<p>So I've been looking at colleges for a while now, but just started looking into liberal arts schools. But I'm wondering, what is the difference between a top university and a top liberal arts school? What are the pros and cons if you know? I guess I'm asking, what do you say...YAY!...or...nay?</p>
<p>I say YAY!</p>
<p>The best universities (the Ivies, public honors colleges, and a few others) offer an undergraduate environment very similar to a LAC in features such as average class size, undergraduate focus, curriculum, and sense of community. In addition, they have graduate programs. Some undergraduates benefit greatly from the research activities and resources the graduate schools add. Others benefit little. Moreover, once you get outside the top 20 universities (or so) and the honors colleges, you begin to get increasingly large classes, greater use of graduate teaching assistants, and a shift from exclusive focus on the arts, sciences and engineering.</p>
<p>Meanwhile the top 40, 60, 80 or so LACs all offer small classes and total focus on undergraduates. Look at the top 10 or 20 schools with the highest rate of PhD production. LACs occupy a disproportionate share of the spots.
[COLLEGE</a> PHD PRODUCTIVITY](<a href=“http://web.reed.edu/ir/phd.html]COLLEGE”>Doctoral Degree Productivity - Institutional Research - Reed College)</p>
<p>Good info above…</p>
<p>LACs are often smaller in size (some are very small)…that usually means limited offerings of majors, fewer course offerings, and more difficulty avoiding a prof you don’t like in a particular major. </p>
<p>Non-academically speaking…</p>
<p>LACs are sometimes located in more rural or out-of-the-way locations with not much to do off-campus. For those who want that kind of setting, it can be awesome and very beautiful. 
However, for those who want/need to work part-time, it can be more difficult to find jobs in these more rural locations because there are fewer off-campus places to gain employment. </p>
<p>LACs can sometimes be “female heavy.” For some males, that can mean easier admissions and/or sometimes better aid packages. Some females don’t want a female-heavy school, and some males don’t either. </p>
<p>There have been some threads in the past that feel that LAC small size can sometimes lead to cliqueishness behavior on campus. </p>
<p>I know the above sounds like I don’t care for LACs, however, I think they can be great. I’m just offering what others have had concerns with.</p>
<p>So…my verdict is…YAY for those who want an LAC campus experience, and NAY for those who don’t.</p>
<p>It might be over-generalizing to think of LACs as having more women than men. In the top 20 LAC’s I think that mostly applies to Vassar. Others might be slightly lopsided like 53% to 47%. Unless a student is set on a major that isn’t offered at LAC’s (sometimes finance, engineering, but not always—sometimes arts majors like graphic design) nearly every student should at least visit a few LACs. The small classes, attention from Professors and community feeling can be very appealing.</p>
<p>Don’t choose an LAC if you:</p>
<ul>
<li>Want to hide in the back of a huge lecture hall</li>
<li>Want to be a spectator at major campus sporting events</li>
<li>Like having some younger TAs instead all older PhD types</li>
<li>Don’t like having to work regularly with a mentor</li>
<li>Want to be one of thousands instead of one of hundreds</li>
<li>Want to be on the same campus where graduate students are doing most research</li>
<li>Prefer Nobel prize winners on campus over profs hired primarily for teaching ability</li>
</ul>
<p>Perhaps the biggest problem with LACs is that there are so few available seats, compared with the total number of seats at all the big U’s combined. (Full disclosure: I chose a big U.)</p>
<p>Good perspectives provided here. I’m a big LAC fan for the right kid and I think they get over-looked by too many who just haven’t heard of LACs. Because they don’t have grad programs, for example, some kids with foreign born parents may get resistance because of the lack of international name recognition. On the other hand, they are all very well known by other educational institutions as tk points out and can provide a superb college experience.</p>
<p>One further nuance: LACs in rural areas differ somewhat from LACs in urban areas. It’s not just the availability of internships and work opportunities. Rural LACs tend to be more ‘inwardly focused’ (the negative term is ‘bubble’, the positive term is ‘strong sense of community’) and have to expend resources to bring the world to their campus. Urban LACs can take advantage of what their cities offer - but students can more easily live off campus, and disperse into the city on weekends (as with any large urban university) which means a less strong sense of community. You need to be especially sure that the culture of a rural LAC is going to be a good fit for this reason.</p>
<p>“disperse into the city on weekends (as with any large urban university) which means a less strong sense of community”</p>
<p>Close friends’ son left Columbia in favor of Duke for this reason; do watch for this fit factor!</p>
<p>“* Prefer Nobel prize winners on campus over profs hired primarily for teaching ability”</p>
<p>Give me the good teachers any day of the week and twice on Sundays!</p>
<p>(Full disclosure: My DH was one of those TAs…actually a “non-resident tutor,” which is a glorified TA. :)</p>
<p>“(the negative term is ‘bubble’, the positive term is ‘strong sense of community’)”</p>
<p>LOL, that made me chuckle…</p>