by Jess Tell. We all have had to consider how to choose our majors to get our associate’s degrees here at QCC. Some of us may have changed our minds about our majors, while others may have known right away which to pursue and stayed with the same one. Either way, we have seen the different majors that QCC offers. These majors can go from a broad academic field, to a liberal arts major, to a very specific one.
With these examples in mind, what is the difference between these types of degrees?
Pre-professional programs as ones that “provide students the skills, knowledge and experiences to gain graduate school admission to further their learning and excel in a particular profession,” as Central Michigan University defines it. Examples would be an accounting or nursing major. Such a degree can set you up on the career path you would like to go on from the start of your education and potentially help you to network and connect with others who are heading into the same career.
Liberal arts degrees “provide general knowledge and career-relevant skills that prepare you for a range of professions, from art, philosophy and language to history, science and math,” the website of Southern New Hampshire University states explains. Examples of a liberal arts majors at QCC are Education or History, although students can and do earn an Associates in liberal arts, more broadly. Liberal arts majors can be right for students who have a strong area of interest, but may not yet know the exact career they would like to go into, by giving them skills to help further them in any career. With its versatile offer of skills, it can prepare you for many different careers and allow you to connect with people in different careers than your own. This broader learning expands your own worldview and give you different insights.
Why do students pursue a pre-professional degree or liberal arts degree? Many students may be considering the earning potential of their future careers. One student I had talked to said that they felt that the major that would pay the highest is a nursing major. At the top of the scale, the highest-paying associate’s pre-professional degree is a vascular technology program, making around $124,028 per year, writes Amy Heine in the 2024 article “18 of the Highest-Paying Associate Degrees (With Salaries)” for the widely used job site Indeed. A nursing degree comes in tenth, with those majors making around $92,607 a year. This may differ from state to state. With the difference in location in mind, it still shows how there can be a pretty big gap in pay between two majors.
Many Queensborough students I spoke to had chosen a liberal arts major. From these answers I became more curious on the most popularity of this degree.
Looking through the data provided by the National Center for Education Statistics, I saw a trend in the data. These statistics used reports from 2011 until 2022. The most common degree is a liberal arts major, with 383,286 people reported earning said degree in 2021-22. The second was a Health major, reported at 177,413 degrees. At its peak in 2018-2019 liberal arts degrees had 410,632 degrees compared to Health majors, which had 177,506. The trend for liberal arts majors hit its peak in 2018-2019 and has been in decline in the years since.
Even with the data pointing to fewer people earning liberal arts degrees, the gap between its popularity and those of other majors was still quite large, which may well be because the degree allows you to build a foundational competency in a range of areas – a much needed value in today’s rapidly changing world
