<p>I Googled the term, but I couldn't find a standard definition. Is it a college that focuses more on the liberal arts (the humanities etc.), or one that concentrates more on teaching for education's sake and less on training students for a specific job?</p>
<p>Thanks. :)</p>
<p>^More the latter. LACs still have lots of students studying the sciences, math or economics, although only a few have engineering programs. Very few LACs have business programs and very little to no graduate programs.</p>
<p>LACs are often considered to be grad school prep colleges, as opposed to job prep colleges. LAC profs are hired primarily for their teaching ability, whereas the big U will often consider research and publishing to be more important.</p>
<p>LACs are colleges with an emphasis on UNDERGRADUATE education in the liberal arts, focusing on general knowledge and intellectual inquiry. They usually do not offer any professional or vocational majors (like business, nursing, or engineering).</p>
<p>grades 13-16…</p>
<p>i kid. ;)</p>
<p>liberal arts college = a more expensive high school with higher level classes</p>
<p>hahhahahhahhahahhahahhahhaa, vinnyli is essentially correct lol.</p>
<p>Well, basically a lac is a smaller school which focuses attention on undergraduates because there is no graduate school for most of them. I know middlebury has a small graduate school because my spanish teacher went there, but all in all, I would say that lac’s are more worth the money because you are getting personal attention and not just getting the degree but also actually LEARNING the material and being able to apply it to worldly affairs. LAC’s have gotten expensive, but also very very popular as well. Also, for us cc’ers with horrible GPA’s the admissions process at lac’s are much less number based and more based on essays/desire/ and EC’s, but don’t get me wrong. GPA and rank still play a significant role in determining whether the college will give you admission or not. Also, I would say that LAC’s give you a more community feel because of the small size and attention you recieve on a daily basis. Yeah so that is my subjective opinion on lac’s. They get harder to get into every year because of the rising popularity. Good luck! You should apply to at least one!</p>
<p>Good attempt at a definition NP1, but your definition was more of a definition of a “college vs university”. At least your definition was not condescending. </p>
<p>A liberal arts school mainly teaches liberal arts subjects. The liberal arts usually comprise studying art, literature, languages, philosophy, politics, history, mathematics, and science. Pre-professional majors, such as business, engineering, architecture, etc. are not usually taught at a liberal arts school.</p>
<p>Not all “LAC’s” are colleges. And not all “LAC’s” only teach the traditional liberal arts subjects. Some of the top 50 USNews LAC’s are universities and some have business and engineering majors.</p>
<p>Yeah, I know for a fact that Middlebury has an economics and mathematics.</p>
<p><em>sigh</em> I guess I will never know from first hand experience.</p>
<p>“A liberal arts school mainly teaches liberal arts subjects.”</p>
<p>This may be misleading to some. Today’s leading LACs are producing top grads in biology, chemistry, economics, math, and physics, to name a few fields not traditionally considered to be in the liberal arts realm. E.g., Reed’s leading future PhD rate is in biology.</p>
<p>Sorry vossron–ALL of the subjects (or majors) you mentioned are traditional liberal arts subjects. Not misleading at all if you know what traditional liberal arts subjects are.</p>
<p>BTW–economics is a liberal arts subject. Some schools (colleges,universities) incorporate economics in to their business school. But it is a traditional liberal arts subject (it’s a social science). It is offered at all LAC schools as well as non-LAC schools.</p>
<p>Why are you trying to complicate things? I already gave a very simple, but accurate, definition of a LAC. And vossron, all those you mentioned are contemporary liberal arts subjects.</p>
<p>Thanks, but a newbie (like the OP) doesn’t know what contemporary or traditional liberal arts subjects are. That’s the whole point of this thread! :)</p>
<p>Sorry vinny–all is not what it seems. Simple maybe, not accurate. High schools offer business and vo-tech classes. </p>
<p>So your definition is condescending and WRONG!</p>
<p>Lol, so is it safe to go with morrismm’s definition?</p>
<p>morrismm-How is my definition condescending? I didn’t intend it to be; I’m just trying to make a visual analogy that the OP can relate to. I believe my definition is pretty accurate, though. High school, like liberal arts colleges, focuses on preparing the student for higher education by giving the students a well-rounded core education with assistance from guidance counselors, officials, and teachers. A sense of community can be seen at both the high school and liberal arts colleges. College life often resembles high school activities, just more in-depth. And many liberal arts colleges offer vocational programs or programs that allow the student to take vocational/pre-professional classes, just like many of the electives at high schools.</p>
<p>I believe he thinks you come from a more tech/research uni background and in comparing LACs to HS, you are dismissing the academic importance of the institutions (as HS is not seen as something super meaningful in the higher ed sense of the word). In other words, you are looking down at LACs. But your expanded definition does help to break apart this view.</p>