What are the major differences and similarities between LAC and Universities?

I'm a graduate of a LAC, and picked it over some universities. To boil it down to a quick summary, the strength of a liberal arts college comes from the quality of the liberal arts teaching and residential life it provides. The strength of a university comes from the wide variety of resources and courses available for students to explore. A very lengthy explanation follows.

For those unfamiliar with the liberal arts education, it is one that encourages immersion and exploration within a wide diversity of fields. For all the mockery the liberal arts get, it may be surprising to learn that all the Ivies and other prestigious schools such as Stanford and University of Chicago also emphasize a liberal arts education for their undergraduates. The experience is all about exploration and growth; you don't have to declare until usually your sophomore year. In essence, it's a great atmosphere for someone who is undecided or unsure about what they want to study, and it's also good for those who are sure because it enables them to draw connections and think critically across various fields. Most universities require you to apply to a specific discipline and restrict the amount of movement you have to other fields. But universities also often come with an incredible breadth of courses and faculty which means you'll seldom exhaust all the courses you could take. They are great for people who're far beyond the introductory level coursework as a first-year and may even be ready to dive into graduate level coursework. Part of the reason the Ivies are so desirable is because they enable that combination of academic exploration with immersion in any discipline through exceptional graduate programs.

One of the challenges with many liberal art colleges is that they don't have the research output or sheer number of academics to provide the most coursework or resources possible. In my opinion, while this is true, the depth to which it matters is exaggerated out of proportion from personal experience. Remember that you generally only take 30-40 courses in college to graduate, and if you're one of those folks who really champions the liberal arts, you're not going to find that big of a difference in filling in your classes whether you have 500 courses at Washington and Lee or 2000 at Yale. The challenge can really be noticeable for those who want to specialize, but those students aren't interested in the liberal arts colleges in the first place. Also, few LACs have engineering, business administration, nursing, and other pre-professional programs, so if that's what you're passionate about, a LAC wouldn't generally be a great fit.

On the topic of research, let's talk about a broad term called the high impact practices. This is basically a listing of certain practices which make for strong graduates. Page 2 of the linked document highlights the percent of students who participate in respective HIPS by classification. Universities are R1-R3, and LACs are "Baccalaureate Colleges: Arts & Sciences Focus". 46% of LAC seniors report doing research with faculty, 69% report internship and fieldwork experience, and 74% have a culminating senior project, compared to 26%/54%/45% at the universities with the highest research activity. In summary, undergraduates at LACs on average have more exposure to research and other high impact practices than undergraduates at universities; this is further evidenced by the over-representation of LAC graduates in PhD programs across major universities; the discipline generally requires undergraduate research experience.

LACs generally have small classes and low student to faculty ratios compared to universities. Most LACs don't have more than 2% of their classes over 50 students, whereas that number can be 15%+ at some universities; furthermore, students are almost never taught by graduate students. The professors at LACs are selected for their ability to teach, not conduct research. Even among the universities which offer a liberal arts experience, student satisfaction isn't quite as high. Here are some survey questions from Niche regarding professor experiences and the percent of students who agree.

1) Professors are passionate about what they teach 2) Professors care about students 3) Professors are approachable

  • Williams (LAC): 100%, 95%, 100%
  • Amherst (LAC): 100%, 100%, 100%
  • Reed (LAC): 100%, 96%, 100%
  • Yale (U): 90%, 78%, 80%
  • Hicago (U): 94%, 90%, 90%
  • Harvard (U): 91%, 82%, 77%
  • Princeton (U): 96%, 82%, 89%
  • Berkeley (U): 90%, 68%, 74%

The cons for liberal art colleges primarily come from how small and isolated they are. Some folks can find a college with only ~2000 students, little to no greek life, and no vibrant sports culture to be a stifling place to be, and that's perfectly valid. Many LACs are also located far away from big cities, and they really emphasize a residential life and community, so it's important to know if the culture and size is something you're comfortable with. One statement which I can agree with is that it's easy to make a large university feel smaller and more cohesive, but it's not easy to make a small school feel larger. Another serious con of attending an LAC in general is that you have to be very focused if you're career oriented; employers will favor larger schools for on-campus recruiting and the liberal arts mentality can really push away taking career prospects as seriously as they should be taken. Some LACs, like Williams and the Claremont Colleges, are actively recruited by top employers, but they are the exception, not the rule. There can be a very noticeable bubble at LACs that pushes students from thinking about things practically or appreciating the world outside of their college that I don't really see in universities beyond the more residential ones; the almost purely theoretical teaching can be a turn off as well.

Ultimately, I really valued the experience that I received at my college, but I think that was because I was a good fit for the dynamic it fostered. I don't think I really missed out on anything as I was kept sufficiently busy and challenged with all there was to do in my humble 1600 student school. On the topic of research itself, I was able to secure research positions at UC Hicago and Yale during the summers (as well as on-campus research which helped me legitimize my candidacy for those experiences), and am now headed to the NSF for a post-bachelors' fellowship. My goal is to continue my studies at a major research university in the future, and with that perspective, I really value that once in a lifetime sort of opportunity and growth a liberal arts college fostered for me.

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