Going to a liberal arts college is usually an expensive way to get a bachelor’s degree. With students more mindful of high tuition, many liberal arts colleges are seeing enrollment drop—and some are closing altogether. The schools’ defenders argue that their small class sizes and well-rounded array of courses provide students with a strong foundation on which to build their future careers, and that’s worth more than worth the price of tuition.

Data on colleges’ return on investment (ROI) from the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity, my former employer, allows us to investigate whether a liberal arts education is worth the cost. The ROI data report how much the typical student can expect to increase her earnings by earning a particular college degree, after accounting for the cost of attendance and the risk of dropping out.

The data include estimates of ROI for nearly 27,000 bachelor’s degree programs at roughly 1,200 colleges and universities. I compare degrees offered at liberal arts colleges (as defined by the Carnegie Classification) to all other bachelor’s degrees.

On average, liberal arts colleges are a worse bet than other schools. Thirty-five percent of bachelor’s degree programs at liberal arts colleges have a negative ROI, compared to just 23 percent at other schools. When a degree program has a negative ROI, students are typically worse off for having enrolled, relative to not attending college at all. Liberal arts’ colleges underperformance is largely due to their higher tuition, along with slightly lower earnings for alumni.

The topline numbers don’t tell the whole story, though. The most financially consequential decision for prospective college students is not which college they attend, but what they study once they arrive on campus. Certain majors give students a much better shot at landing a high-salary job.

This pattern also holds at liberal arts colleges. A fine arts major at one of these schools can expect to be worse off by around $180,000. But an engineering major at a liberal arts college will be better off by over $960,000. As they do at other institutions, liberal arts college students benefit from choosing a major like engineering, computer science, nursing, or economics.

But there’s a twist. Even though liberal arts colleges tend to have lower financial returns than average, that is not true for the highest-ROI majors. If you study engineering, computer science, nursing, or economics at a liberal arts college, you’re likely to do even better than the national average for that major.

For instance, computer science majors at liberal arts colleges enjoy a median return on investment of $889,000, compared to $652,000 for students who study the same subject at other colleges—a gap of $236,000. Economics majors at liberal arts colleges outperform their peers at other schools by $215,000. For nursing majors the gap is $146,000; for mathematics and statistics majors it is $101,000.

It’s possible that the well-rounded undergraduate education at liberal arts colleges better prepares future nurses, economists, and programmers for a successful career. Smaller class sizes and personal relationships with professors may enhance learning. Better student supports at these smaller colleges likely raise graduation rates. Tight-knit alumni networks may provide current students with more professional opportunities.

Whatever the reason, it seems the benefits of liberal arts colleges are real in some circumstances. But those benefits are not guaranteed. Liberal arts colleges mostly help students succeed financially when liberal education is paired with a practical major that has good job prospects.

Looking at the top 25 programs at liberal arts colleges bears this out. The top liberal arts college program in the country by ROI is the computer science degree at Harvey Mudd College, a STEM-focused school in California. It’s possible that the liberal arts environment at Harvey Mudd propels this already-lucrative major to the next level.

I myself am a liberal arts alumnus, having earned my undergraduate degree in economics from Swarthmore College. Studying a subject with good job prospects in the liberal arts context was a winning combination for me—but not every liberal arts college student has the same good fortune.

Students should approach liberal arts colleges with caution. High tuition and an abundance of questionable majors mean many liberal arts programs don’t pay off. But when students choose the right major, a liberal arts education can enhance rather than detract from their career prospects.

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