<p>What is the actual definition of an LAC?</p>
<p>A college is a purely undergrad institution - no graduate programs at all. Obviously there are all kinds of exceptions, in both "directions". See Dartmouth, for instance, and any number of small regional "universities" that only have one or 2 masters' preograms.</p>
<p>A liberal arts college is a 4 year undergrad institution, dedicated to offering a well rounded selection of majors - science and art, math and history. Usually, it has no direct "pre-professional" majors - ie no business or engineering majors - and emphasizes students being exposed to a wide variety of areas of study. Again, obviously there are glaring exceptions - 2 of the most "liberal artsy" of liberal arts institutions would be Swarthmore and Amherst - one has engineering and the other has no required curriculum - go figure.</p>
<p>Most places use the Carnegie Foundation classification as the standard for determining what catagory a college fits in:</p>
<p>Baccalaureate CollegesLiberal Arts: These institutions are primarily undergraduate colleges with major emphasis on baccalaureate programs. During the period studied, they awarded at least half of their baccalaureate degrees in liberal arts fields.</p>