Confused about LACs?

College Search & Lists
1

I am a high school junior and was wondering about the key differences between LACs and other universities.

  1. Why don't most LACs have grad schools?
  2. If I wanted to go engineering or pre-med/biology, which LACs would prepare me for those careers?
  3. Are LACs strong in science fields? If so, what is the difference in an engineering degree from an LAC or an engineering from MIT or Princeton?
2

They are intentionally small and focused on undergraduate education.

3
  1. See previous post.
  2. (a) For engineering, a few LACs do have their own programs, but most don't have any at all (other than "3+2" partnerships with other schools). See: http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/engineering-no-doctorate (b) For pre-med/biology, virtually any LAC will have programs that can prepare you for medical school or a biology PhD program
  3. Many LACs have strong science programs; very few have strong engineering programs. See table 4 in the following study of STEM PhD production: https://www.nsf.gov/statistics/infbrief/nsf13323/ . About half of the schools in that table are LACs. The best LACs will cover much of the same core undergraduate course content in many science fields as the best universities. LACs will tend to offer fewer courses and majors, and may not provide as much exposure to bleeding-edge research as the top research universities. Their classes will tend to be smaller (possibly much smaller), and LAC students don't have to compete with grad students for faculty attention.
4

Universities – contrasted with liberal arts colleges – have multiple colleges under the umbrella of the university. So, typically, have a College of Arts and Sciences, a College of Engineering, a College of Business (sometimes), a College of Architecture etc. As universities, they offer both undergraduate and graduate degrees in their programs, so the focus of each College includes both undergrads and MA/Ph.D. students.

In contrast, liberal arts colleges generally offer only the College of Arts and Sciences part of a university, and usually only offer undergraduate degrees, not graduate degrees. There are exceptions, but this is the general difference.

Pre-med students are well-prepared coming from a liberal arts college. Students who are committed to engineering need to research liberal arts colleges more carefully, because most do not offer engineering as part of their own academic program but rather through a collaboration with other institutions, where the student leaves the “home” campus after 3 years and then completes the engineering program in 2 years at a university.

5

You can get a definition of LAC here:
http://collegeapps.about.com/od/glossaryofkeyterms/g/liberal-arts-college-definition.htm

In summary it defines it as:
Undergraduate focus
Baccalaureate degrees
Small size
Liberal arts curriculum
Faculty focus on teaching
Focus on community
Residential

As already mentioned you can get science degrees at most LAC’s but most don’t have engineering programs except as a 3-2 program where you take 3 years at the LAC and 2 years at another school to complete it. (There is at least one exception, namely Harvey Mudd, there may be more, I’m not well versed in that.)

In contrast, universities are usually much larger in size and have graduate students as well as commuter students.

6

LACs typically believe that undergraduate education should be broad, rather than narrow and technically focused. However, this approach poses difficulties when it comes to engineering. The traditional professional degree in engineering is an ABET-accredited BS degree. ABET has extensive requirements for math, science, and engineering courses at the undergraduate level – to the point where there are few opportunities to take any other non-related elective courses. It’s tough to squeeze all of the depth expected by ABET, plus all the breadth expected by LACs, into a 4-year period of undergraduate study.

One way to do it is to study for 5 years, rather than 4. As noted above, LACs commonly offer 3-2 programs with cooperating universities; at the end of 5 years, you get both a BA degree from the LAC and a BS in engineering from the university. Alternatively, you can get a math/science BA from a LAC, then get an MS in engineering from a university. But obviously these approaches are slower and more expensive than the traditional 4-year ABET BS track.

There are a few LACs that do offer a 4-year ABET BS in engineering – Harvey Mudd as noted above, also Swarthmore, Smith, and Trinity College (CT) – but this is uncommon.

Pre-med is different. Med schools generally don’t have extensive requirements for undergraduate study: they typically expect a solid foundation of introductory courses, plus a few upper-level classes like organic chemistry. These are all classes that LACs commonly offer, and they can be included as part of a broader LAC curriculum. Many LACs are very successful at placing graduates in medical schools.

7
  1. As noted above LACs do not have grad schools by definition. LACs are small undergraduate focused colleges. You should do some background research on colleges on the internet and through college guide books to better understand all of the options for undergraduate education. There are many posts on CC comparing LACs to large universities that you can look up as well.

2a) Most LACs do not have engineering. LACs that I know of that have engineering include: Lafayette (PA), Union (NY), Trinity (CT), Swarthmore (PA), Harvey Mudd (CA), Bucknell (PA).

2b) If you want to go the biology route any LAC with a good biology department would serve you well.

  1. Many LACs have strong science programs. You need to do your research on each school you are considering.
8

The expected standard for an undergraduate engineering degree is ABET accreditation. If an engineering program has ABET, then it is a “real” engineering degree in the eyes of employers, state licensing boards, and graduate schools.

To my knowledge, all LAC engineering degrees have ABET. They are just as “real” as those from larger universities.

The principal difference is that the number of engineering degrees issued by LACs is minuscule compared to the number issued by universities. Relatively few LACs have 4-year engineering programs, as noted above. It’s true that many other LACs offer 3/2 programs with cooperating universities, but such programs typically aren’t very popular.