What is a Liberal Arts Education?

At Concordia College in Moorhead, MN – as at many Lutheran colleges – students are introduced to a liberal arts approach to learning through Principia, a course taken by all first-year students. Each year, Principia addresses a single issue that has both historical and contemporary significance.

For example, one year the topic was A Just Society. Senior professors from all academic areas participated, ensuring conversation from all points of view. Students studied classical texts and perspectives and then applied these in analyzing current issues. It’s a values-centered approach to problem solving, in which students learn to understand their own ethical stances in light of those of the classical thinkers.

A private liberal arts education offers you:

• small classes, where you’ll be expected to be prepared, and discuss the material intelligently
• demanding reading lists, including both primary sources and latter-day analyses
• close interaction with and support from professors who expect you to do their best
• writing and rewriting many papers, from three pages to thesis-length
• course requirements that expose you to the hard sciences, literature, social sciences, history and philosophy, as well as to your chosen major field
• overseas and off-campus study options
• the opportunity to achieve competency in a foreign language
• abundant opportunities for independent study and research in collaboration with professors

Percentage of graduates who said that:

They benefited from many small classes with fewer than 20 students:

They often experienced extensive classroom discussions:

They had an Off-campus or international study experience:

In the process, you'll acquire skills that will take you a lot further than proficiency in Javascript or Flash – such as the ability to:

• critically analyze and synthesize information and ideas
• construct arguments, drawing on several sources
• persuade, both orally and in writing
• understand relationships among different disciplines, ideas or historical trends
• be comfortable with diversity, and understand how cultural and ethnic backgrounds shape perspectives
• think creatively and independently
• exercise self-discipline, and meet and exceed high expectations

Many of these abilities focus on the use of information - gathering it, sifting through it, evaluating it, organizing and expressing it effectively. Never have such skills been more relevant than in today’s struggle to navigate the tidal wave of data we call the Information Age.

Some people think of big public universities as being more “career oriented” than small colleges. But graduates who attended Lutheran colleges were almost twice as likely to say they had had a college-sponsored internship as those who graduated from public universities:

Percentage of graduates who participated in a college-sponsored internship:

While she was a student at Bethany Lutheran College, Lori Blake had several internships in public relations and marketing, and also had the opportunity to use several career exploration and assessment tools. These helped her focus her own professional interests.

And Lenoir-Rhyne University senior Alexis Harris will already have an impressive list of journalism qualifications when she graduates: she’s interning at the Charlotte Observer this year, and is editor-in-chief of the college newspaper.

David Buchanan’s “dream” internship helped him find his direction – and now offers undergraduates at his alma mater, Concordia University – River Forest, the opportunity to get workplace experience at the sports training and rehabilitation center he owns.