<p>I think this is encouraging the wrong approach for undergrads.</p>
<p>With the exception of a few areas (arts/dance/theater, nursing, engineering) for the most part a liberal arts education’s purpose is breadth of study. Only 1/3 of a students credits are actually earned in the major - the other 66% are in general education requirements and distribution/divisional electives. That’s why I somewhat disagree with the strategy of trying to find the “best” college for a student’s major, when their major is something mundane like anthropology, psychology, math, etc. </p>
<p>Of course, there are exceptions, which is why I said “somewhat.” One would be a student sufficiently advanced in math that she might exhaust the course offerings at an average LAC by sophomore or junior year, and may need to go to a stronger LAC or a large university so she can take graduate courses. Or an anthropology major who has already been on several digs and needs to go somewhere he can be intellectually nurtured in research as well as class. But for 95% of students not majoring in something like nursing, arts, or engineering, a good school is probably just fine.</p>
<p>Plus, so many students change their major - sometimes drastically. It’d be a shame for someone to pick a school they didn’t really like simply because it has a strong psychology department only for them to decide to major in political science by the end of freshman year.</p>