But CCs are exclusively undergrad and have a variety of liberal arts programs. What actually separates them from LACs, if the definition no longer requires 4-year degrees?
Ontology truly is the most tedious of disciplines.
Dunno. I think it’s an LAC. It thinks it’s an LAC. You don’t have to–I’m fine with that. We don’t need to agree, and not everything needs to be itemized and accounted for.
My daughter is a Mudder. She was also a specialist in literature, opera, and art in Quiz Bowl (and very highly ranked in it). She moderated a philosophy website for teenagers, and won awards for painting. The rest of her college list was: Swarthmore, Carleton, Mount Holyoke, Kenyon, Macalester, Lawrence, and UChicago. She got in everyplace she applied, and picked Mudd – smart people, strong in Physics (her area of interest), and it has an LAC flavor. The Mudd mission statement is:
“Harvey Mudd College seeks to educate engineers, scientists, and mathematicians well versed in all of these areas and in the humanities and the social sciences so that they may assume leadership in their fields with a clear understanding of the impact of their work on society.”
So she didn’t overlap with Caltech or MIT – visited Caltech and didn’t care for it, thought it was too tech focused. And she didn’t get into Mudd just because of her gender, she had 2380 superscore SAT and 800s in her subject tests – in Math II and Lit. She will tell you that Mudd is an LAC, and that is one reason she decided to attend there.
For anyone unsure of why and [how Deep Springs differs from CCs](Deep Springs College - Wikipedia):
(and @intparent - Your daughter sounds like a perfect Mudder!)
She is extremely fond of Mudd. 
I don’t think any female Mudder got in “just because of her gender”. Of course, they are qualified!
@marvin100, no doubt that Deep Springs has high-achieving alums. I actually have a lot of respect for it.
But does that make any CC with a lot of high-achieving alums a LAC as well? What about a LAC without high-achieving alums? Suddenly not a LAC?
And I’m actually fine with “LAC” being a marketing term. Would prefer if people didn’t pretend that it was something more than that, but whatev.
I’d say “heuristic” rather than “marketing term,” since most people who use it aren’t in the business of promoting any particular college(s), but if that causes your maritime vessel to achieve desired buoyancy, who am I to perpetrate unwanted foundering?
Most CCs, even those with a large number of students studying liberal arts subjects to prepare for transfer to a four year school, have a larger number of students studying pre-professional subjects in pursuit of associates degrees, vocational certificates, or just completion of a few relevant courses for their professional goals.
In any case, the flowchart at http://carnegieclassifications.iu.edu/downloads/CCIHE2015-FlowCharts-01Feb16.pdf has a completely separate branch for schools that mainly confer associates degrees, versus the branch for schools that mainly confer bachelor’s degrees.
Presumably, LACs are what the flowchart calls “Baccalaureate Colleges: Arts & Sciences Focus” which have these characteristics:
- 4 year degrees as main focus
- <50 master’s degrees
- <20 research doctorates
-
=50% of baccalaureate degrees in arts and sciences
The flowchart says that there are 259 such schools. Note that overall size of the school is not part of the classification. Harvey Mudd does fit into this category.
So… not Deep Springs.
I’m going with @PurpleTitan on this.
Since colleges aren’t designed in order to fit categories, the categories are descriptive rather than prescriptive. Since that’s the case, there are grey areas, schools that could go either way (Dartmouth is an oft-cited example, as is Wesleyan). I think of Deep Springs as an LAC because I think it has nothing meaningful in common with community colleges, but feel free to differ. There’s no conclusive answer, though–this is heuristic taxonomizing, not algorithmic.
I like Wikipedia’s description of Deep Springs: “an alternative, two-year college.”
“I like Wikipedia’s description of Deep Springs” (#52)
Keeping in mind that someone in this forum could have written this, the description doesn’t really change the debate, however.
@usualhopeful - note at the bottom of the Deep Springs Wikipedia page:
All you have to do is ask for the school’s common data set (or it may be on-line)…or check College Navigator… There is a whole section (C I think) on admissions that tells you Apps, Admits, and Enrolls by sex and race. Section B gives you overall enrollment by sex and race.
Remember nationally, females have been for some time graduating high school at higher rates than males…the post GI bill of WW II effect has been reversed to the point where males are usually the minority, except in heavy business and STEM program schools.
But the data is there…just ask…
@BizWhiz College Nav has male/female admit rates but not by race.
@OHMomof2 - Yes, thank you; I stand corrected; Nav and the CDS only show by gender; although frankly you can get from Section B of CDS breakout by Race/Citizenship, although not subdivided by gender.