<p>what's a doctoral colllege and what is a liberal college? can anyone explain this to me?</p>
<p>if you've been looking at USnews rankings (which is obvious), the major differences are these: National Universities (doctoral) are schools in which the highest degree conferred is a PhD. these are typically the larger research institutions and most public universities. these tend to be more well known since they are almost always larger than LACs (liberal arts colleges). LACs cater to the undergraduate only; it is very rare for them to confer any degrees other than B.A. and B.S. (there are a few that do, however.) they tend to be much smaller with smaller classes, often all taught by professors rather than by T.A.s (as at larger universities). liberal arts colleges of course generally focus on the liberal arts (humanities-classics, history, english, art, etc.), NOT pre-professional fields, engineering, etc. it is important to note that although the terms "university" and "college" are generally useful in discerning national universities and LACs, they do not always hold true. (college of william and mary, dartmouth college are considered doctoral, while washington and lee university and colgate university are considered LACs)</p>