Master of Arts in Liberal Studies Program (MALS): Home
Socrates suggested over two thousand years ago that we need more than specialized learning or mastery of a particular skill to function in our world.
In today’s world, the value of a broad-based education is an advantage to those in many different careers. James O. Freedman, former president of Dartmouth College, put it this way in an article in the New York Times:
Liberal education opens our eyes to what life is about. It’s about developing a moral compass and some understanding of how society works, how democracies work... A liberal education is what teaches people how to write and how to think and makes them much more valuable in the job market over a 40-year career than graduates of pre-professional programs… All employers will tell you that they’re seeking the flexibility of mind that a liberal education imbues.
Applicants for MALS wonder whether MALS is the right program for them. A simple question might help them decide. Are you looking for a graduate degree that can be permanently enriching on a personal level and career enriching on a professional level?
The MALS program enhances the ability of its graduates to analyze, synthesize and present information. It encourages students to be self-aware, informed about today’s world, and the historical events and currents of thought that formed it. The MALS program searches for the continuities and unifying elements in the particulars of our lives and in the complexities of modern life. It fosters an understanding of the interdisciplinary and multicultural society in which we must function, in whatever field of work we enter. In a word, MALS is shaped by the traditions and heritage of Ramapo College, New Jersey’s official liberal arts college.
MALS is a thirty-credit program of 3 core courses, 5 elective courses and a 6 credit thesis divided into a research semester and a writing semester. Students take 3 required core courses (generally team-taught) followed by five electives which build upon themes introduced by the core. Courses meet once weekly, in the evening, for 2 ½ hours in the Fall and Spring semesters. Summer courses may meet day and evening, or evening only. In a selected number of instances, Saturday classes will be held during the academic year or during the summer.
The director of the program is Dr. Anthony T. Padovano, a founder of the College and a distinguished professor of literature and philosophy.
