<p>mini - you misunderstand the term “liberal arts institution” as I am using it, which is the very long held and still common use of the term. It is confusing because of the additional use of the term “liberal arts” to mean certain majors. A “liberal arts” education means a broad based education where you have exposure to all areas of knowledge, such as math, the sciences, foreign languages and cultures, literature, history, philosophy so on and so forth. This is as opposed to many of the European and other universities where you go in as, say, a chemistry major and do little else but take courses towards that profession. Sorry for the confusion, of course I didn’t mean that you don’t have a major or specialize at all. But this is why most USA universities at the level of American, Tulane etc. only require about 10-11 courses out of 40 or so in total be in your major. That’s a liberal arts education, at least as practiced today. It used to be even more rigorous and standardized in terms of a Western Civ education, no matter your major. Now there is far more flexibility, but the spirit is still to get a broad based education.</p>
<p>ecgaltodfw - So glad he liked Tulane so much. One gets that feedback about Tulane students a lot, which is wonderful for an alum and now Tulane parent to hear. The other thing you hear is that more of the Tulane kids wear Tulane clothing than just about anywhere else they visit. There is a ton of school spirit for a school with lousy sports teams, lol. Although they did just commit a lot more money to try and improve that area of the school also, and eventually (although not in your son’s college time I am sure) they will likely build a stadium on campus so they won’t have to play in the Superdome anymore.</p>
<p>Anyway, there is of course a lot of political activism in New Orleans and Louisiana in general, but I certainly won’t compare it to DC for that or speakers and political events. DC wins hands down there, of course. I would only caution a bit that various studies have found that about 70% of students change their major at least once during their college career. No matter how certain they seem now, one has to allow for that possibility. After all, part of the idea is for them to be exposed to things they never could have been before. This is one of the top 2 reasons that so many of us advocate fit over factors like strength in the major, the other being general happiness. I don’t care if Whatsamatta U has a world class department of Alien Studies and that is what you want to major in, if it is in a tiny rural area under 6 feet of snow most of the year and you are a city type that loves the sun, and Fugeddaboutit U is an urban Sun Belt school and has a very good department in Alien Studies, I know who I think wins. College is someplace the student is living nearly full time for 4 years (at least). One should be somewhere they enjoy as long as they have choices.</p>