I am aware of the difference between a university and a liberal arts college. What are the benefits of attending a liberal arts college versus a big university? What are the cons and vice versa?
In GENERAL:
LACs: Smaller class sizes, more 1:1 attention by faculty and support staff, less feeling like a “small fish in an ocean”
RUs: Greater number of resources (but most be proactively sought out), broader and deeper research/curricular opportunities, more diverse student body
If you do a search on this site you will find numerous threads on this topic.
LAC’s have either strictly undergrad population or with very little grad population and therefore you’re likely to be taught by professors as opposed to grad students in a small teacher to student ratio. When I was at Cal-Berkeley, there have been much unhappy grumbling and protests because many courses were being taught by grad students with heavy accents that students had a hard time understanding. I don’t know what the situation is like there today. The LAC’s resources are therefore more undergrad focused as opposed to the grad and research focused.
This played a huge role in our own college selection process and why I helped my son applied to LAC’s and undergrad focused national universities. You can always go to a grad school at research universities after finishing your undergrad education, but for an undergrad I believe the primary objective is to get a quality education and develop close network among fellow students and professors.
I believe both can be great options:
Honor’s college within a RU or LACs for the first two years then transfer to a RU of your chosen field.
Less majors and course selections at LAC. Smaller, in general, which can be good or bad depending on what you are looking for
The best-known college rankings, by US News & World Report, include an “alumni giving rate” component. The rationale, according to USN&WR, is that the alumni giving rate represents “an indirect measure of student satisfaction.”
https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/how-us-news-calculated-the-rankings
If USN&WR is right about this, then it would seem that LAC alumni are generally more satisfied with their undergraduate experiences than university alumni, because LACs typically have higher giving rates. Interestingly, the universities that do have high rates of alumni giving (e.g. Princeton, Dartmouth) tend to be relatively small and undergraduate-oriented, i.e. close to the LAC end of the university spectrum.
Research universities offer more of everything with respect to majors, course offerings, diversity, activities & job interview opportunities. But research universities often demand more of an individual to handle “big city experience” versus “small town familiarity”.
Everyone knows your business at an LAC.
Most LACs are rural and isolated, although not all, while research universities are like small cities.
You can make a large school small, but you can’t make a small school large.
An “advantage” at LACs is that, due to the monotony of seeing the same faces & small campus semester after semester, students often study abroad for a year or for a semester or two in alternate years.
RU are mostly funded by research foundations… and much less rely on alumni contributions (especially the small ticket donations).
Relative pros of small liberal arts colleges:
- Emphasis on great teaching as well as great research.
- Small classes, close relationships with professors, lots of discussion-based classes right from freshman year, not just once you are in upper level classes.
- Professors get to know all their students and are very accessible.
- There are no graduate students to help professors with their research, so these opportunities all go to undergrads.
- Extracurriculars most often welcome all interested students, and it is easier to get a position of importance with fewer members in a club.
- The sense of community is amazing! The student body and staff form a close knit community. It is easy to meet people and make friends (even if you are a bit quirky, as I was!).
- After graduation, LAC graduates form a tight network to help fellow alumni and students.
- Explore! Most often, you apply to the whole college and pick your major later, as opposed to applying to a school within a school.
Relative cons of small liberal arts colleges:
- Names are less well known among the general public (although grad schools and many employers are still very impressed). Expect polite confused smiles from the cashier and gas attendant and Aunt Sally when you say where you are going to college.
- Fewer course options and fewer professors with fewer research interests.
- More people know your business, and it may be harder to reinvent yourself socially partway through college if you want to.
With the popularity of, and proliferation of, honors colleges at most large research universities, small classes and the accompanying intimacy are available if desired.
I went to an LAC and graduated in three years. During that time I studied abroad for three separate terms, and still found the over 2,200 student LAC to be a suffocating experience. Went to law school at a large state research university & enjoyed the best of both worlds.
About 20-25 close relatives went to a variety of research universities including Georgia Tech, Northwestern & Harvard and all had outstanding experiences from their first term. The fiction about lack of contact & familiarity with professors & high level administrators such as deans & college presidents is just a fiction based on practices that may have been in place decades ago.
Also, most research universities offer a wide variety of living accommodations based upon one’s preferences & interests.
With respect to LACs, much depends upon one’s personality & where they are at that stage of life as to whether closeness & familiarity are preferred over diversity & variety in one’s daily life.
One huge advantage for LACs is that athletes can continue in two or three sports if so desired, while most research universities don’t offer the same flexibility.
But, as in my case & several family members’ experience, having attended prep boarding schools or elite prep schools is similar to having four years of an LAC experience.
To me the biggest plus for LAC’s is that the professors who teach at LAC’s are really committed to teaching undergraduates. It’s their top priority. Take a look at this article: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/l-jay-lemons/the-gold-standard-the-powerful-impact-of-residential_b_4633443.html
University pro - ability to take grad-level courses in your major if you are advanced as an undergrad.
As most posters are focusing on positive side of LACs, I’ll highlight other side. LACs have smaller alumni which advocates and promotes their colleges actively. They give great financial aid which makes it possible for majority of their students to afford decent education without loans, this changes lives and students feel very grateful. Most LACs are in small and boring towns with harsh cold weather so student lives revolve around campuses and they are closer to each other than research colleges in bigger and vibrant cities with lots to do in nice weather and not being forced to make campus sole focus of one’s life. There are oppurtunities to do year round internships, social activities etc. and more people to interact with so you don’t develop cult mentality.
Graduates of LACs are more likely to have experimented with courses outside their comfort zones, sometimes out of necessity, quite often because of the professor’s personal qualities. And, the latter are far more likely to still be at the same institution years later when people return for reunions. Case in point, I was one of Jeanine Basinger’s first pupils and that was 45 years ago! Yes, it can be a little like going to a boarding school. But, if you never went to a boarding school, it’s a nice way to capture the spirit of one.
Well, its nice to have a boarding school experience if free or discounted but for actual education, there isn’t enough value to pay big bucks at LACs. You’ll get a great education at research universities as well. Its better if you find a smaller research school, you get best of both worlds. If you don’t have to break the bank than its even better.
^“Actual education” (your phrase, not mine) isn’t about sheer volume. Those big bucks you’re paying at a research university are also subsidizing medical schools, and countless professors who don’t actually teach. I can’t tell you the number of Ivy League friends of mine who, over the years, have admited that they probably would have had a more rigorous academic experience at a LAC.
Lots of opinions here. I think this is a case where beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Even within my family my two kids had different opinions of what type of college suited them best. My D thrives in close-knit smaller environments and wanted a LAC from the start (although we did visit some larger schools with her as well). She went to a LAC where she thrived in every conceivable way, and is in her top choice for grad school. My S felt LACs were too small and large research universities too big and found his wonderful college home at a mid-sized university and also got into a fantastic grad school. The important thing is that they both were in a place that suited them.
I would encourage the OP to read up about the differences, visit for him/herself, and determine (within the realm of what is financially feasible) the best environment for his/her college career.
@circuitrider I clearly mentioned smaller research schools with merit scholarships to get best of both worlds.
By the way, there is no shortage of LAC students who see grass greener at the other side.