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AGNES SCOTT COLLEGE
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CTCL E-News February 2008

College Essay Help

Still procrastinating on that application essay or need one more opinion about how to write an effective one? Get some timely advice from Ohio Wesleyan University Vice President Carol DelPropost.

Majors and Liberal Arts

It is not necessary to choose a major in order to choose a college. In fact, 50% of college students change their major at least once, often two or three times. A solid liberal arts education allows students to spend time, usually the first two years, exploring subjects within a core curriculum, before deciding on a major. So what is the definition of a liberal arts education and why is it important? Two of the CTCL college presidents took on the task of narrowing it down and also responded to the question of the college major as job training.

"A real education is what's left after you've forgotten everything you learned. I don't remember who first said that, but it's on point. You will forget virtually every specific thing you've learned, so an education had better leave you transformed and more able--and especially able to learn what you need to know (and debunk what's foolishness) as you go.

Educating yourself for a 'quick win'--a specific near-term job--is a road to a dull life. A liberal education is about equipping yourself for a succession of interesting, yet more demanding positions, and about developing character that gives you the ability to live a life in vital relationships and in service to others in meaningful ways. The first job will come soon enough."

-Doug Bennett, President, Earlham College


"A liberal arts college is where actors are athletes are scientists are poets. Students are engaged in a communal pursuit of excellence, transformed as they journey through an intellectual community which also offers a professional focus.

Only a liberal education, combining depth and breadth, fuses creative and academic exploration, and the practical, and gives students the intellectual tools to continue this journey. Graduates need knowledge and skills, but they also need the intellectual resources to adapt these skills to a changing world. Studies show that graduates change jobs on the average of once every five years and many will change fields as well.

Employers seek critical thinking skills, which are the hallmark of a good liberal education. Or as Thomas Friedman would put it, what the new world that is flat needs most, are synthesizers, explainers and adapters."

-John Strassburger, President, Ursinus College