does anyone have any experience/suggestions about this program?

8/4/2007 4:40:27 PM

What the hell do you do with it?

8/4/2007 4:52:24 PM

^

work at a subway in Chapel Hill?

8/4/2007 4:55:34 PM

I've only heard of people doing these types of programs to build up there profile (typicallly because it is lacking in some fashion) before applying for a different program at a top school (such as law or to improve your ability to get into better Phd programs in the humanities or social sciences).

8/4/2007 5:32:08 PM

I just finished my MALS degree at UNCG.

Very enlightening and fulfilling. Not difficult at all, really, except one class in the program and one anthropology class I took as an elective. There, though, most of the students are much, much older and take alot of their courses in the evening or online.

^that's one of several reasons I did it. Others being because I Just wanted a Master's, but it was the only decent program nearby that allowed me to do most of it online and at night.

[Edited on August 4, 2007 at 7:58 PM. Reason : .]

8/4/2007 7:57:45 PM

In the NCSU MALS Program, one can design just about any multidisciplinary concentration--as long as a given department will allow its courses to be taken. Only three MALS courses are required; the rest of your curriculum is up to you to build.

The MALS degree is not a one-size-fits-all master's by any means. The people claiming that this degree will lead only to food service employment or the like don't know what the hell they are talking about.

My only concern about MALS is when employers ask, "So, what's your major?" Well, the answer is liberal studies--followed quickly by your concentration. Some employers might not get the liberal studies thing and the freedom you had to develop your own curriculum. And language matters. A few years ago, NCSU changed its Master's of Science in Management (MSM) to the more traditional Master's in Business Administration (MBA) partly because employers didn't know what the hell an MSM was--but they did understand the meaning of an MBA. And my understanding is that the curriculum didn't change much if at all, only the title of the degree.

Quote :

"The College of Management feels that a degree name change to MBA will attract a broader base of applicants and enhance the potential for greater enrollment growth in the future. Several benchmark institutions such as Purdue, Carnegie-Mellon and MIT, which had MSM programs, have changed their degree names to MBA because graduates seem to encounter fewer placement problems with the more familiar and recognized degree name."

http://www.fis.ncsu.edu/grad/news/minutes/112901.htm


[Edited on August 4, 2007 at 8:56 PM. Reason : .]

8/4/2007 8:51:04 PM

it sounds like a retarded major

even an English or History degree would be better than this, at least it's really something

with a Communication degree, you would at leastl be able to say "hey BITCH, at least I knows hows to COMMUNICATE"

8/4/2007 9:27:40 PM

hooksaw...liberal studies???

what has the world come to?!?!

Seriously though, the MSM to MBA thing I thought was in part due to accreditations. At the time the MSM program wasn't the top-tier fully accredited program required for an MBA so it wasn't called that. Obviously the thing you posted was a major concern too...

8/4/2007 11:17:44 PM

thanks to those who have helped!

8/4/2007 11:30:34 PM

i knew someone with a liberal arts degree and that person basically had done nothing with his life...made me think it was a worthless major, but goodluck, i bet a masters in it is way better

8/4/2007 11:48:33 PM

^^^ If you'll read the minutes in the link, you'll see that it was the primary concern. BTW, my undergrad degree is in business administration.

^ MALS degree =/= "liberal arts degree"

If you'd read my post or bothered to check for yourself, you would have seen that one can do just about any multidisciplinary concentration, which means at least two disciplines--as long as the department will allow you to take its courses. As examples, a grad student can create a concentration in physics and English; public administration and psychology; chemistry, crop science, and international studies; and so on.

Some of you have serious misconceptions about what MALS actually is. If you want somebody else to decide your curriculum for you as you check off little boxes on a degree-completion sheet, be my guest.

8/5/2007 12:41:51 AM

Quote :

"If you want somebody else to decide your curriculum for you as you check off little boxes on a degree-completion sheet, be my guest."

yeah, i do

so everyone understands that my degree MEANS SOMETHING

that's it's not some willy-nilly shit thing at which everyone rolls their eyes

[Edited on August 5, 2007 at 12:47 AM. Reason : .]

8/5/2007 12:45:13 AM

^ Clearly, you have no understanding of the MALS degree whatsoever. Potential employers should be able to understand disciplines such as botany, psychology, public administration, English, and so on in a concentration. If they can't, then perhaps one would be better off not working at such a place.

8/5/2007 1:46:04 AM

McEducation FTL.

8/5/2007 2:25:18 AM

Don't listen to the doubters, peaceajp; they can offer you nothing other than negative stereotypes. The facts are that undergraduate interdisciplinary programs in the United States have more than doubled in the last 25 years, the NCSU MALS Program and five similar programs at other North Carolina universities are going strong, and the director of Duke University's MALS Program told me that Duke may soon offer a liberal studies' doctorate--Georgetown University offers a DLS now.

Quote :

"Using a unique data set coded from college and university catalogs over a 25 year period, we show that interdisciplinary programs have more than doubled during the period [emphasis added], led by women’s studies, environmental studies, international studies, American studies, and ethnic studies. Using longitudinal models based on the General Estimating Equation, we show that high enrollment, arts and sciences oriented, and coastal institutions are associated with the rise of interdisciplinary programs. The paper discusses the connection between undergraduate interdisciplinary programs and shifts in the direction of American research universities toward interdisciplinary initiatives aimed at solving social and economic problems and creating the technologies, modes of expression, and social relations of the future."

http://higher-ed2000.ucr.edu/pdf/Between%20Disciplines%20Text.doc

Quote :

"The Master of Arts in Liberal Studies degree has become an increasingly popular degree nationwide and is now offered by over a hundred universities (e.g., Johns Hopkins, Dartmouth, LSU, and Duke). It was first offered in the early 1950's by Wesleyan University in Connecticut and is now established at six universities in North Carolina alone. This new concept in graduate education, which actually rests squarely in the venerable tradition of liberal education, has proven itself as an exciting, popular, and useful form of graduate education. The MALS program at NCSU is a member of the Association of Graduate Liberal Studies Programs, a consortium of universities throughout the United States who offer this degree."

http://www.chass.ncsu.edu/ids/mals/about.html

8/5/2007 4:05:16 AM

the idea is that if the breadth of your interests doesn't conform to more traditional courses of study, you have the flexibility to pick and choose where to focus your energy, but like anything else--it is whatever you make of it

8/5/2007 4:34:32 AM

^ I agree.

8/5/2007 4:35:41 AM

from everything i understand about this course of study, you should really know within a small margin what exactly you are wanting to do when you get out of school and tailor your courses to it.

beyond that, if your courses are too spread out the degree really doesnt mean much and you better have an applicable internship to the job you are applying for when you are out of college.

but then again, if you know within a small margin what you want to do, you really are better off just following that major if there is one

[Edited on August 6, 2007 at 9:53 AM. Reason : ]

8/6/2007 9:52:31 AM

^ So, you're just guessing, right?

8/6/2007 4:59:33 PM

no, the only part i added myself was "but then again, if you know within a small margin what you want to do, you really are better off just following that major if there is one"

the rest was based off of someone who looked into this course of study, but like i said i only posted from the limited amount i knew/understood/heard

[Edited on August 7, 2007 at 7:58 AM. Reason : ]

8/7/2007 7:53:51 AM

i looked into the program a few years ago when i still had the motivation to go to school. i am in the sports marketing and communication field, and there isn't a specified master's program at nc state that would allow me to study courses pertinent to my line of work. through mals, i would have been able to pick courses from the sports management, marketing and communication schools that would fine-tune a degree for my area of expertise.
for those with similar situations, it's a great program.

8/7/2007 12:24:16 PM

^ That's what I've been trying to tell certain narrow-minded and ill-informed individuals here. They read liberal studies program and they immediately think liberal arts, which is only a small part of the MALS program.

8/7/2007 8:53:49 PM