I like the idea of a liberal arts college. I like the fact they focus on undergraduate study and promote and more generalized/holistic style of learning, while typically being smaller and less focused on some other more tangential (just my opinion) parts of the college. They tend to have professors rather than graduate students teach, the classes are smaller, etc.
However I’ve looked into so many, both from personal recommendations and finding new schools over the internet that prospect of narrowing down the schools to not simply one choice, but a good amount of options to apply to is daunting.
From what I can tell, most LACs are relatively similar in size, what the offer, tuition, and etc. The only real difference that separates them in my opinion is location and campus features (and even that tends to be similar). I’m wondering for those who ended up attending a LAC how did you narrow down your list? I’m interested in a creative arts/practical science like physics if I were to attend a LAC, but most LACs have excellent creative writing programs, so it’s really hard to narrow down. I don’t have my mind set on a location either, I’m open to anything.
Any advice appreciated. Thank you.
Here’s what my kid cared about, roughly in order of importance:
- Not significantly bigger than her (large) high school in terms of student body
- Students who were interested in learning for the sake of learning and generally don’t compete with one another
- Not notorious for being a pressure cooker / having a heavy workload for its own sake
- Diverse student body, where she has a fairly expansive view of what constitutes diversity
- Primarily residential
- Walkable campus with at least some shops and restaurants off-campus accessible on foot
- Small class sizes
- No or low-key Greek life
- No or nominal religious affiliation
- Good food
- Not notorious for having a lot of smokers
- Sunny / not gloomy
- Doesn’t require SAT Subject tests
Mom-prerogative criteria:
- Parents are willing to pay what the NPC projects
- Financially stable
Mom-suggested, kid agreed criteria:
- Combination of size + test score range that make it unlikely she’d be an extreme outlier
- 8-year graduation rate >50%
She has no specialized major in mind and no preference for LACs over universities and is indifferent to distribution requirements but doesn’t prefer a Chicago / Columbia style core.
Those sound like pretty expansive criteria, right? The kind of thing that most LACs would have? Her list at the moment is 28 possibilities, several of which are smaller research universities rather than LACs, many of which are at risk of being kicked over gloominess. Once you start quantifying things and cutting the list, rather than just reading descriptions and thinking, “oh, that sounds pretty good,” the list gets really short, really fast. Like, “time to fish through the discard list and be less picky on some of those things because otherwise they’re all going to be eliminated in the end” fast.
Some send a higher percentage of students to grad schools. Some are particularly strong in certain majors. Some are part of a consortium, which adds a larger pool of classes and a larger social pool. Some have a conservatory associates with them for music opportunities. The level of selectively varies quite a bit. Some are rural, some urban, some suburban.
Consider:
Male-female ratio
Travel: driveable? If you have to fly is the airport nearby or does the college provide a shuttle?
% students who live on campus
Is housing guaranteed for four years?
Have you checked financial angle, what your family can afford, likelihood of merit aid?
Greek/no greek
More remote or in or near a city
In a consortium or not
More liberal student body or more conservative/centrist
Geographic region
Does it offer merit aid if that is important to you
Thesis required for graduation or not
My oldest really wanted to be on the West Coast… that narrowed it down a lot.
Next kid (might not go LAC but seems interested) wants one that is known for their math and/or physical science departments. And as his mom I’m not up for a place that’s hard to get to from the west coast (east coast or midwest within an hour’s drive of a major airport okay, further from a major airport not so much).
And then there are other factors like… do you care about any particular extracurriculars?
Distribution requirements?
Academic calendar (trimester, short term)?
Study abroad (their own or allowed to use others)?
Club sports?
Greek life?
Near city?
Requirements for possible majors
D’s first two top considerations of about 10 were location and size. She definately wanted to stay in the Northeast and didn’t want to attend anywhere with more than 5000 ± students. She thought she wanted to be able to ski and yet three years later has not once hit the slopes.