While we’re at this, what kind of article do these acronyms take, when used in a sentence? I’m always stuck between referring to “a LAC” and “an LAC” (do we go by spelling or pronunciation? They both seem wrong…) and end up awkwardly writing “a(n) LAC.” (Minuscule subcategory of 1st world problems!)
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Lol, love this question!
Clearly, and unarguably, it’s an LAC! Unless you’re being official, in which case it’s a LAC.
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The rule is pronunciation. However, this still leaves both possibilities open.
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This.
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So you use the way it is pronounced:
But then the question is how to pronounce it–is it an acronym (“lack”) or an initialism (“el ay see”)?
To me it is an initialism, so I use an. Mostly. Actually, who knows, maybe I mix it up.
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If you say “a lack” (written as pronunciation). It’s “a”
If you say “an el A C (written as pronunciation) its “an”.
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no, they are choosing between “one thing” on one Carnegie list and one thing on another Carnegie list.
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And if you translate “LAC” to “liberal arts college” in your head, it switches back to “a”…
So I’m still at “both feel wrong,” lol.
(I guess I knew it was by pronunciation, but failed to articulate why neither felt right; I think this is why.)
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I am 100% certain that no one says “lack”. Wink! Ell-ae-ssie rolls off the tongue. Almost like French, or Finnish.
Right?
Okay, based on the accumulation of suggestions here, I propose the following acronym:
SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSLAC
Small Selective Sententious Sporty Scandalous Superfluous Substantive Specific Socialist Slack SLACious Seriously Silly Liberal Arts College!
The observant amongst you will notice that there are 5 extra S’s, and wonder what they stand for. Well they are reserved for future use, yet to be decided, a matter of great controversy! What do all those extra S’s stand for? Now let the real debate begin!
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If you say “a liberal arts college” then it’s “a”.
This is all based on speaking and the sound that follows the article a or an. If it’s a vowel sound, you say “an”. If it’s a consonant, you say “a”.
You may get some kickback on including Socialist there. There are definitely some LACs that would reject that particular S. But I like your foresight in including 5 extra S’s. Just proves that people love acronyms!
The general rule with indefinite articles is that it is governed by how the acronym is pronounced, not how it is spelled.
So it is “an NFL team” but “a NATO country” or “an LAC” but “a LAN sync.”
Another general rule is that when a user starts a thread in a cafe that’s meant to be tongue-in-cheek, she wasn’t looking for off-topic sidebars of a serious nature. 
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So slagging supporters of LAC’s is cool, then?
Please keep posts on-topic. Feel free to start another thread if you wish to discuss rankings, Carnegie classifications, colleges vs institutions or anything not related to the OP. Thank you for your understanding.
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I think that we should use an acronym that indicates that we will simply use “Liberal Arts College”.
So something like “Simply Liberal Arts College”.
Wait…
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I am changing my vote to SLAC! 
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I think we should ban all these yearly or bi yearly or semi yearly discussions on what defines x college.
I do not think that we agree on what SLAC means.
Small Liberal Arts College
Southern Liberal Arts College
Selective Liberal Arts College
Stanford Linear Accelerator
I thought it was the last of these before I started reading this web site.
I am good with “liberal arts college” or “LAC”.
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