<p>Can peopel tell me what a liberal art college is ??? I'm an international student so I cannot understand fully what the main role of a liberal art college is.
What are the best colleges for liberal art?</p>
<p>Liberal arts colleges are colleges that are focused on undergraduate studies only; most do not offer graduate degrees. The benefits of a liberal arts college have been discussed several times; do a search for previous posts. As for which are the best, click on the “Top Liberal Arts Colleges” forum here to see a list of these individual colleges’ threads.</p>
<p>The reason intels tend not to hear about them is 1) they are unique to the United States and, 2) they are quite small in comparison to big, state-run, research universities like Berkeley or Michigan; even the smallest Ivy (Dartmouth) is twice as large as most LACs.</p>
<p>Virtually every institution of higher learning in the United States founded before the Civil War began as a liberal arts college. The sole exception was the University of Pennsylvania (originally called, the College of Philadelphia) which Ben Franklin quite explicitly wanted to prvide a more practical course of study than was available at Harvard, Yale and Princeton which were essentially founded as training grounds for future ministers.</p>
<p>Later, with the ascent of the American Guilded Age, people sent their sons (and, with the formation of the Seven Sisters, --daughters) to be trained not as ministers, but as “gentlemen” (or, ladies as the case may be.) The understanding was that if you were wealthy, having a common vocabulary based loosely around the study of classics, mathematics and a modern language – not to mention – athletic ability - was more important than landing a job after graduation.</p>
<p>Today, the last of the traditional LACs can be found in various collegiate athletic leagues such as NESCAC, the Patriot League and in the midwest.</p>
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<em>sigh</em> I wish this is still the case. Imagine mommy can solve partial differential equations at the drop of a hat, but puts on fabulous dresses every evening to cook dinner. It’d be nice to not have to worry about landing a job after graduation.</p>
<p>^^it definitely helps to be either independently wealthy or so extraordinarily talented in some field that the potential rewards associated with it outweigh the risks should you fail to gain a foothold (e.g., the arts, academia, research science, journalism, or politics – probably in that order.) Otherwise, you should probably attend an Ivy League university.</p>
<p>lol so what exactly do I study at liberal art colleges ??</p>
<p>I don’t like it, so i am biased.</p>
<p>Research University are just big huge glorified trade school where you learn your trade like Business or Physics..etc.</p>
<p>LAC appear to be if you want a well rounded education with more humanitarians classes…Kinda like when you are undecided at a research university.</p>
<p>The curriculum frequently calls for you to select two math, two arts, two social sciences, etc over your four years. You major in the usual academic type subjects (math, history, psych, etc). A LAC education gives you a broad survey of subjects.</p>
<p>Try UC Berkeley, its better than all LAC’s</p>
<p>You can study a variety of subjects at an LAC, whether it’s sciences, humanities, or the arts. There are some that have good offerings in business and engineering, but most LACs do not offer degrees in those subjects.</p>
<p>legend, you can study most of the same things in an LAC.</p>
<p>Most LACs, however, do not offer ‘pre-professional’ degrees, such as Business Management or Engineering. There are exceptions.</p>
<p>LACs also do not have PhD or Masters programs, again with the exception of a few.</p>
<p>This set up is meant to emphasize the importance of an undergrad education where professors are almost exclusively there to teach the students. Sure, they still do research, but their first priority is to teach you, and teach you well. Also, in general an LAC education aims to emphasize a well-rounded education, encouraging you to take a broad variety of courses while simultaneously helping you develop critical thinking and argument skills, which noobcake has obviously tried to do but has failed - he tries to make what seems to be an argument all right - a simply bland and unfounded claim.</p>
<p>Having said that, an LAC education is not there simply to give you a shallow and broad ‘sampling’ of disciplines. It does not provide an education which only teaches the ‘visual and fine arts’, which are offered but by no means define the ‘liberal arts’ - a distinction you will want to remember. Ultimately, an LAC wants you to find your passion and pursue it deeply, with ample support from both professors and peers, to your fullest potential.</p>
<p>An LAC education is not for everyone. What I have done is to highlight its essential features, its goals and aims, so that you can see if this is a path you may be interested in pursuing, or find out more about.</p>