Here’s my ignorance coming to rear its ugly head once again…What is the difference between an LAC and another university? What gives it the title “Liberal Arts College”? Would you go there to take specific courses? Thanks!
<p>The phrase "liberal arts" refers to the curriculum taught to most undergrads at virtually every top college and university in the country. It means an education that includes a broad sampling of science/math, social sciences, and humanities and focuses on a the process of researching, analyzing, and communicating complex topics. "Liberal arts" has been the backbone of elite higher education in the US for at least 150 years.</p>
<p>A university is like a conglomerate with many business divisions: an undergraduate college, a med school, a law school, an engineering school, a research for hire division, etc.</p>
<p>A "liberal arts college" is exactly the same thing as the undergrad college at a top university, except that it is an independent business, without the other "schools. As a practical matter, the main difference is that a liberal arts college will typically be one half to one third the size of the undergrad college in a private university and the faculty and staff will be exclusively focused on undergrad teaching. You won't have grad school teaching assistants at a liberal arts college because there aren't any grad school students. You won't have professors spending most of their time with their PhD-candidate research assistants because there aren't any PhD candidates.</p>
<p>As far as courses and curriculum, there is no difference. There are pluses and minuses to both small undergrad colleges and the undergrad business unit of a larger university.</p>
<p>Another related question: why do some LACs have titles such as Drew UNIVERSITY, Clark UNIVERSITY, etc. Other than looking in USNWR, how does one discern which is a University vs. an LAC?
Thanks</p>
<p>thank you so much interesteddad! That clear some things up!</p>
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<blockquote> <p>Another related question: why do some LACs have titles such as Drew UNIVERSITY, Clark UNIVERSITY, etc. Other than looking in USNWR, how does one discern which is a University vs. an LAC?</p> </blockquote>
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<p>I guess the short answer is "just because". There isn't always any ryhme nor reason. In many cases, these schools have a name that goes back a century or more. It works both ways: Dartmouth College is a university.</p>
<p>There are "colleges" that have a small post-graduate program. For example, Williams College has a small art-history graduate program in conjunction with the Clark Art Institute museum. But, it is most certainly a liberal arts college. </p>
<p>The Carnegie Foundation has a set of guidelines for calling a school an "undergrad baccalaureate college", a "Masters university", or a "Doctoral University". It's based on percentages of students in each program. These are the categories used in the USNEWS guidebook and most other publications.</p>
<p>Thanks interesteddad! :-)</p>