A new study reported this week in USA Today suggests that a liberal arts education can offer an advantage in a slow economy.

The study – Documenting Uncertain Times: Post-graduate Transitions of the Academically Adrift Cohort – was released Wednesday (January 25th) by the Social Science Research Council (SSRC).  According to its website, the SSRC is “an independent nonprofit organization devoted to the advancement of social science research and scholarship. Founded in New York City in 1923 as the world’s first national coordinating body of the social sciences, it is today an international resource for interdisciplinary, innovative public social science.”

In reporting on the new study, the USA Today story says that “Recent college graduates who as seniors scored highest on a standardized test to measure how well they think, reason and write — skills most associated with a liberal arts education — were far more likely to be better off financially than those who scored lowest.”

The story quotes the study’s lead author, Richard Arum, a New York University professor, as saying, “Students would do well to appreciate the extent to which their development of general skills, not just majors and institution attended, is related to successful adult transitions.”

To read the USA Today story, click on the following link:  Liberal arts education lends an edge in down economy.

To access the study, click here.