LinkedIn has rolled out a new college ranking focused on the long-term career success of undergraduates. Some may be surprised by how well liberal arts graduates fared.
While skeptics question the relevance of a liberal arts education, the new data tells a different story. Here are five key takeaways from the LinkedIn ranking, recasting the value of attending a liberal arts college.
Liberal arts colleges have outsized impact
LinkedIn’s ranking includes 50 colleges and universities, or 1% of all postsecondary educational institutions serving 4% of all undergraduates in the United States. In the LinkedIn ranking, most of the 50 schools listed (78%) are national universities, 12% are national liberal arts colleges, and 10% are regional institutions.
Yet consider the broader context in which national and regional universities far outnumber liberal arts colleges. There are more than twice the number of national universities as liberal arts colleges in the country and more than four times as many regional institutions.
Looking only at LinkedIn’s top 50 list, national universities teach a whopping 189% more students than liberal arts colleges, and regional institutions teach 44% more. Despite their smaller scale, liberal arts colleges have an outsized impact.
Students who think that attending a large university will automatically provide them with a leg up post-graduation may want to think again.
Other national rankings underestimate career outcomes
When you compare the top 50 liberal arts colleges ranked by both the LinkedIn and US News & World Report rankings, there isn’t much overlap. Only 12% of national liberal arts colleges (or six colleges) in the US News top-50 list made it onto the LinkedIn list.
Contrast this with national universities. Among the US News top 50 national universities, almost three quarters of them also appear on LinkedIn’s list. It turns out that the US News ranking, which emphasizes brand strength, is a good predictor of career outcomes for large universities but not so much for liberal arts colleges.
Those looking to understand the return on investment from attending a liberal arts college may want to look beyond the popular US News list.
Power of alumni networks is greatest for liberal arts graduates
LinkedIn’s ranking relies on network strength as one of its pillars, or “how connected alumni of the same school are to each other, as well as how connected alumni from recent cohorts are to all past alumni and current students.” In LinkedIn’s list of the top 10 strongest alumni networks in the country, half of these were national liberal arts colleges, and only one was an Ivy League institution.
While alumni networks alone can’t explain long-term career outcomes, they’re certainly part of an institution’s comparative advantage. This is consistent with the research on networks, across fields, which confirms that small networks are more powerful in promoting adaptability, close relationships, and innovation.
Alumni of small colleges have a clear edge when it comes to career networking.
Liberal arts education is a pathway to career (and business) success
Alumni data from LinkedIn confirms that many liberal arts graduates are going into business after pursuing traditional fields of study. Among LinkedIn’s top 10 liberal arts colleges, more than half of their alumni work in business-related fields, finance, engineering, entrepreneurship or technology.
Yet only three of these colleges offer an undergraduate degree or major in business. The point is you don’t have to study business to enjoy success in business.
LinkedIn’s ranking recognizes this, by including “knowledge breadth” as a cornerstone of career success. The data supports what liberal arts colleges have always known: a liberal arts education is a successful pathway to any field, including business or technology.
Innovative liberal arts colleges stand to gain
It’s unsurprising that graduates from top research universities enjoy professional success. As LinkedIn’s alumni data shows, these institutions produce a disproportionate number of graduates with highly paid, in-demand skills.
Even if a lower percent of liberal arts alumni work in technology or engineering, a liberal arts education still translates into expansive career success, beyond earnings. Liberal arts graduates are cognitively agile, strong communicators and interpersonally savvy.
Human-centered skills are their strength. Now imagine if liberal arts colleges created even more opportunities for practical experiences and technical career readiness, complementing (not replacing) the broad, foundational education for which they’re known. Their graduates would be unstoppable.
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