<p>I keep on seeing users asking questions and saying they are applying to all these places I have never heard of, and I looked some up, and they're "colleges". Williams, Swarthmore, Haverford, Oberlin, etc., etc...</p>
<p>What is the advantage/disadvantage to attending these schools rather than the more common universities, such as on the USNews ranks?</p>
<p>Could someone just run down the whole comparison for me, that'd be great.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Liberal arts colleges are generally much smaller than universities (1200-2800 students), have almost no graduate students, and teach the traditional liberal arts subjects: math sciences, humanities, social sciences, arts. They claim to offer more individual attention to undergrads, perhaps at the expense of resources and research opportunities. There is more to it, but this is it in a nutshell.</p>
<p>Okay... but why would I do that? Seems like there's no real school spirit, no college atmosphere. Is it just for people who want to go to class, then go home and not do anything else?</p>
<p>They don't have Division I sports but they have their own kind of school spirit. There are plenty of clubs, activities, and sports. many students love LACs. They don't go to class and then go home.</p>
<p>Liberal arts colleges tend to have higher student involvement in extracurricular activities, which can translate into school spirit, and since the majority of students tend to live on campus, it feels more unified than universities--which tend not to have as many students living on campus. Fewer LAC kids just go to class and then go home than at universities. LACs also have Division I-III sports, just depends on the school and/or the sport.</p>
<p>And, as a group LACs are better about giving kids individual attention than are universities. It is more a fuction of size....fewer classes with 50 or more students than universities, even if they have the same student/teacher ratio. That is, at universities, professor's reaserch is important (more so than at LACs), so some just concentrate on that, rather than teach students. But, for statistical purposes, the reaserchers are counted in the ratio just like profs who do more teaching.</p>
<p>The difference between universities and "colleges" is how one approaches education and what is a better fit for the student.</p>