<p>I'm a rising senior and I have to start applying to schools now. One problem - What schools? My whole life I have not known what I wanted to become so I do not know what I want to major in. My whole life, I've been told to become a doctor,pharmacist,dentist, etc. but I just don't think I have the heart others have to pursue these jobs. Also, I'm pretty poor. I consulted a financial aid counselor and he gave me a list of schools in which I can get accepted to and receive good aid. The schools he provided me was all liberal arts schools. </p>
<p>My question is, aren't liberal schools focused on teaching a variety of subjects? Therefore, once I decide what I want to pursue as my career, will I not be ready because I would have studied a variety or subjects instead of focusing on one field of study? For example, lets say I decide to become an accountant, would i not be prepared for grad school or anything related to accounting because I would have not studied any accounting related subjects and studied a variety of other subjhects instead? </p>
<p>Is a liberal arts school a good choice? Will it hinder me from pursueing a certain career after I graduate? Will my knowledge in a certain subject not qualify me from entering a grad school?</p>
<p>Going to a good, liberal arts and sciences school won’t hinder you from anything; there are a wide variety of future callings to work your way down before settling on accounting.</p>
<p>Then what is the difference between a liberal arts school and a national college or university besides size? Why are categorized differently? Which do you guys prefer for yourselves?</p>
<p>LACs tend to be mostly arts and sciences, so their majors are limited to those that fall under that. LACs often don’t have College of Engineering or College of Business and maybe some other colleges.</p>
<p>A university has several colleges…such as College of Education, College of Eng’g, College of Arts and Sciences, College of Nursing, College of Business, etc.</p>
<p>I prefer universities for several reasons…</p>
<p>1) more choices of majors</p>
<p>2) usually more course offerings at various times </p>
<p>3) often more than one prof teaching a particular class making it easier to avoid a prof you may not like.</p>
<p>4) usually more on-campus dining venues</p>
<p>5) often more on-campus housing choices</p>
<p>6) often more clubs and more extracurricular activies</p>
<p>LACs will often have smaller class sizes (though that changes even at large universities once you study in your major), an emphasis on teaching rather than research, classes taught my actual professors rather than graduate students. For financial aid, it varies between which is best. In order to get a feel for what you like related to size, atmosphere, check out the closest state university (or two) and a few local LACs. Even if you don’t apply to those, you will get a better feel for what you like (and I recommend that everyone apply to your in state option so that you will have a good comparison for financial aid).</p>
<p>The main thing to realize is that LACs have small class years and small class sizes compared with Universities. So, a University may have a Psych 101 or Bio 101 course with 800-1000 students in it (actually, a common phenomenon) and ONE professor teaching it at one time. An LAC will have 5-6 sections of 25-40 students taught by several different professors, offered at different times.</p>
<p>On campus dining and housing is also proportional to the number of students. There is as much variety and different venues as at a University, in general. In addition, LACs are more likely to have 4 year guaranteed housing.</p>
<p>Some LACs have specialized subjects, such as Engineering (eg. Harvey Mudd, Bucknell, Smith).</p>
<p>Aside from the all-women’s colleges, LACs typically have a 50:50 male/female ratio. How is that different than universities?</p>
<p>Yea, a research university may have several undergraduate colleges that specialize in career training - nursing, education, engineering and sometimes finance. The problem, is they are often difficult to switch between, if you should start one and then change your mind. However, when people apply to an Ivy League university, they are basically applying to a liberal arts college situated on that campus. Exceptions are Wharton, which is the undergraduate college for finance at the University of Pennsylvania and there is Cornell which has about seven different undergraduate career-oriented, colleges. But, HYP, Dartmouth, Brown and Columbia are just very large, very old, LACs surrounded by graduate schools.</p>