Master of Liberal Arts

Deepen your understanding of the world around you, expand your knowledge, and boost your capacity for creativity. JHU’s nationally recognized Master of Liberal Arts degree lets you explore humanistic questions from interdisciplinary perspectives.

The JHU Master of Liberal Arts program thrives on your curiosity, passion, and diverse world experience. The first program of its kind in the country, this educational experience allows you to pursue a graduate degree tailored to your interests, whether you’re looking for an advanced credential for career mobility or simply want to enrich your personal and professional life.

Build a Program Around Your Interests

You’ll have access to a diverse and creative selection of interdisciplinary courses each semester, with topic-driven offerings that draw from disciplines like history, film, art, music, literature, sociology, politics, world cultures, bioethics, psychology, ecology, and archaeology.

While the Master of Liberal Arts program is not designed with a specific career pathway in mind, MLA students and alumni represent every sector of the workforce and every stage of their professional lives. Many of our students seek this degree to deepen their knowledge of the world and its intellectual history, to expand their understanding of the human experience across time and cultures, and to sharpen their analytical and communication skills.

The MLA program at Johns Hopkins offers you a flexible, interdisciplinary, and dynamic program of study – personalized to combine your interests in creative ways, whether you seek professional development, personal enrichment, or a combination of both.

This 30-credit Master of Liberal Arts degree is composed of one customizable core course, one culminating experience, and eight elective courses.

• Johns Hopkins University ranked #15 in the 2023 Times Higher Education world university rankings.
• Johns Hopkins University ranked #7 in the 2022-2023 U.S. News & World Report national rankings.

This Career Outlook combines extensive labor market data to help you evaluate the careers that match your strengths and interests, and where those careers are thriving. Please explore the national, state, and regional data, as you compare the careers related to this program.

Occupations

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Data Source: Industry, occupation, compensation, and projected growth data are supplied by Lightcast. Economic and workforce information adjusts based on the selected geographic region and may include estimates made by Lightcast when actual data is not available. Johns Hopkins University cannot guarantee employment placement, salary level, or career advancement.