<p>Let me explain my reasons for why I think top liberal arts schools are more likely to have people that want to be there. It is often the case that many students attend the most prestigious school they got into as long as they don’t hate the school at their preliminary visits. It’s also the case that many attend the school that gave them the best deal financially as long as they didn’t dislike it at first visit. When a decision to attend a school is primarily made based on prestige and/or finances (which is common), the school may not be the best fit for the student and thus the student may not actually want to be there. </p>
<p>Top liberal arts schools don’t have the name brand or enormous endowments of Ivies and other top US News national universities, nor do they have the lower in-state tuition and numbers-driven merit aid of public colleges. Therefore, the students at top LACs are more likely to have chosen the school for the simple reason of liking the school and wanting to be there, because though they probably did or could have gotten into more prestigious/recognizable or less expensive colleges, they chose to attend an intermediate for other reasons. </p>
<p>This is a generalization, of course. We’re also deviating from the OP’s original question by posting lots of statistics, but if you want a school where students “want to learn” and are “open minded and themselves”, an LAC is a pretty good bet for their emphasis on teaching and lesser degree of preprofessionalism, and a smaller student body can mean a closer-knit community.</p>