"but there is still value in a diversified, rigorous liberal-arts background"
Well you should hire this particular skill set and at the same time tell us the buildings that they will design so that we can avoid them.
Garbage can only design more garbage.
"Well[,] you should hire this particular skill set and at the same time tell us the buildings that they design so that we can avoid them."
I wouldn't hire a mathematics major to design a building (and neither would my father-in-law, the architect), but I wouldn't hire an MIS major either. My point is simply that the more you specialize in your "human capital" the greater employment and compensation risks you are exposed to in the future. For architects and, as post # 159 indicates, accountants, the job market is (and has been) very good; for MIS graduates and aerospace engineers, it isn't. There are winners and losers in the labor market, as in other markets, and it's very difficult to forecast accurately what the "hot" fields will be when you reach mid-career age. So, diversification is a prudent strategy.