<p>How come liberal arts colleges are only a feature of American education? Never heard of any in Canada, Latin America, Europe or Asia.</p>
<p>I applied to all top LACs and got into pretty much all of them (6/7) Whenever I told anyone where I got in, usually one of the seven was recognized. The LACs really do not have name recognition among common people but among grad schools and other such places, they are greatly respected.</p>
<p>While Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore are considered somewhat stronger academic schools than Middlebury, Colgate, Bucknell, I don't think that makes the former group have any more name recognition to the average person. In fact, I would say WAS would possibly be less well known because they are a fair bit smaller and unlike Colgate and Bucknell, at least, don't play Div-I sports. Amherst may be the most well known of this group just because it shares its name with a pretty well known town that also a state university in it. Dartmouth and Brown, which are probably on a par with the top LACs, aren't that well known to the common person, either. I remember had a friend in high school who told me that if I kept doing well in school that maybe I could go to that place, "Hartford". Most people aren't caught up in this type of thing and is especially an American thing (Japanese too from what I understand). I had a friend in grad school from Europe who said it would be considered very un-cool there to have a decal sticker of your school on the back of your car. </p>
<p>If people are that concerned about name recognition go HYP or state schools (everyone will figure that states like Michigan and Virginia must have universities), so will effectively have heard of the school if they've heard of the state. This shouldn't be a guiding reason of choosing a college, but rather for the experience of being there and what it can offer you after the fact in terms of friendships, alumni network, job and grad school placements.</p>
<p>But Williams, Amherst, and Swarthmore have had more significant historical events and results, such as presidents, protests, and others that you named. Wellesley also ranks up there as well.</p>
<p>I think "people that matter" consider Amherst, Williams, and Swarthmore on the same level with Columbia, Duke, Penn, Dartmouth, Brown.</p>
<p>*and = "then" . . . and add "the"</p>
<p>That is true Darthmout and Brown are not as famous as other ivies. But I would say they are far better known in Europe than even the most famous LAC. Im not saying the education is not comparable or one is better than the other just that LACs are not very internationaly known.</p>
<p>That certainly stands to reason. After all, Dartmouth & Brown are still double the size with some grad school programs too.</p>
<p>over the past few months while browsing these threads, i have noticed how many references there are to reputation/recognition of certain college in Europe. who cares? i don't understand how or why this is relevant to any discussion about American universities. Sure, I suppose recognition in Europe would be a tell-tale sign of a well-known university with a good reputation; but at the same time, this is not a fair way to measure the reputation of any college in the US. if anything, it would seem that reputation/ recognition in Asia would be more prevalent today.</p>
<p>There are a fair amount of international applicants and these threads are particularly useful way for them to learn about US colleges since they don't have the "home field advantage" of learning about them in more traditional ways. I would guess that the % of international people on this site would be a fair bit higher than the % of international students in US colleges. To the extent that they will be returning home after college, it is definitely important to consider how helpful attending certain specific colleges will be to their pursuits.</p>
<p>what exactly is an LAC? is it like a friggin high school where you have to take biology even though u dont want to?</p>
<p>Haha, wow...</p>
<p>get off this thread lala</p>
<p>Pirt, the reason why a certain colleges reputation is important abroad is the fact that we live more and more in a globilized environment and having a idea of how famous your college is abroad could be important to some people if they want to work outside the USA and this example also counts the other way around with European, Asians & etc.... universities in the USA. Of course if a person wants to live and work for the rest of their life in one place this is not very important. </p>
<p>It is also interesting to know that institutions that are very famous in your geographical region are not as well known in others. For example I come from Ireland and I would say it would be very hard for someone there to not know Trinity College Dublin. I have however found out that many people on this board from the USA did not know it. I found this interesting (albeit I admitt that what I find interesting is not usualy the norm!!!!LOL).</p>
<p>Regaring Asia I would be very interested to know how some USA/European schools are regarded in their region. So post away Asians.</p>
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<p>How come liberal arts colleges are only a feature of American education? Never heard of any in Canada, Latin America, Europe or Asia.<</p>
<br>
<p>A number of reasons. LACs were the standard model for an institution of higher learning in the American colonies all the way through the Revolutionary War and a good part of the nineteenth century. HYP, Dartmouth, Columbia, Brown were each no more than a few hundred students taking Greek, Latin, Moral Philosophy and a smattering of mathmatics, with most students destined for careers as protestant ministers.</p>
<p>The modern university has its roots in the great European university towns of Oxford and Cambridge and Edinburgh where students traveled great distances in order to sit at the feet of the great philosophers of their day. </p>
<p>By the end of the American Civil War, Oxford and Cambridge were already many hundreds of years old and many American college graduates would "finish" their educations by acquiring advanced degrees from British and German universties. When capital and technological innovation mandated a more specialized workforce, America looked to Europe for an educational model that would match the scale and efficiency (not to mention the curriculum) demanded by a growing democracy. It wasn't long before HYP began producing Ph.Ds of their own and newer institution such as Cornell and Johns Hopkins sprang into existence as full fledged universities on the European model.</p>
<p>The LACs of today (NESCAC, Oberlin, Grinnell, Swarthmore, Pomona) are basically what remain of a wholly American invention: a small faculty of professors, specializing in nothing but art, literature and basic science, on a stand alone campus (usually in a small town), whose stated goal is to produce a "liberally educated" electorate. Many of them, particularly the NESCAC colleges fought a rear guard action against the so-called "university movement" that lasted many years and probably did not completely give up the ghost until Russian scientists launched the first man-made satellite to orbit the earth in 1957.</p>
<p>In regards to LACs not being as well known internationally - this is very much due to 2 things. 1) The concept of a LAC is uniquely american as opposed to the rest of the world where people tend into "vocational" areas even in high school and 2) the fact that most international reputation comes from graduate schools since more internationals come to the US for grad school than for undergrad.</p>
<p>None of this matters though. In my opinion the top LACs provide the best of everything for most undergrads. Why not love learning in a very nurturin environment, have an amazing college experience, and get all the benefits and more the big research institutions provide?</p>
<p>What are all those benefits- how can they be provided if they aren't there?</p>
<p>Clearly, slipper just said they are provided. Why would you ask that haha.</p>
<p>Because it doesn't make sense. Yout get the benefits of world class research without any world class research going on. Think about it. And while the top LACs can provide certain things other schools cannot, saying "all the benefits of a research uni" doesn't make sense.</p>
<p>having taught and prestigious university for many years, i personally think LACs are a far better option for undergraduates. students can go to a research university when they're doing graduate and post-graduate work. that's when the faculty is really interested in them.</p>