I’m not saying it’s impossible, but just substantially harder. LACs do not have the same opportunities that the top universities have; the resources/diversity are not comparable between the two… Also location (most in the middle of nowhere) hinders access to guest speakers/recruiting/etc…
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Can’t speak to med school, but this is a myth for grad schools. There has been such intense “grade inflation” here - profs adding undergrads to the author list underservedly - that published/unpublished distinction no longer carries a lot of weight. LoR’s are much more important, but they need to be soecific.
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Agree, LoR to attest to the undergrad’s intellectual/techniccal role in the research coupled with authorship is by far the best…
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Integrated research experiences under faculty mentoring, culminating in published findings, exactly defines an aspect at which liberal arts colleges often excel.
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It’s fairly easy to tell who’re the primary authors of a peer-reviewed paper, and who had only a peripheral role. Peer-reviewed papers published in well-regarded journals/conferences are not just highly valued, but the most valued, in admission to some of the most competitive programs (e.g. a tippy top PhD program in AI).
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My daughter is working on research for her third year in a row at her LAC, and was able to do a summer internship at a research university. She is invited back to the lab at the R1 next summer.
It really is easy to connect to a professor in a class of 20 students, and it is much more likely to be offered a research position, not to mention getting one after asking, in a LAC.
At larger universities, there is indeed a bigger selection, but students have to be a lot more proactive, and they have to reach out to their professors.
At LACs, faculty research is specifically set up to include undergraduates. At large universities, research is set up for faculty to advance their research agenda, and part of it is set up to train graduate students.
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My kid is at a LAC in the middle of nowhere, and her summer internship was at a top lab in an “elite” R1, and she is invited back. Read the other similar stories that parents post here.
We are in the 21st century, and faculty are all networked. If a student is doing well in a lab at a LAC, the professor will connect them to other people across the country. We’re not in the 19th century, and to contact another professor, a faculty member doesn’t need to wait for weeks for letters to reach their rural campus (phones, internet, things like that). To reach Williams or Middlebury, a guest speaker doesn’t have to take a two week train or carriage ride, and rural LACs have a large number of guest speakers of top caliber.
Furthermore, at LACs undergraduates will get to meet guest speakers. At R1s, the speakers will meet faculty and grad students. It is almost unheard of that undergraduates will be scheduled to meet a guest speaker. Say, for example, a guest speaker is invites to, say, give a talk at the physics department at a R1. They will meet faculty for 1/2 hour meetings, have lunch with the graduate students, and perhaps even meet one or two grad students 1 on 1, and have dinner with a group of faculty and perhaps grad students. They will not be scheduled to meet with undergraduates.
Huh? Since when do PhD programs even recruit students by sending recruiters to colleges?
Fact: of the 100 colleges which have the higher percent of graduates who go on to do a PhD, 67 are LACs. Of the top 10, 7 are LACs. If research experience, resources, connections, etc, were so difficult, there would be almost no LACs at all in the top 100. Instead, LACs dominate that list.
BTW, rural LACs have some of the best job placement for their graduates, and at top employers. So no, being rural doesn’t hinder recruiting.
So I have no idea how people come to the conclusion that it is difficult to do research at LACS, that LACs don’t have resources, etc.
I have been in academia for decades, my kid and half her friends are at LACs, there are a whole bunch of CC members whose kids attend or attended LACs, and all of our experiences point to reality being very different from what you seem to be describing here.
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Duplicate, redacted.
Harvard College is an LAC. It’s part of Harvard University.
Thanks for answering my question. Now I believe I understand what a Liberal Arts College really is.
Our son is in a dual degree program at his university which is classified by USNW as a Liberal Arts College. He is studying Marketing in the College of Business and Psychology in the College of Arts and Science. The College of Arts and Science is the LAC with in the overall university.
Bucknell is considered to be a LAC. It has School of Engineering, Management and, Arts and Science. The School of Arts and Science is the LAC with in Bucknell University.
Pitt has a School of Business, Nursing, Engineering, Computer Science and Arts and Science. The School of Arts and Science is the LAC.
It’s accurate to say if you are going to Bates or Davidson or Colgate you are going to a LAC because all of the programs are Liberal Arts. If you go to Washington and Lee and you are in their Williams School of Business you are not in an LAC. If you go to MIT and you are enrolled in their School of Humanities, Arts and Science you are in a Liberal Arts College.
Thanks for making it so clear.
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Wow. Based on what you just posted, I’m not sure we did a good job answering your question. Bucknell and some of the other Pennsylvania colleges (e.g., Lehigh), have been outliers for as long as I can remember. But, I don’t think anyone today would dispute the idea that they are LACs. All the men’s colleges and even the coed ones (Bates, Middlebury, Oberlin, Carleton etc.) of fifty or sixty years ago have increased in size and scope. But, calling MIT a LAC is going too far. Let’s face it, the term LAC is probably an idiomatic expression at best, along the lines of, “I know one when I see one.” 
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Couldn’t agree more. A colleague from a NYC university just gave a lecture at my daughter’s rural and relatively isolated LAC (in person, although many students from two other LACs in the area joined on Zoom). He said it was the largest and the most engaged audience he had ever spoken to (and this was right at the beginning of a short fall break at my daughter’s school, so it probably would have been larger attendance under different circumstances). Just an example.
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Not all LACs are the same and not all National Universities are the same.
Endowments typically reflect the resources of a school in the case of private colleges & private universities.
The funding of research is far greater in amount of dollars at National Universities than it is at LACs.
Almost anyone can do research at any type of college or university. But the funding of research, the resources to do research, and the depth will be superior typically at a National University than at an LAC.
Fans of LACs seem to argue that LACs prioritize small classes & teaching compared to National Universities because profs at National Universities prioritize their research. Then when the opportunity for students to do research is discussed, all of a sudden LACs are great at research. Most LACs simply do not have the resources to do the same type of research that is undertaken at National Universities.
Small classes & teaching are available & outstanding at many National Universities. At many publics, the primary beneficiaries may be the honors students, however.
Depending upon a student’s priorities, I encourage students to investigate specific schools.
Regardless, the most accurate broad stroke characterization is an often repeated phrase:
“One can make a big school small, but one cannot make a small school big.”
To argue that one can receive the same educational opportunities at any LAC comparable to that received at a National University seems ludicrous to me. But, that is not what is important. What matters most is what is most important to an individual student and that should direct that student to particular schools.
But, this does not mean that an LAC education is inferior to that offered at National Universities. It does mean that more options & opportunities are found at National Universities than at LACs and this may or may not be important to any individual consumer / student.
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Maybe now would be a good time to remind everybody that the OP did not ask which kind of campus was better. There are literally dozens of other threads he can scroll through if he wishes rehash those arguments.
He wanted a simple definition of something called, a “liberal arts school” which he claims is common parlance in his part of the country but it’s pretty clear he is referring to how some people refer to the college of arts and science (CAS) at their state university.
Call me crazy, but going to one school within a mega-versity is not the same as attending a LAC.
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My daughter attended a well known and highly regarded university. She was published 4 times, twice as first author- in top science and medical journals. She worked hard for many, many hours, months and years. No publication was handed to her (this was implied above).
She also had a summer position at a top ranked research hospital where she was also published, and where she had a chance to present her findings at a conference attended by scientists throughout the country. They listed the schools where the students came from, and none were LACs. Can students from LACs obtain these positions? Of course, but much of the time when it comes to research….you will see the larger universities represented.
My friend’s daughter attends a top LAC and was upset because they only chose 3 students to accompany a prof on a research trip. That never happened at my daughter’s school. My D and all of her peers accompanied their prof (fully paid for) on these trips. There were no limitations.
My D did not compete with grad students. Not once. Nobody competed with grad students. She did not have to knock on doors day after day and hunt for these positions. They were easily obtained.
Some of the best schools in the country are LACs, but to say that profs at LACs focus on teaching…and then suggest that the research opportunities can compare to larger universities, is absurd.
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This.
Undergraduate focus/lack of graduate programs is the main definition of a LAC. So, for example, the service academies are considered LACs though they are primarily engineering schools.
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That’s because there are set-asides for undergraduates in many, many, research grants these days. There are also NIH and NSF grants specifically targeted for LACs. But, for what end? Are people being kept out of graduate school because they went to LACs? No. Are they being kept of of med school? No.
Can we please move on.
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I did not say that students from LACs are kept out of graduate and medical schools. I did say that some of the best schools in the country are LACs.
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Undergraduate students at my daughter’s school met guest speakers. My D regularly attended Friday night discussions and had these opportunities.
As noted, there are differences between LACs, and there are differences between universities.
It is my understanding that the OP asked for the definition of an LAC.
Of course not all kids at universities have to beat on doors or compete with other students. Some students are achievers and go-getters. Top universities definitely have a lot of opportunities. Students at top universities will have advantages that students at any other kind of college won’t have. But again, it’s really down to the student taking advantage of what’s available.
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That is true at all schools, whether an LAC or a larger university. At my D’s school, any undergrad who wants to do research… can. But of course you have to take some type of initiative most of the time.
For the record, I really thought my kid would choose an LAC. They seemed to match her personality and love of class discussion. She visited several and had a chance to spend the night, and decided they were not for her. She just felt suffocated and did not want a school that was the size of her HS. She found what she wanted at her school (including discussion based classes).
My other kid attended a small school with 4000 students. Everybody is different.
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