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​Don’t assume liberal arts is the right choice

In many cases, community colleges afford more opportunities than liberal arts schools

While liberal arts degrees have inherent value for many students, they are not proving particularly useful for all who hold a bachelor of arts degree. Some students are discovering that, in order to gain employment, they need to supplement their BA with a skills-based education. According to U.S. News & World Report, one out of every 14 community college attendees has already earned a BA — and at some community colleges, this number is as high as one in five students.

Graduates in need of work are turning with increasing frequency to community colleges because of their connections to jobs in surrounding regions, something liberal arts colleges don’t necessarily make their focus. According to Fortune, the trend of attending a community college after receiving a BA started in significant numbers following the 2008 recession. In many cases, community college leads to better paying jobs and can be economically beneficial, given lower tuition costs. In 2012 in Virginia, graduates of occupational or technical associate’s degree programs out-earned bachelor’s degree graduates by almost $2,500 statewide, according to Mark Schneider, a vice president at the American Institutes for Research.

Schneider researched these trends as recently as last spring, and found that even 10 years post-graduation there are many students with certificates and associate’s degrees out-earning BA recipients in their fields. Ultimately, BAs see annual salary increases that are larger than those of community college graduates — but in the years immediately following graduation, when many students are in need of stable income, community college graduates may do better.

We have argued before that some students are not in circumstances in which a liberal arts education makes financial sense. Tuition costs are increasing, including at our own University, and while the economy has seen growth since the recession, employment is still an issue for recent graduates across the country.

For students who have received BAs and then gone on to community colleges, it may have made more sense to skip the liberal arts degree altogether — especially since completing requirements at community colleges may be more difficult after too much time has passed. Nearly 60 percent of incoming community college students are referred to remedial math courses, according to the Community College Research Center — and while these students tend to be referred because of poor preparation in high school, students who have had time away from the classroom face similar issues.

Liberal arts degrees can be intellectually enriching and successfully propel students into the workforce not only due to academic resources but also because of the networking these institutions can provide. But liberal arts degrees don’t have that outcome for everyone. In some cases, BAs aren’t the best investment.

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