<p>I wonder, why is it that most people that consider liberal arts colleges as their top choices, like Amherst, Swarthmore, or Williams, also usually include Yale, above any other top college or ivy, more often then say Brown.</p>
<p>Why is that? Does Yale lend it itself to be more of a liberal arts college than many other of the ivies or top colleges?</p>
<p>Because it's the best? ;) Seriously, I'd consider Princeton or Dartmouth more like LACs because of their smaller student bodies and relatively fewer grad students. Perhaps the people you know include Yale more often, but I don't think that's universally true.</p>
<p>Princeton probably provides a better liberal arts education than Yale. most people I talk to believe Yale has probably the second worst liberal arts education in the ivy league due to crappy physical sciences and math program. Yale physics is no where close to Princeton/ Harvard Physics. Yale seems to be more humanities focused to me. Its sort of like a Humanities MIT.</p>
<p>Ah, yeah, well humanities is what I like. I mean, the interdisciplinary approach is important... but for most humanities focused people I doubt the quality of the science/math would be noticed..</p>
<p>Then they are not truly getting a liberal arts education.</p>
<p>^I don't think science programs is really discernible at the undergraduate level unless it's like MIT and community college.</p>
<p>Goonie goo-goo, collegehopeful! Have you ever even spoken to a Yalie? You have some pretty defined opinions regarding colleges...</p>
<p>Good luck w/your apps this season.</p>
<p>clearly collegehopeful is insane. He defines Yale as a bad school because its physical science programs are only in the top-15 in the country (and incidentally, this is at the graduate level, at the undergrad level there is probably absolutely no difference).</p>
<p>I didn't say Yale was a bad school. I was just pointing out its physical science program is weak. I can see its getting better. Yale's been investing quite a bit of money in this. I think Yale is amazing especially biology there which is probably the best department at any college in the country. Yale is strong in history and biology and it makes it amazing. I was just pointing out Princeton's superiority in physical science only.</p>
<p>You also said Yale had "the second worst liberal arts education in the Ivy League due to crappy physical sciences and math program." If you really believe this, I still hold you are insane (for starters, Yale doesn't even have the second worst physical sciences in the Ivy League).</p>
<p>My bad I meant to say 2nd BEST.</p>
<p>Ah, that is better. Though I still disagree, it is, at least, a reasonable statement.</p>
<p>Lets just agree that within the ivy league the top 2 are Princeton and Yale. I believe its Princeton just because everyone does research and more classes are taught by professors.</p>
<p>Yale actually has the strongest undergraduate science programs in the country, with the possible exception of Caltech.</p>
<p>It is more appealing to LAC applicants I think because the class sizes at Yale are smaller than they are at any other university in the country, and also because the residential college system & size of campus make it a much more intimate campus experience than the other Ivies, which are far more spread-out.</p>
<p>So you are saying Yale is better than MIT, Princeton , Harvard and Stanford in the sciences? Source please?</p>
<p>i wouldn't agree that the class sizes at Yale are smaller than they are at any other university in the country... i think it is generally acknowledged that the class sizes at Princeton are smaller than at Yale (especially if you take into account the precept system).</p>
<p>Don't forget that posterx is a troll. He is basically like nycfan (the Harvard troll).</p>
<p>As it turns out, based on official numbers, class sizes at Yale do in fact seem to be smaller than at Princeton. According to its common data set, 75.8% of Yale classes have fewer than 20 students, while only 2.9% are larger than 100. At Princeton, 74.0% of classes are below 20 students, and 4.0% are larger than 100. These aren't massive differences (though there is a significant effect for even small discrepancies in number of 100+ classes, since their higher number of students gives them greater weight), but Yale's class sizes are smaller.</p>
<p>There's flaws in those numbers. For example it says the classes have less than 20 students. It fails to neglect that Princeton's classes (the ones with <20 students) might have an avg of 15 students while Yale's may be 90. yale's letures might have 200 kids while Princeton's might have a 100. The numbers are not specific enough to draw a conclusion.</p>
<p>I can't give more detailed numbers on the over 100, but Yale also has a higher percentage of classes under 10 students (30.6% vs 26.6%, implying that Yale's under 20 classes are actually smaller on average than Princeton's). Of course, I really have no need to offer these stats, since your claims are entirely dependent on baseless speculation, and Princeton's undeserved reputation for being more LAC-like than Yale.</p>