College Overview
Preparing students for graduate school and careers
The College of Liberal Arts is home to nine departments in the humanities and social sciences, three interdisciplinary centers, and 11 centers located within departments. Some 6,544 students, or 20 percent of the University's total enrollment, are currently majoring in Liberal Arts’ undergraduate and graduate programs, making the College the University's largest in terms of majors. The College is the University’s largest also in the number of full-time equivalent faculty – about 27 percent of Texas State's total faculty – who generate 33 percent of the University’s semester credit hours.
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Because of their broad-based education, Liberal Arts graduates are attractive to employers in business, the arts, education, the medical and legal professions, and social service occupations. Students interested in medicine, dentistry, law, and other professional fields often major in Liberal Arts as an excellent foundation for entrance into professional schools. Liberal Arts graduates are admitted to the nation's top graduate schools.
Award-winning faculty
Liberal Arts faculty have won prestigious national awards for teaching and achievement. The faculty, who produced some 850 publications in 2010, include:
- Authors and poets who have won more than a dozen national awards, including the National Book Award, the William Carlos Williams Prize, the Drue Heinz Literature Prize, the Pushcart Prize, and the Guggenheim Fellowship
- 11 Piper Professors
- 3 Regents Professors
- 4 University Distinguished Professors
- 6 Endowed Chairs
- 6 National Endowment for the Humanities Distinguished Teaching Professors
- 15 Fulbright Scholars
- 19 winners of the National Council for Geographic Education's Distinguished Teaching Achievement Award
- 72 faculty who serve as editors or editorial board members of scholarly journals.
- Faculty who received new external grants and contracts totaling $8.7 million in 2010
Outstanding degree programs
Undergraduate students can major in any one of 33 baccalaureate degree programs and pursue a wide range of minors in the College's 12 departments and centers. The College offers 19 graduate programs leading to the Master's degree. Three programs lead to the Doctor of Philosophy degree in Geography. An additional Ph.D. program is proposed in Public Administration.
Research, internships, and study abroad
Undergraduate and graduate Liberal Arts majors can take advantage of research opportunities with faculty in any of the College's departments. They can also gain educational and research experience in the College's specialized centers and professional on-the-job training through internships.
Through its individual departments and centers, the College offers exciting study-abroad programs in places such as Australia, Austria, Belize, Cambodia, Costa Rica, England, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Laos, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, and Vietnam. Many additional study-abroad opportunities are available through the University's Correspondence and Extension Studies Study Abroad Program. Liberal Arts majors are encouraged to study abroad during their college careers and can apply for financial aid through the Office of Distance and Extended Learning.