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In the University of Chicago’s Master of Liberal Arts (MLA), accomplished adults from a wide array of educational and professional backgrounds learn together.
Students come to the Master of Liberal Arts (MLA) at the University of Chicago with unique stories. Some seek intellectual challenge, others seek to deepen their critical thinking, and many are at pivotal moments in their lives, searching for something more—more rigor, more perspective, more meaning.
The UChicago MLA community is a remarkable mix of thinkers and doers: business leaders, educators, healthcare professionals, artists, retirees, and more. Despite different origins, their paths all intersect at a common point: a passion for ideas and a desire to engage in meaningful conversations that challenge and expand their views of the world.
Juggling careers, families, and responsibilities, these students carve out time to pursue something bigger than themselves. The program allows them to engage in thought-provoking discussions with faculty and peers, finding inspiration in the exchange of ideas. In this space, curiosity thrives, and diverse perspectives create a learning experience that is both rigorous and deeply rewarding.
To understand what draws people to the MLA program, we spoke with three current students who shared their motivations and experiences. Their journeys reveal the richness of this learning community and the profound ways in which the MLA shapes their lives.
Shaping Leadership Through Thoughtful Inquiry
Josh Harmon has dedicated his professional life to education, currently serving as Head of School (grades 3-12) at the private school BASIS Independent Brooklyn. When he decided to pursue graduate study, he explored specialized degrees in education and business administration but found himself drawn instead to something broader – an opportunity to engage deeply with ideas across disciplines.
“What I found in the Master of Liberal Arts at UChicago was the breadth of learning as well as the multidisciplinary depth that I really feel is helping me to develop not only as a person, but also in terms of being a lead-learner in my community,” Josh said.
UChicago’s program appealed to Josh both because of the emphasis on Socratic dialogue and the option to pursue an Ethics and Leadership concentration. In his courses, he can examine ideas from literature, history, and philosophy as he develops frameworks for identifying the right course of action.
“The tradition that UChicago has always had of big ideas, rigorous learning, respectful but bold and honest dialogue,” Josh said. “A lot of the literature that I’ve read over the years and thinkers that have worked at UChicago were important to me.”
Josh’s past education and work gave him thorough grounding in the Classics and English literature, but the MLA program has presented insights from other cultural traditions, such as studying virtue ethics in the writings of Confucius. He has opportunities to engage in wide-ranging conversations about leadership and work with peers who bring a wealth of experience in other fields.
“It’s expanded my world by making the world a lot more comprehensible,” he said.
Embracing Curiosity and Seeking Community
Throughout her 15-year career at BP—where she now serves as Principal Product Manager for Energy Production and Carbon Management—Amy Xu has maintained an insatiable curiosity and passion for learning. Before discovering the MLA program, she pursued a variety of online courses, studying topics ranging from machine learning to the U.S. Constitution.
To further her intellectual and personal growth, Amy decided to enroll in a liberal arts master’s program with the intention to build her skills as a writer and collaborator while diving into great works of literature that she’d never had the opportunity to study.
“I spend a lot of time studying natural sciences, and it’s about time to study human sciences,” Amy said.
Amy looked for a program that would allow her to interact directly with faculty and classmates. She soon discovered that UChicago’s MLA offered both a rigorous curriculum and personalized engagement in a format that fit her busy full-time work schedule.
As someone who spent many years as a technical leader, Amy embraced the shift into the humanities and found it to be both challenging and rewarding. In adapting to the program’s writing-intensive coursework, she discovered new ways to approach familiar subjects—analyzing topics through fresh perspectives, such as drawing parallels between the Ancient Greek hero Odysseus and Steve Jobs. For Amy, the MLA isn’t just about academic exploration; it’s about expanding the way she thinks, communicates, and engages with the world around her.
“It’s a very interesting experience, which is somewhat alien to engineering majors, especially if you didn’t do your undergrad here in this country,” she said.
Along with the course material, Amy has enjoyed getting to know and collaborating with her peers. She appreciates the diversity of her classmates and the unique perspectives they have to share.
“People bring extensive senior-level experience from highly specialized domains across various fields,” she said. “I think their contributions to the class are immensely valuable.”
She had found that studying the liberal arts makes her a more effective collaborator, better able to relate to and support colleagues who have very different backgrounds from her own.
“The ability to work with people comes from a lot of experiences, but the liberal arts and humanities are going to be very fundamental for us to understand each other,” she said.
Deepening a Love for Literature
For Brandi Williams, who works as a sixth-grade English teacher at Cottonport Elementary School in Cottonport LA, the UChicago MLA provides the structure to embrace her own love for great writing.
“Since I have always had a particular passion for English literature and poetry, I’m seeking to deepen my understanding in this area,” Brandi said. “Other than film and theater, I feel like no other medium can capture what it means to be human in our ever-changing world.”
Brandi knew she wanted to earn an MLA, but she felt the programs available locally didn’t offer the depth she was looking for. UChicago’s online modality connected her with eminent faculty members and a rigorous curriculum that allowed her to immerse herself in great literature. Opting to pursue a concentration in Literary Studies, Brandi found herself at the heart of deep discussions, where students analyze and reflect on some of the most profound works ever written. For her, the MLA isn’t just about studying literature—it’s about deepening her understanding of humanity through the words and ideas that have shaped the world.
“So far, the courses I’ve taken have been highly engaging and have pushed me to really fine-tune my understanding of literature and poetry,” Brandi said. “I’ve yet to be disappointed!”
For Brandi, whose work focuses on helping her students overcome challenges in reading and writing, the MLA builds on the knowledge she developed as an undergraduate English major. She is able to continue her path of personal growth with a concentration on the kinds of texts and big questions that are most meaningful to her.
Looking Ahead
The stories of students like Amy, Josh, and Brandi show how the MLA transforms lives, offering profound educational experiences that inspire intellectual growth, professional development, and personal enrichment. Each of them has found fulfillment through the program’s multidisciplinary approach, gaining powerful tools they can apply across all areas of life—reasoned inquiry, problem-solving, and a deeper understanding of others.
These students are a part of a highly engaged and supportive MLA community, made up of accomplished professionals and leaders across a variety of fields. With access to resources, such as writing support, and a vast global network of nearly 200,000 UChicago alumni, they are equipped to develop the multidisciplinary skills necessary to achieve their personal and professional goals.
If you’re interested in joining the MLA community, start the admissions process now.
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