what is really the difference between liberal arts colleges/universities and national public/private universities? Like in terms of academics…
A liberal arts college will focus primarily on undergraduates. They might offer a very limited number of masters degrees but the primary focus is undergraduates. The typical curriculum at a liberal arts college would include a much broader variety of topics but covered in less depth. Research universities may admit students to separate colleges and you tend to jump right into whatever your major ends up being.
Ohh ok
@uncletim32 As mentioned the curriculum is broader at liberal arts colleges but that is also true of many universities as well, like the Ivy League schools and the Catholic universities and colleges.
The two main differences are 1) undergraduate focus and 2) small classes taught by professors who expect you to be caught up on work and participating in class. At larger schools with classes in the first two years that can have hundreds of students, there is none of that. Plus, a graduate student usually that is hard to understand because he or she is foreign teaches the class.
@uncletim32 So I just emailed my partner who went to Cornell, 600 students in freshman Biology.
Also liberal arts colleges, being smaller, have fewer course offerings. Departments will have fewer faculty; plus, if you only have 1500 students (which seems to be a pretty typical size for a LAC), all the courses aren’t going to be offered every year for practical reasons. So if you have specific interests, you want to make sure that they actually teach it in any depth – or even at all. But a LAC, with its small classes and personal attention, can be an amazing opportunity academically if your interests align with what the college offers.
Good point about class size. That is a fairly major difference. Look at the ratio of teachers to students at colleges you are considering. Having primarily small classes can really enhance your education
@MomOnALaptop Part of what you are saying is not true. LACs have larger faculties per student than large universities. Larger research universities also pad the faculties with people that will never stand in front of a student. I have been to both types and know very well the game that’s played.
As for course selection, LACs have the courses undergraduates need. If the size of the course catalog is a proxy for quality then a NJ Diner would be fine dining under the that logic. Most of the top ones allow students to design their own courses along with a professor if they have specific interests. Also many esoteric courses listed at large schools are rarely offered.
OP, try visiting both types. Maybe your state flagship public university, and a local LAC. That might help you decide which path to go down for additional visits.
I actually had a visiting tour trip for Ivy league and MIT they were great. (Harvard, Yale, Brown) I really liked Brow’s open curriculum and its atmosphere.
So a general word of advice… focus your next set of visits on matches & safeties. It is harder to find ones you really like, but you are more likely to end up at them I the end.
Update: I just read your other posts, and STRONGLY advise you to seek out more matches and safeties. The schools you have visited are reaches for students with resumes that I suspect are stronger than yours. Just trying to help you with the reality of admissions to those schools…
Ok,thanks for your advice
@BatesParent2019 - per student, yes, I’d agree. But that’s not what I mean. My comment was based on what I’ve actually found while looking at a bunch of LAC offerings – namely, I’ve been surprised at the frequency with which we’ve found relatively slim offerings compared to large unis. Which is why my advice is to check course offerings everywhere, but particularly at smaller schools.
Here’s an example from my son’s actual search. A check of the dept and course offerings in one of his major interest areas found that LAC A has 5 profs, LAC B has 9, LAC C has 10, and Big State U has 20 plus lecturers and part-time faculty. Each of the LACs has roughly 1500 students; the university has 18,000. So it’s obviously a better faculty-student ratio at the LACs, but what about courses?
So we look at the catalogs and learn that LAC A, in spite of having the smallest dept, does indeed offer the variety he’s looking for; so does LAC B; but LAC C, though very appealing, just doesn’t. (Cool courses for a different kid, but wrong mix. Depts at LACs do seem to specialize a bit in terms of the focus.) Meanwhile, Big State U has a great variety of course offerings, and while some would certainly be large lectures, particularly in intro courses, it also has independent study (eg self-designed) options, small classes at higher levels, plus an honors program with seminars. So LAC C goes off the list while others, including Big State U, stay on.
I don’t agree that LACs invariably “have the courses undergraduates need.” I’m sure good LACs have good courses, but what they “need”? Depends on the undergrad. Depends on the LAC. I don’t think it’s possible to make a blanket statement. And while the size of a course catalog isn’t by itself a mark of quality, it also isn’t a counter-indicator, or Cornell and Northwestern and Stanford and U Va etc would be equivalent to NJ diners.