across anyone who has completed a degree or taught in it.  What sorts of work to liberal studies students do while pursuing their degree and after they've graduated? Thanks.

[seniorscholar]

The Master of Liberal Studies at my university is, essentially, a degree-granting adult-ed night course for people who, typically, have a non-liberal-arts bachelor's degree (engineers, accountants, health professionals, and teachers in private secondary schools are common), would like to take a range of courses in history, arts, literature, etc., and whose employers will reimburse tuition if they're in a degree-granting program instead of the same sort of experience offered in typical non-university adult-ed programs. I've taught an interdisciplinary course in our program two or three times, have very much enjoyed the classroom conversations with bright, interested adults who also know many things I don't know and can bring them into the discussion. The only ones for whom any "professional advancement" would result were, I think, the private school teachers, who could get a raise or promotion with a master's degree. For academic purposes (e.g., to improve the GPA in order to apply to a doctoral program) it's probably too general to be of much use.

That's one form of the degree. As you say, there seem to be quite a few, and I have no idea what any of the rest of them are or offer.

[grasshopper]

The reason why you've never read anything by anyone with a graduate degree in Liberal Studies is because nobody who completes that degree gets an academic job.

My advice, such as it is, is to think about what you want to study in a Liberal Studies program, and do your degree in that discipline. Not in Liberal Studies.

[larryc]

The reason why you've never read anything by anyone with a graduate degree in Liberal Studies is because nobody who completes that degree gets an academic job.

My advice, such as it is, is to think about what you want to study in a Liberal Studies program, and do your degree in that discipline. Not in Liberal Studies.

Exactly. "Studies" degrees are rarely a good career move.

[fourhats]

The liberal studies MA program that I'm familiar with is used--often successfully--as a stepping stone to Ph.d. programs at other institutions.  I'd say that these programs differ massively, depending upon the institution.  As someone who got an MA before deciding to move on to Ph.D., I'd say it can be very useful.  It isn't a terminal degree, of course, but it isn't as ghastly as presented above.  You should ask where the graduates go after completing the program.

[neutralname]

Liberal Studies programs can be good for people who just need a Master's degree and enjoy liberal stuff.  But they are low on academic integrity, precisely because there's no unifying topic.  The last time I even tried to employ someone with a MLS as an adjunct, the person got turned down by the administration because they didn't have a degree in the right field -- Liberal Studies doesn't count as being in any field.

[marlborough]

On my campus, this is where the English department, lacking its own grad program, gets the cannon fodder who teach 100 level classes.  The delusion persists, without any merit whatsoever, that graduates of the MLA will get full times jobs with the English department.

Most of the time, these are people who want to dink around with specialized advanced work without leaving town or pursuing it as a career, or who have employers paying for it part-time and a promotion tied up in having a Masters'.  The tragedy comes in when it is a person who SHOULD get kicked out the door towards an actual grad program in a particular field but who doesn't want to leave home, or be in the big pond, or who gets suckered into being the English department's cannon fodder. 

[systeme_d_]

The Master of Liberal Studies at my university is, essentially, a degree-granting adult-ed night course for people who, typically, have a non-liberal-arts bachelor's degree (engineers, accountants, health professionals, and teachers in private secondary schools are common), would like to take a range of courses in history, arts, literature, etc., and whose employers will reimburse tuition if they're in a degree-granting program instead of the same sort of experience offered in typical non-university adult-ed programs. I've taught an interdisciplinary course in our program two or three times, have very much enjoyed the classroom conversations with bright, interested adults who also know many things I don't know and can bring them into the discussion. The only ones for whom any "professional advancement" would result were, I think, the private school teachers, who could get a raise or promotion with a master's degree. For academic purposes (e.g., to improve the GPA in order to apply to a doctoral program) it's probably too general to be of much use.

That's one form of the degree. As you say, there seem to be quite a few, and I have no idea what any of the rest of them are or offer.

At my university, and at four others with which I am familiar, the degree is exactly the sort of thing Seniorscholar describes: for professionals with an interest in the humanities, and for private school teachers who are in the program in order to qualify for a raise.

These degrees are often coordinated by each university's School of Continuing Education, and they do not pretend to be launching pads for admission to PhD programs.

[fourhats]

As I said, these programs differ, as do the students in them.  In the program I know best, students apply from all over (few are local), from very good undergraduate programs, and then go on to good Ph.d. programs elsewhere.  They aren't part-timers, and aren't looking for a raise.  They don't consider it a passport to a teaching job.

[suomynona]

Would seem to depend totally on the program.  At my UG institution the Liberal Studies master's program provides an advanced degree for local teachers, but is increasingly and now predominately a PhD-program stepping stone for younger people.  To my knowledge people have actually had quite a bit of PhD-admission success after completing the program (though it's unclear whether they would have been strong candidates anyway, as many seem to come from elite institution backgrounds already).

My view is that it's ultimately counterproductive for people to be dismissive of liberal studies and like interdisciplinary (primarily humaniites-/social-science-oriented programs) and say they're 'about nothing,' but also that if you're interested in such a program as a stepping-stone toward a PhD, you should have very particularly interdisciplinary interest or special circumstances that clearly justify your choice of a liberal studies degree over a more traditional degree in a given discipline.  I was once curious about doing a liberal studies degree (I switched from a social science and natural science double major to a humanities field for grad. study, and was looking to bring my background work into my future work), did a lot of research, and came across more than a handful of faculty who had pursued such degrees.  Some did so because they were teachers before deciding to earn a PhD and move into academia; some did so to improve their PhD prospects, and some just thought the program sounded cool.  I have known some of these faculty to leave the degree off of their online profile, either because they only list their PhD-granting institution on the profile (very common), or because they think it will confuse people who don't know what the hell liberal studies is.    

[grasshopper]

I was once curious about doing a liberal studies degree (I switched from a social science and natural science double major to a humanities field for grad. study, and was looking to bring my background work into my future work), did a lot of research, and came across more than a handful of faculty who had pursued such degrees.  Some did so because they were teachers before deciding to earn a PhD and move into academia; some did so to improve their PhD prospects, and some just thought the program sounded cool.  I have known some of these faculty to leave the degree off of their online profile, either because they only list their PhD-granting institution on the profile (very common), or because they think it will confuse people who don't know what the hell liberal studies is.     

Okay, but what this tells me is that the Liberal Studies MA wasn't particularly useful to them in and of itself, except as preparation for the PhD. The non-Liberal Studies PhD done afterward was useful.

The problem I have with Liberal Studies isn't that it's "about nothing." The student can make it about something (which, indeed, is what any student has to do in any program). The problem is that those programs generally don't provide solid theoretical or methodological training in any one discipline. I face a similar problem with my interdisciplinary PhD. Although I'm very well-trained in my theoretical and methodological approaches, and am publishing in and peer-reviewing for journals in other disciplines, I stand very little chance of getting a job outside of my "studies" degree. I have rarely seen graduates from programs like mine get jobs in other disciplines. It happens, but only very, very rarely, and usually only after the person has established themselves as a superior scholar. Certainly not fresh out of the PhD, and never with only an MA.

Once, as a grad student, I did pick up some adjunct courses in another discipline, which methodology I was using in my research, and I found it incredibly difficult to teach the survey course in that discipline. Although I was well-versed in my one small corner of Other-Discipline, I didn't have the breadth of training that a degree in that discipline would have provided.

The reverse, however, is a different story. People with degrees in all kinds of disciplines are able to get work in "studies" departments. So at the end of the day, I'm competing for jobs in a pretty big pool applicants, but my own pool of possibilities is much more narrow. I suspect that similar dynamics at play in Liberal Studies.

Now, if someone does an MA in Liberal Studies, and then moves on to a PhD in a more theoretically and methodologically focused discipline, that's another story.

[suomynona]

Okay, but what this tells me is that the Liberal Studies MA wasn't particularly useful to them in and of itself, except as preparation for the PhD. The non-Liberal Studies PhD done afterward was useful.

The problem I have with Liberal Studies isn't that it's "about nothing." The student can make it about something (which, indeed, is what any student has to do in any program). The problem is that those programs generally don't provide solid theoretical or methodological training in any one discipline. I face a similar problem with my interdisciplinary PhD. Although I'm very well-trained in my theoretical and methodological approaches, and am publishing in and peer-reviewing for journals in other disciplines, I stand very little chance of getting a job outside of my "studies" degree. I have rarely seen graduates from programs like mine get jobs in other disciplines. It happens, but only very, very rarely, and usually only after the person has established themselves as a superior scholar. Certainly not fresh out of the PhD, and never with only an MA.

Once, as a grad student, I did pick up some adjunct courses in another discipline, which methodology I was using in my research, and I found it incredibly difficult to teach the survey course in that discipline. Although I was well-versed in my one small corner of Other-Discipline, I didn't have the breadth of training that a degree in that discipline would have provided.

The reverse, however, is a different story. People with degrees in all kinds of disciplines are able to get work in "studies" departments. So at the end of the day, I'm competing for jobs in a pretty big pool applicants, but my own pool of possibilities is much more narrow. I suspect that similar dynamics at play in Liberal Studies.

Now, if someone does an MA in Liberal Studies, and then moves on to a PhD in a more theoretically and methodologically focused discipline, that's another story.

I pretty much agree.  I wouldn't think it's a good idea to do a PhD in liberal studies.  If someone does the master's in liberal studies, however, with the right reasons and justifications, I don't see it being a bad move en route to a traditional-discipline PhD in the humanities.  In social science fields for which it would be advantageous to learn certain specialist research methods (e.g. in stats, modeling, etc.), however, I can also see why doing a liberal studes degree wouldn't be a good idea, unless doing a liberal studies degree (with its breadth and flexibility) were precisely what enabled one to take graduate courses in a specialized thing.