<p>Im an intl student and i hope you guys can tell me the differences between the Ivy League and LAC? What does Liberal Arts mean?</p>
<p>The term "liberal arts" refers to a college or university curriculum that includes the study of a broad range of subjects including hard sciences, math, social sciences, and humanities. It is a term that dates back to at least medieval European universities.</p>
<p>With a few exceptions, the Ivy League universities and liberal arts colleges teach the same liberal arts curriculum to their undergrad students.</p>
<p>The difference? The undergrad college portion of an Ivy League university is just one part of the university, along with professional schools (law, medicine) and grad schools (Masters and PhD). At a liberal arts college, there are no grad schools. Undergrad education is the only business.</p>
<p>In addtion, there is a difference in size. Liberal arts colleges have somewhere between 1200 and 2800 undergrads. The Ivy League schools range from about 4000 to 10,000 undergrads.</p>
<p>So, the main difference is size. The larger the school, the more variety of offerings (courses, etc.). The smaller the school, the more likely you are to have small class sizes, seminars with 12 students and a professor, professors teaching instead of graduate student teaching assistants, etc. Both have their pluses and minuses.</p>
<p>"The difference? The undergrad college portion of an Ivy League university is just one part of the university, along with professional schools (law, medicine) and grad schools (Masters and PhD). At a liberal arts college, there are no grad schools. Undergrad education is the only business."</p>
<p>Take each school on its own - the size and attention devoted to graduate schools is very different between say, Harvard and Dartmouth. Here at D, we hardly notice the graduate programs exist - all combined, they enroll about 1/4 the number as the undergrad school , all classes are taught by professors, and the community is incredibly close. (Then again, Dart is said to be the most "liberal-arts-y" of the Ivies).</p>
<p>Different football conferences.</p>
<p>The differences WITHIN the Ivies - say, Cornell and Princeton -- are far, far greater than those between the vast majority of LAcs.</p>
<p>LACs are also USUALLY in more rural areas, with some exceptions. most likely will have more of a tight-knit community, too.</p>
<p>LAC's offer no graduate programs and most are under 3,000 students. Some LAC'S like Trinity and Holy Cross are located in cities.</p>
<p>Some LACs offer grad programs. Many have small masters programs, and a few have PhD programs (Byrn Mawr, for instance). Also, it could be argued that some schools which grant PhDs are LACs in almost every way besides perhaps granting PhDs and a professional school or two. Fuzzy lnes.</p>