Friends/colleagues--
One more assenting voice in the general consensus on professional training and
the value of a broadly based liberal arts background at the undergrad level:
As one who has, 1) had both a general education at the undergradaute level and
2-3 focusing museum studies courses as part of that, 2) taken grad degrees in
both parallel tracks (Museum Educ. and Art History),  3) taught graduate
courses in both kinds of programs, and 4) designed and taught mid-career
professional programs in both camps, I have had a chance to see the
alternative educational/training process all the way up the life-long learning
scale for museum folks.

Face it: Being a museum person will make you a life-long learning type--both
by personality inclination (probably) and by necessity.  Most museum pro's
have found, that they both want and may need to get more education as they go
along, either in degree programs or episodically.  So, the issue here is how
to make the best personal choices at the undergraduate level in particular:
How best to use (usually, by the time someone asks themselves this) the final
2 years or so of a B.A. program simultaneously to begin to introduce a
professional focus and strengthen an interest, while getting the best general,
exploratory education possible for life in general during the last couple of
years ( only 12-16 courses!) when you are free not to specialize too much.

Both personally and as reflected in the students and colleagues I have known,
the solid foundation for thinking, analysis, general social/cultural
knowledge, and such that one gets before getting too specialized at the
undergraduate level is invaluable.  Getting a good solid, inspiring, and
confidence-building mastery of a rigorous major in your field of interest is a
great preparation for museum work (whether by museum work, you mean object-
based study and presentation, education, exhibition design, or administration,
et al).

But, three quick practical points to add to such a sweeping statement: 1) In
my opinion (to oversimplify to make a point clear), it is generally easier to
"add" or "catch up with" the specialized or technical museum course work
"later" on an ad hoc basis through a wide variety of existing training
options, than it is to say "pick up" advanced art history or environmental
biology. Therefore, I think it is strategically best to get the M.A.-level (or
more) subject matter knowledge, first, some time after ones B.A., and than
fill in (or take time out for a 1-2 year program, or a part-time multi-year
Masters, for example) later on, when you actually know what museum-specific
upgrade you need for your situation and goals (non-profit budgetting?,
collections policy?, constructivist learning theory for informal
environments?, etc.);
2) Many, many, many, many museum people change careers or move naturally into
related fields, such as teaching (on all levels), nonprofit management, state
government lobbying for good causes, civil service, public advocacy,
leadership in professional organizations, you name it.  This is not a sign of
what is wrong with the field, but what is right about it.  In retrospect, a
15-year-old museum training degree in such a case looks dated at best, hyper-
specialized at all accounts, and questionable at worst.  It begs a future
potential employer to ask you why you are not doing that any more, when what
you want to be talking about is who you are and why you want to be doing the
new thing that your whole experience has prepared you for, not your original
classroom training.
3) Anyone will make better judgments about what they want from his/her own
work, and therefore from their professional training, once they have been in
that field of choice for a while.  Internships, etc. help, but I really mean
regular work in the field in this case.  It is one of  the classic Catch-22's
of this and many professional arenas.  Being an unsolvable paradox--that you
need to distinquish yourself in order to get in, but you don't know what you
need to know until you arrive--there is some merit in making modest steps
toward learning about the museum field at the undergrad level (a course or
two, supervised reading, an honors paper on a relevant topic, an internship,
etc.), but then waiting it out a while until you know from experience and on-
site mentoring in a museum from someone who knows you, what you want and need
to learn to meet your goals.  Ones undergraduate major or special program is a
significant investment in the future; if you are not certain where you are
headed, like all high-stakes investment, it looks more like gambling when all
your hard-earned eggd are in one basket.
So, good luck to anyone starting out.  One more person recommends a strong
general major in your field of choice, with some element of museum
introduction as available.
--Annie Storr, Visiting Professor, University of Virginia (previously AAM,
etc. etc.)