<p>Well looks like Bucknell has joined the ranks of Wesleyan (Ct) and Colgate that call themselves Universities but are considered LACs. How can we keep this stuff straight??? Is that a new category-- a private Liberal Arts University??</p>
<p>There is also another category left out–the comprehensive college. The school I work at has a liberal arts gen ed core, but it also has majors in business, nursing, and computer arts. But it’s small (less than 2000 students) and has only recently started a grad program, which at present only offers one program.</p>
<p>Jym, I think a lot of it has to do with feel. At Wes, my D appears to have had a classic LAC experience. The grad programs existed but had little effect on her day to day life–the campus is eclectic New England, the classes are for the most part very small, and it had a small-college community atmosphere. There was lots of personal contact with profs, and no big lecture classes.</p>
<p>Am flipping though the US News issue-- and there are several schools that use the term “university” in their title (eg Oglethorpe, Clarke (Iowa) Milliken, Nebraska Wesleyan, St. John’s (MN) but are categorized as LACs. Sooo confused!!!</p>
<p>Maybe thats the issue, garland. I would totally agree that Wesleyan “feels” like a LAC, jsut as I think Rice “feels” like a LAC. but they are Universities with the graduate programs available, even if separate from the undergrad experience.</p>
<p>Plus St. John’s, St. Lawrence, Willamette, Southwestern, Drew, Lawrence, and Transylvania. All are LACs that call themselves universities.</p>
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<p>We can’t. That’s why I consider it a waste of time to try to come up with a hard, fast definition of LAC vs. university.</p>
<p>Well this is as clear as mud:
[College</a> vs University - Education Bug](<a href=“http://www.educationbug.org/a/college-vs-university.html]College”>Education Bug - College vs University)</p>
<p>I get amused at the LACs or their alumni that so fiercely try to defend the definition of LAC against any encroachment from universities lest their students be tainted with the stain of preparing for actual work and careers instead of spending four years solely thinking Big Thoughts.</p>
<p>And I get equally amused at universities that do the opposite. My own daughter’s school, Dartmouth College, denies it’s a university and fervently rejects putting university in its name. Yet it has one of the oldest medical schools in the US. It also has a graduate business school, an engineering school, and a graduate school that awards PhD degrees. Sure, it’s kinda small for a university, but c’mon, that’s a university if ever I saw one.</p>
<p>And where (under which listing) does good ol’ US News rank Dartmouth College as # 9? Why in the Best National Universities listing, of course…</p>
<p>Wait, lets not forget that when applying as an undergrad to Emory University, one applies to either Emory College or Oxford College (Oxford being about an hour or so away). Then for the upperclass years the students can go to Emory College or apply to the Goizueta school of Business or the School of Nursing). Confused yet?</p>
<p>DD went to Santa Clara University. The school is a Masters University but it sure has the FEEL of a LAC. It has grad programs in engineering, business and a law school…but its primary mission is its undergraduate education. It does not appear on the USNews university or LAC rankings…it appears as a Masters University.</p>
<p>^^The 23 schools of the Cal State system are all Masters Universities. Some of them feel like LACs and some feel like major universities.</p>
<p>More large LAC’s added</p>
<p>Some of the larger LAC’s with #of undergraduates
2,414 - Lafayette
2,614 - Smith College
2,854 - Wesleyan
2,884 - Colgate
2,899 - Holy Cross
2,925 - Univ. of Richmond
3,285 - Siena College
3,508 - Bucknell
3,845 - UNC Asheville</p>
<p>Some of the smaller Major Research Universities
967 — Caltech
1,474 - Pacific University
1,540 - University of LaVerne
2,333 - Clark University
3,262 - Rice
4,248 - Dartmouth
4,299 - MIT
4,781 - Lehigh
5,220 - Princeton
5,224 - Tufts
5,310 - Yale</p>
<p>Several characteristics set Masters Universities apart from LACs and research universities. They generally serve local markets, like directional state universities (and more so than public flagships). In my region (the northeast) they often are Roman Catholic. Typically they offer more preprofessional training than national LACs or universities, with a high percentage of students majoring in practical subjects like marketing, accounting, or communications. </p>
<p>LACs and research university graduates seem to gravitate more toward the national and global stage. These schools do emphasize thinking Big Thoughts (which can be a useful skill for actual work and careers in medical research, law, international diplomacy, investment banking, academia, congressional policy-making, information technology, etc.)</p>
<p>“Well looks like Bucknell has joined the ranks of Wesleyan (Ct) and Colgate that call themselves Universities but are considered LACs.” “Is that a new category-- a private Liberal Arts University??”</p>
<p>There may be such a category, but given Bucknell’s longstanding engineering program and its management/accounting major I’m not sure it would be included.</p>
<p>“Wait, lets not forget that when applying as an undergrad to Emory University, (etc)”</p>
<p>Such structure is not all that highly atypical. Many if not most universities are organized into separate colleges. If you are applying to Columbia, you can apply to the College of Engineering and Applied Science, Columbia College,or its College of General Studies if you qualify. The latter two have substantially the same majors and curriculum. If you’re applying to Cornell you must choose from among seven different undergraduate colleges. At one time there were eight, they closed the undergraduate nursing program in New York City. Etc, it is very common for universities to be organized into separate colleges. </p>
<p>At Berkeley and U Michigan one applies to their undergraduate business schools only from sophomore year just like the case for Goizueta, if I understand correctly. </p>
<p>The only thing at all unusal about Emory is the option of the Oxford satellite for the first two years. There are at least somewhat analogous situations to this as well.</p>
<p>Yup, thats true, monydad. Then again, just to confuse matters more, there are the schools with residential colleges, but these are not academic institutions, but rather housing within the universities. Anyone know if there are any LACs with residential college housing (colleges within colleges?)</p>
<p>Wesleyan has West College which is at the center of a lot of its counter-cultural reputation. It gets its “college” designation because you have to apply during the summer of freshman year and you get first choice of the available rooms through sophomore year. </p>
<p>Years ago, the College of Social Studies and College of Letters (both, are inter-disciplinary, baccalaureate programs) had classrooms and faculty offices inside their own dormitories. Not sure if that’s true any longer.</p>
<p>@jym626 This website [The</a> Collegiate Way: Residential Colleges and Higher Education Renewal](<a href=“http://collegiateway.org/]The”>http://collegiateway.org/) lists the schools that have residential colleges.</p>
<p>Nobody has discussed yet another pre-professional program: teaching.</p>
<p>Upon brief glance a number of so-called liberal arts colleges offer numerous courses that are pre-professional towards eventual teaching certification, some have an actual education department, some have joint programs leading to teacher certification with other schools, with substantial amount of the vocational work taken during undergrad. A number of them even offer Master’s degrees in teaching.</p>
<p>There are a number of state universities that are predominantly undergrad and are relatively small, such as Truman State U, The College of New Jersey, The College of william & Mary, and SUNY Geneseo; some of these were formerly teachers colleges which is what reminded me.</p>