<p>Hey</p>
<p>i've been reading things about liberal arts colleges and normal universitites. what are the differences? What does it mean by liberal arts having a "better" study environment...is the concentration curriculum different? </p>
<p>thanks</p>
<p>A liberal arts college offers only liberal arts majors, which are anything "pure" and theoretical, including all languages, most humanities, straight sciences (physics, chem, bio), math, music theory, art, art history, yadda yadda yadda. The things they don't have are stuff like engineering, journalism, architecture, business (basically things that lead you right to a career). A university has generally liberal arts and some of these other things.</p>
<p>Also, a liberal arts college is usually smaller and has little or no graduate students, so ed is focused solely on undergrads. However, the research opportunities are generally better at universities for grad and undergrad.</p>
<p>that clears things up so much, thanks. </p>
<p>i'm interested in medical field. does that mean going to a liberal arts school, which is concentrated in straight up scicences, could be bad in the sense that research opportunities are limited?</p>
<p>Not at all. If by "medical field" you mean you want to be a doctor, then you will have to go to medical school after college and you'll probably want an undergrad degree in...whatever (biology is probably most common) and liberal arts schools are great for that.</p>
<p>If however, you mean you want to be a biomedical engineer or a pharmacist, you'll want to search for a university with those programs specifically.</p>
<p>i do want to be a doctor, and probably major in biochem or chemistry</p>
<p>but the main focus is on the research opportunities (to gain more experience in science field, and also back up in case med school doesn't accept me)</p>
<p>Does Wesleyan, liberal arts, have good research opportunities on campus?</p>
<p>Well, i can't vouch for specific liberal arts schools, but i didn't really mean "liberal arts schools don't do research". I just meant universities are generally thought of as more research-oriented.</p>
<p>Don't stress out too much on this difference. A liberal arts degree from most universities is almost the same as one from a lib arts school. The biggest thing is whether or not you want to be in a school with 1,000 people or 10,000.</p>
<p>Wesleyan actually has some of the best research available for undergrads at any LAC--it has a bunch of science grad programs as well.</p>
<p>You may want to read this by Nobel winner Thomas R. Cech: <a href="http://www.collegenews.org/prebuilt/daedalus/cech_article.pdf#search=%22Science%20at%20Liberal%20Arts%20Colleges%3A%20A%20Better%20Education%3F%22%5B/url%5D">http://www.collegenews.org/prebuilt/daedalus/cech_article.pdf#search=%22Science%20at%20Liberal%20Arts%20Colleges%3A%20A%20Better%20Education%3F%22</a></p>
<p>thanks guys and girls for helping out, appreciate it</p>
<p>clandenator - </p>
<p>thats not exactly true. Off the top of my head Swarthmore, Lafayette, and Bucknell all have excellent engineering programs - i'm sure there are other LACs which have programs like that. LACs generally are schools which lack graduate programs - although there are a few which do have graduate programs.</p>
<p>doesn't lack of graduate programs mean lack of research opportunities? and also doesn't that mean the professors are less likely to be "on the flow" with the current tech advances in his or her field since they're less likely to be doing research on them? </p>
<p>thanks</p>
<p>GotCollege?: See the Cech article above.</p>
<p>ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooook (srry for the long o's, CC won't let me post "ok")</p>
<p>LACs (particularly the top ones) and the undergrad focused top Universities (Brown, Princeton, Dartmouth) have exceptional records in getting students into top med schools.</p>
<p>Big universities also tend to have more courses available, so I'd say they're slightly advantageous if you're clueless about what you're going to do.</p>
<p>To add to slipper1234's point, small undergraduate universities located near major medical centers, such as Rice University, have excellent medical school placement and provide great research opportunities as well.</p>
<p>getcollege,</p>
<p>lack of graduate schools may or maynot lead to a lack of research opportunities. most of the time it won't at an LAC. Top LAC's will offer as many opportunties as top universities. Also, there are a few LACs which have been grouped into consortiums - for example Amherst students can take classes at UMass, and presumably do research. </p>
<p>Also, LAC's faculty will be well versed in the most important things you'll need to know. Indeed - many proponents of LACs will say that the lack of research oriented professors will make them to be better teachers (although I'm sure there are just as many absent minded professors at LACs as there are absent minded professors at large uni's). Many people who arn't in college yet will realize that theres very few cases you'll be dealing with the "cutting edge" in class - as an undergrad you'll likely be dealing with building foundations. Also, LACs are much less focussed on something where there would be a "cutting edge." Most Ugrads will not be learning "cutting edge" math and physics - and therefore its a moot point.</p>