Click here to go to the NEW College Discussion Forum

So, why arent liberal arts colleges given the credit they deserve? People are always awed by students who do their undergrad studies at a big university, but they have hardly ever heard of some of the best lac's. The undergrad programs of uni's and lacs dont even get rated on the same list. I just dont get it!

By Dori (Dori) on Wednesday, June 04, 2003 - 01:25 am: Edit

wow i feel stupid

i thought LAC stood for local area colleges...

By Interesteddad (Interesteddad) on Wednesday, June 04, 2003 - 01:37 am: Edit

Oh, I think the liberal arts colleges get plenty of "credit" among people that know what is what in American education.

From an undergrad perspective, you are probably more likely to have professors who specialize in teaching rather than research. The tenure decisions at universities, particularly "prestige" universities, are more heavily weighted towards research and publishing.

There's an issue of size. It seems that small liberal arts colleges top out at between 2000 and 2500 students. Then, there is a jump up to 5000-6000 undergrads at the smaller universities. Seems to be a no-man's land in between, at least for the places I've been looking at. Whatever the reason, for sheer numbers of students, the universities sell a lot more of their product than small liberal arts colleges. I mean, a place like Swarthmore only enrolls 360 people or so in a freshman class. That's smaller than a lot of high schools.

By Dream5 (Dream5) on Wednesday, June 04, 2003 - 03:27 am: Edit

I think the liberal arts colleges get the credit among those who know what they are doing. Those who matter will know what Amherst and Swarthmore are.

Some kid on this website said, americans love Harvard because if you graduate from there, you will automatically get a job, and paid high. Now...how ignorant is that?

Don't expect too much from these mindless superficial narcissits.

By Brettbat (Brettbat) on Wednesday, June 04, 2003 - 12:52 pm: Edit

Washington and Lee in Lexington VA
Worth a look.

By Lethalfang (Lethalfang) on Thursday, June 05, 2003 - 03:00 am: Edit

Check the the number of alumni and you will know why most people haven't heard of these liberal art colleges.

By Morgantruce (Morgantruce) on Saturday, June 07, 2003 - 07:57 am: Edit

Never mind the number of alumni---look at what they are doing now!

For example, pick up a course bulletin of any decent college. Look in the back--most of them will have a listing of the faculty--AND a short bio. Take a look at where each faculty member got his or her BA or BS.

You will notice several things: First, there are a LOT of small liberal arts colleges (LACs) listed. Next, you will notice that there are SOME LACs that are listed time and time again -- way out of proportion that the small size of the school would indicate.

These liberal arts colleges must be doing something right. They are producing the next generation of scholars! Oh sure, there are some faculty that got their BA/BS at universities.

No, I did not make a scientific study of this... it's just something I noticed that indicated a trend to me.

----

If you want a great education, go to a liberal arts college.