<p>Hi,</p>
<p>I'm a bit confused about the whole University vs LAC idea. Can anyone explain to me (I've tried searching) what kind of student would fit at what type of school or something like the pros and cons of each? Also, what is a LAC to begin with?</p>
<p>thanks</p>
<p>if u want prestigue, more options, more people, less attention - go to a uniersity</p>
<p>if u dont care about what others think about the school u graduated from, like attention, like knowing nearly everybody - go to a LAC</p>
<p>dont worry, top lacs/universities will get u into great grad schools</p>
<p>Liberal Arts College.</p>
<p>Universities are much broader, with much more areas of study, and bigger (Average of about 10000 students, but as many as 51,000). </p>
<p>Liberal Arts Colleges are smaller (1000-5000 students) and focus mainly on the humanities.</p>
<p>Most universities cover the majors that are covered by LACs. LACs do not cover most university majors (Business, Sciences, Engineering, etc.)
LACs mainly cover Liturature, Human Sciences (pysch, sociology, etc.), and Languages.</p>
<p>You should really be absolutely sure that you want to major in a liberal art before going to a LAC. If you aren't sure, go to a university and then if you don't like the Liberal Arts major you chose, you can transfer to something like economics. LACs are usually private and more expensive</p>
<p>Top LACs:
Williams
Amherst
Swathmore
Wellesly
Middlebury</p>
<p>Pah, that's another reason I'm not fond of LACs: universities have more student groups, more culture, more life. I'd take a 30k uni over a 3k LAC any day.</p>
<p>MattEisn, while most don't offer Business or Engineering, LAC's do offer the hard sciences (bio, chem, physics, etc.). In fact of the 8-10 LAC's I've visited, almost all of them had brand-new science buildings that were absolutely top-notch.</p>
<p>LAC's:
- Focus entirely on undergraduate education, having no grad programs or extremely limited ones (e.g. Williams has 2 masters programs, both very small relative to the undergrad population)
- Do not usually have technical or career focused schools, such as nursing, business, or engineering. Instead, they focus on liberal arts majors (humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, arts). The aim of a LAC education is not to train the student for a specific field but to teach them skills with application to almost anything (effective writing and speaking, critical thinking, etc.)
- Are relatively smaller (<5000)
- Have smaller class sizes. There is less focus on lecture and more on discussion. Classes of 20 or less are common and massive lectures of 100 or more occur only in the most popular intro courses, like Psych 101
- Have faculty who focus more on teaching than their university counterparts and are typically more willing to interact with and get to know their students</p>
<p>Universities:
- tend to be larger. The biggest are 50k+
- have graduate programs
- may have schools of business, engineering, nursing, etc.
- Have faculty who are more researched focused and typically less likely to get to know their students
- Usually have larger classes, even in higher levels. Classes are more likely to be lecture based than in LAC's</p>
<p>Personally, I'm a big fan of LAC's and there are a lot of great ones out there that most students don't know about. Check out books authored by Loren Pope, who is a strong proponent of the small LAC.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Focus entirely on undergraduate education, having no grad programs or extremely limited ones (e.g. Williams has 2 masters programs, both very small relative to the undergrad population)
[/quote]
That's one of the curious things about the distinction between LACs and universities. Bryn Mawr and Wesleyan have graduate programs; Washington & Lee has a law school. It can be difficult to draw a clear line between them. That's why you get schools like Colgate calling themselves universities and schools like Dartmouth calling themselves colleges. Add in the oddballs, like the Claremont Consortium with its odd mix of LACs and universities, and things get truly confusing. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>Some universities offer 3-2 programs where you can major in a BA at a LAC for 3 years, then major in a BS in some professional school (i.e. engineering) and graduate with both degrees after 5 years - for people who want both the liberal arts experience with professional univ. degrees.</p>