Alumni Outcomes
Arts & Letters students are successful. Right away.
97% of recent Arts and Letters graduates land full-time jobs, enroll in graduate school, enter service programs, join the military, or launch independent projects within six months of graduation.
Where Arts and Letter majors are six months after graduation…
*Source: The Association of American Colleges and Universities
- 93% of employers care more about critical-thinking, communication, and complex problem-solving abilities than undergraduate major.*
- 96% want employees with ethical judgment, integrity, and intercultural skills.*
- 74% of employers say a modern liberal arts education is the best way to prepare for success in the global economy.*
- 55% of public and private sector leaders have degrees in the social sciences or humanities.+
*Source: The Association of American Colleges and Universities
+Source: British Council survey of 1,709 leaders in 30 countries
“Liberal arts students are very analytical and have strong research and writing skills. They want to make a difference. We aren’t set on specific majors — it’s really about the individual and the type of work they want to do. You really are able to chart your own career.”
Lindsey Jacob
Lead university recruiter, Booz Allen Hamilton
Sofia Carozza ’19
Majors: Theology & Neuroscience and Behavior
After ND: Marshall Scholar, Cambridge University
"The liberal arts education here at Notre Dame has made me more fully myself. It's opened me up to important questions and informed my answers to them. It's made me so much more excited about the world right outside my doorstep, and a lot more introspective about my place in it — it's been foundational for who I am today and where I'm going."
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Sofia Carozza ’19
Majors: Theology & Neuroscience and Behavior
After ND: Marshall Scholar, Cambridge University"The liberal arts education here at Notre Dame has made me more fully myself. It's opened me up to important questions and informed my answers to them. It's made me so much more excited about the world right outside my doorstep, and a lot more introspective about my place in it — it's been foundational for who I am today and where I'm going."
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Daniel DeToro ’17
Majors: Economics & History
After ND: Financial analyst in Chicago“You have tremendous resources available to you during your four years at Notre Dame, and you’ll develop great skills. With the liberal arts, what you’re really learning is to think critically — and that’s something that’s hard to teach in the real world. It’s something you want to start out with when you get your first job, and Notre Dame is the best place to develop that ability.”
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Lamara Parnell ’18
Majors: Sociology & Africana Studies
After ND: UCLA School of Law“I can't really imagine having been in another college besides Arts & Letters — my education was so holistic, you're critically thinking about why things are the way they are. I feel like I had a foundation of education that will allow me to do whatever I want."
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Peter Sabini ’20
Majors: Music & Spanish
After ND: Legal assistant, HoganWillig“Arts and Letters has given me the opportunity to find myself and to be confident in who I am — whether that’s studying music formally or going abroad. It has helped me to step out of my comfort zone — and in doing so, I created a bigger comfort zone.”
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Erin Rice ’17
Major: Design
After ND: Concept artist, Walt Disney Imagineering“My position requires daily collaboration amongst people from a range of backgrounds and disciplines. Without my liberal arts education, I do not think I would be prepared or qualified to work in a setting like this. Notre Dame’s liberal arts education truly paved the way to my future.”
Paul Farrell Jr. '94 on how the liberal arts prepared him to be a successful litigator
National Book Award-winner Tess Gunty '15 on her creative writing evolution
Notre Dame alumni on the value of studying the liberal arts
“My experience at Notre Dame taught me to think of the world as a bigger place than wherever you’re standing and to think about where you can do the most good and where you’re most needed. That was fundamental to my experience and continues to shape the way I live and work.”
Patrick Vassel ’07Associate director, Hamilton: An American Musical
“My career grew right out of my Arts and Letters degree. I spend time talking, researching, and going to untraditional sources--because you need an edge. You have to have an inquisitive nature.”
Bill Kennedy ’90Portfolio manager, Fidelity Investments, London
“The value of a liberal arts education to me is the ability to critically judge my own opinions and my own determination of the world around me. It's a skill set that I think you can only develop in classes that really press you to check your own boundaries and look outside your own viewpoints for answers. That skill set is increasingly valuable across many, many parts of our professional and political universe today.”
Katie Beirne Fallon ’98Senior vice president and global head of corporate affairs, Hilton Worldwide Former director of legislative affairs, The White House