College of Arts and Sciences

Academic Administration

The College of Arts and Sciences grants the following degrees: the Bachelor of Arts, the Bachelor of Science, the Bachelor of Science in Nursing (in cooperation with Research College of Nursing), and (in cooperation with the University of Missouri-Kansas City) an engineering and computing program that comprises five Bachelor of Science degree options. Students may choose one of twelve major fields of study leading to the Bachelor of Arts degree, or one of eleven major fields leading to the Bachelor of Science degree. The College also offers a variety of minors, certificates, and pre-professional programs.

Tradition of the Liberal Arts

The academic programs administered by the College of Arts and Sciences comprise what are broadly recognized as the liberal arts and the pre-professional programs growing out of the liberal arts disciplines. As such, these programs relate directly to a tradition of learning stretching back to the medieval universities. The liberal arts were prized as the intellectual disciplines calculated to form social leaders and well-cultivated spirits in addition to keen intellects. In the Jesuit tradition, the liberal arts aimed to develop the whole person as a “contemplative in action” and to encourage life-long learning. This  tradition continues at Rockhurst University as students are exposed to a broad range of programs in the arts and sciences and provided opportunities to train their minds, cultivate their spirits, and prepare themselves as leaders of the contemporary world.

Career Preparation in the Liberal Arts Tradition

Students often ask advisors for advice on what major they should choose. Many begin the process of declaring a major by asking themselves what sort of  career various majors will prepare them for, but this may be the wrong question. Most undergraduate majors do not provide immediate credentials that translate directly into a well-defined career track. Suppose students are interested in a law career. Does that automatically mean that they must major in political science? Or does a prospective physician have to be a biology major? Clearly not—a law school is as likely to admit an English major as it is to  admit a political science major; medical schools take undergraduate chemists as readily as they take biologists. Professional schools are often surprisingly liberal in the undergraduate majors they accept.

Students who plan to begin their careers as soon as they finish college will often find that an undergraduate major has not prepared them for a specific job. Rather, their education has provided skills and knowledge which can be applied to a wide variety of careers. Many corporations and organizations are interested in hiring people who have completed a solid undergraduate degree regardless of their major.

Students should avoid imposing unnecessary and misguided restrictions on both their studies and their prospective careers. They should consider the  world of work when declaring a major, but they will think about that world with greater clarity if they ask other questions first: What do I enjoy doing?  What are my hobbies, and why do I enjoy them? What courses have I enjoyed? What kinds of books do I like to read? What problems do I like to solve? Thinking along these lines can ease the anxiety many college students feel when they must declare a major. There is no reason to major in a field that does not develop the student’s own abilities and interests.