College of Liberal Arts
& Social Sciences

The largest is education, which offers a wide variety of programs for grades P-12 teacher certification. Students focus on specific disciplines, all in the context of certification. The School of Education also has a Master of Arts in teaching (MAT) which allows someone who has a bachelor’s degree and is now interested in teaching to come back and get the teaching aspects so they can become certified. As a sign of the strength of these programs, we have a 100% placement for our teachers which is really something to be proud of. They also offer a program for those who do not want to get a certified teaching license but have an interest in teaching, for example, in a corporate training office or a teaching assistant position. You don’t necessarily need to be certified but having knowledge about the techniques and skills of teaching is a benefit.

Next is psychology, which is an excellent program and prepares students for graduate school or for a career. They offer opportunities to perform research on campus and to present that research at professional conferences. As a sign of the strength of the program, this year four of our graduates were accepted into doctoral programs. The department works with you to find what you need for the career path you see for yourself.

Next is criminal justice, which is excellent preparation for careers that are related to law enforcement and security. Graduates have gone on to cybersecurity and fraud investigation; It prepares you for much more.

We encourage you to get additional experience through other majors and minors; space is built into the programs to do that. All our programs have the desire that you don’t focus on a particular major/minor, that you spread out and broaden your knowledge as well as get depth. We have programs in art, communication, criminal justice, economics, education, English, history, languages, law, multimedia design, music, philosophy, political science, photography, psychology, sociology, theatre, theology, and web design.

There are opportunities for graduate school, but also opportunities to go directly to work with your bachelor’s degree. We have people who have gone into youth ministry, leadership training, civil service, journalism, web design, marketing – there’s really no limit to what you can do. The key is to work with your faculty advisor, so you have the resources and skills you need as you go forward in the career plan you desire for yourself.

We are constantly looking at our programs. We introduced a minor in photography this year. History has made changes that go into effect next year, giving students more options; a range of courses to help engage their interest. Theology has done something similar, adding an aspect where students can learn skills related to ministry. All our majors are making the courses you take flexible enough that you get the things you need.

A big change that has had significant impact and benefit is a new core program; general requirements that are in place this year. The Second Century Core reduces the hours required for the core which gives you more opportunities to take topics of interest and diversify your education. In the Second Century Core there’s breadth. You have a set of courses you take, most from our college, so you get a sense of the different aspects of knowledge by discipline. You see how the disciplines integrate, how they all tie into a constant uniform body of knowledge. It’s more than this breadth that we’re looking for, there is also the depth of knowledge. One option for the depth is you take three courses (nine hours) at the upper level that reflect a theme to see these different disciplines work together. For example, there’s work right now on a theme focused on death and dying, drawing from the different disciplines and how they approach it; how they see it. You see not only the integration, but the uniqueness of each approach. You can also take minors or second majors as other ways to get that depth beyond that first major. So, breadth and depth; the Second Century Core really helps that happen.

Advising has a couple of different foci to it. There are people whose responsibility is to be a professional advisor. Also, for every major, for every minor, you are assigned a faculty advisor, someone who knows not only the depth of the major, but also has an awareness of the general university requirements. They work with you to make sure you get what you need to get done, because they know the major you’re in, they can help you achieve personal goals more completely. Faculty advisors are very integral.

We have two pre-professional programs. I consider education pre-professional because you are working towards certification. You have faculty advisors who do site visits and help keep you on track, so you’re progressing in what you need to become a certified, licensed teacher.

The other is a pre-law program. You spend three years at Thomas More and then transfer to one of the local law schools with which we have an agreement. After three years (it’s a three plus three) you come out not only with a law degree, but with a bachelor’s degree from Thomas More. The faculty member who guides you through this program knows the ins and outs well and helps you get that professional training for law school. Those are two examples of pre-professional programs.

There are two university initiatives that we are very integral to: one is the Center for Faith, Mission, & Catholic Education, a new initiative on campus which is just beginning to get underway. A director was recently appointed. The Center speaks to faith and mission in Catholic education, and our college includes the School of Education, as well as the department of theology.

The other one is our connection to the Wm. T. (Bill) Robinson III ’67 Institute for Religious Liberty. When you think of religious liberty many parts of our college come to mind. History comes into play, as do psychology, sociology, criminal justice, philosophy, theology, and communication to name a few.

There are university-wide events to connect employers and students, and we have employers coming to campus looking to talk to students periodically. Personalization comes at the departmental level, the program level where you have a faculty advisor or group of faculty members who know the discipline and have connections. They guide you, whether it’s graduate school you’re interested in pursuing or being connected with employers. We do have internships and some disciplines expect it. There is an experiential learning requirement for every student to graduate as well. That requirement is often filled within the context of the major. Through this experience, you could make connections with an employer; get a sense of what the field is like. We have these real-world experiences coupled with the great depth of knowledge of our faculty.

You can research this through the website, but the best way is to reach out to admissions or the department chair.

Something that particularly relates to high school is the dual credit program. Our whole campus is very engaged in that, but our college does have a lot of courses that we offer in part because we are connected very much with the general Second Century Core requirements. If you’re in high school, really look at the possibility to get dual credit. That gives you experience with Thomas More, who we are; and also gives you experience for college which is to your benefit.