Cleveland State University

Career Services Center

Choosing a Career

What Can I Do With a Major In...
Liberal Studies

Career Opportunities
Related Career Titles
Related Major Skills
Career Planning Links

Liberal Studies is the most flexible of majors. It is for students who want a wide ranging education that expresses their personal academic interests. The major has broad distribution requirements within which no specific courses are required. The student gets to pick what is most valuable.

Course work is to be spread across the three main core areas of liberal education:

  1. The humanities and fine arts
  2. The social sciences
  3. The natural sciences and mathematics and electives, drawn from among all three.

Liberal Studies is a department within the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences. The other core college of the program is the College of Science.

CAREER OPPORTUNITIES

By combining the Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Studies with one or more minors in traditional disciplines, graduates have achieved a depth of experience without sacrificing breadth. Others created their own academic concentrations or worked for a formal certificate. Plus, some graduates have used the program as preparation for further study such as in a professional or graduate school. Still, others have used it to prepare for launching a business, combining academic work in Business Administration to learn how to run the business side of their plan with academic work in the core colleges to learn more about their future product.

The Liberal Studies perspective is that in a rapidly changing world, if your education is very narrow, within a few years of graduation, your skills will no longer be up to date. Employers need people who are well trained but they also need people who can adapt to the constant of change. Among the best career preparations is an education that is broad but with a job specific component such as a couple of marketing or technical courses. Another kind of empowering education replaces the job components with pre-professional coursework.

Liberal Studies graduates go on to an amazing variety of careers from banking to manufacturing, from professional story telling to interpreting for the deaf, and from graduate school to medical school.

But Liberal Studies is also for those whose focus is not on a career, instead exploring educational experiences for their inherent value and satisfaction.
 
Visit CSU's Department of Liberal Studies website for more information

 

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RELATED CAREER TITLES


AmeriCorps participant 
Museum curator 
Assistant copy editor 
News reporter 
Executive director 
Nonprofit organization 
Grass roots lobbyist 
Research assistant 
Instructor at college level 
Teacher 
Lawyer 
Volunteer manager 
Literary program manager 
 

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RELATED MAJOR SKILLS

 

Oral and written communications Critical thinking
Analytical skills Problem solving
Attention to detail Interpersonal skills
Appreciation of aesthetics Interpretive skills
Good work ethic Adaptability
Presentation / public speaking skills Drawing conclusions from complex information

 

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CAREER PLANNING LINKS

  • www.adweek.com: Advertising, marketing and pr jobs nationwide.
  • www.idealist.org:  Over 49000 non-profit organizations from more than 165 countries around the world.

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engaged learning
Office Hours
Monday-Thursday 7:30am-6:00pm
Friday 7:30am-5:00pm
Campus Location
Rhodes West, Room 280
1860 East 22nd Street
Phone: 216.687.2233
Toll Free: 888.CSUOHIO
careers@csuohio.edu
Satellite Office
College of Business, BU 212/213
Monday-Thursday: 8:00am-6:00pm
Friday: 8:00am-5:00pm
Satellite Office
College of Urban Affairs, UR 209
Monday: 8:00am-6:00pm
Tuesday: 8:00am-5:00pm
Thursday: 8:00am-5:00pm
Mailing Address
Cleveland State University 2121
Euclid Avenue, RW 280
Cleveland, OH 44115-2214


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