It has more to do with how the material is taught. If one introduces theory via applications rather than applications via theory then the same material can become more interesting and more accessible to a wider range of students.
Since colleges tend to select applicants based on standardized test scores and standardized tests tend to measure the ability to perform symbolic manipulations under time pressure, there tends to be a correlation between selectivity and abstract reasoning capability.
This means that more selective colleges can get away with leading with theory, so there tends to be a correlation between a more theoretic teaching approach and selectivity.
When it comes to “Liberal Arts Colleges” vs. more “technical” schools (including the Land Grant Colleges), if one follows the strict Liberal Arts Doctrine (as preached by the original Protestant/Calvinist colleges) the notion of applied disciplines is taboo because such subjects are thought to be the domain of either the working class - i.e. “trade schools” or the professional class - i.e. graduate-level “professional schools”. This is why “traditional LACs” and research universities that evolved from “traditional LACs” tend not to have undergrad engineering or business schools and if they do have undergrad engineering they tend to skew more towards the “Engineering Science/General Engineering” end of the theoretic spectrum than the end with specific applied (often ABET accredited) disciplines. Likewise, CS will skew more towards the “Applied Math” end of the spectrum than the Computer Engineering end and will tend not to be ABET accredited.
So, there tends to be a correlation between being more “liberal artsy” and a more theoretic teaching approach, which is probably more pronounced here in New England.
As an extreme example of making theory more concrete, researchers in STEM education have recently had success teaching preschool children to program using “tangible programming” techniques. Based on this, I tend to believe that we (the STEM community) may actually be suffering from some “minor teaching disabilities” that we need to overcome if we want to make our field more interesting and more accessible to a more diverse population.
https://ase.tufts.edu/devtech/publications/Bers-Horn_May1809.pdf