<p>I'll just state the questions directly:</p>
<p>How are liberal arts colleges in terms of...</p>
<ul>
<li>Bachelor employment rate?</li>
<li>Quality of major(course) education?</li>
<li>Merit to grad schools? (will they prefer university bachelors or otherwise?)</li>
</ul>
<p>Thank you for your time :P</p>
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<ol>
<li><p>7 of the top 10 schools for alumni PhD production per capita are LACs ([COLLEGE</a> PHD PRODUCTIVITY](<a href=“http://www.reed.edu/ir/phd.html]COLLEGE”>Doctoral Degree Productivity - Institutional Research - Reed College))</p></li>
<li><p>“The children of professors are far more likely to attend liberal arts colleges than other parents.” ([Where</a> Professors Send Their Children to College - CBS News](<a href=“http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505145_162-37244508/where-professors-send-their-children-to-college/]Where”>http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505145_162-37244508/where-professors-send-their-children-to-college/))</p></li>
<li><p>A Wall Street Journal study identified the top 50 schools for per capita admission to 15 “elite” graduate programs in medicine, law, and business. 20 of the top 50 were LACs ([IPCN</a> Library](<a href=“http://www.inpathways.net/IPCNlibrary/ViewBiblio.aspx?aid=1577]IPCN”>http://www.inpathways.net/IPCNlibrary/ViewBiblio.aspx?aid=1577)).</p></li>
<li><p>5 years ago, CC poster hawkette examined the representation of colleges at Harvard, Yale, and UVa law schools. Amherst, Williams, and Swarthmore were among the top 10 for per capita representation at those schools. Other selective LACs also were found to be represented in ratios comparable to the most selective national universities (<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/331960-undergraduate-schools-most-commonly-found-top-law-schools.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/331960-undergraduate-schools-most-commonly-found-top-law-schools.html</a>)</p></li>
</ol>
<p>My personal opinion is that, for the typical liberal arts major, the best undergraduate programs are at the 15 or so most selective national universities along with the 30 or so most selective LACs. Cost and “fit” issues aside, in many cases I’d recommend a LAC over a national university. Compared to universities outside the top 15-20 or so, the most selective LACs typically offer much smaller class sizes, more institutional wealth (endowment per capita), national drawing power, fewer non-academic distractions (big time sports, frats), and better academic outcomes (graduate/professional admissions, PhD completions). Universities do have some advantages (such as more course offerings). Better brand recognition apparently is not one of them when it comes to graduate and professional school admissions. For job recruitment by major employers, large universities probably do have a significant advantage.</p>
<p>Bachelor degree employment rates depend a lot on what you’ve studied. If we remove engineering and other pre-professional degrees (accounting, nursing) from the mix (majors which LACs don’t offer), I bet LACs and universities are pretty similar.</p>
<p>Some (or sometimes?) LACs are considered grad school prep colleges, such that bacelor’s employment rates are low or possibly irrelevant.</p>
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<p>Small LACs and small universities may not be as attractive to recruiters as big schools, though. If you are sending a recruiter on a trip to recruit interns and graduating seniors, you may find that large schools offer more potential recruits per trip than small schools.</p>
<p>Schools like Holy Cross and Colgate do very well in job placement in the corporate world and on Wall Street. Both schools were ranked in the top 12 among all universities(ahead of some Ivies) in the latest Payscale salary ranking for alums.</p>