What types of students are Liberal Arts colleges best for?

[ucbalumnus]

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@johnwesley

Part of the mentoring process that is part and parcel of the LAC teaching model is that majors are gradually steered toward what their professors are interested in. There may not be a lot of breadth; a lot of the professors were chosen to teach where they are because of how their research dove-tailed with other senior faculty. But, the purpose of a liberal arts education isn’t to understand every niche of every academic discipline that exists anywhere in the world.

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<p>Huh? If a liberal arts education is supposed to include a breadth of education across various subject areas, should it be narrow within the subject area that one majors in? Someone majoring in a subject would not necessarily study in extreme depth in any niche area of the subject (that is often the purpose of graduate study), but is generally expected to have some (college junior and senior level) study in what that subject considers is foundational subareas.</p>

<p>Regarding the SLC example, note that SLC has no junior and senior level chemistry and physics courses in its course catalog, and very few in biology, so it would not be an appropriate choice for someone interested in in-depth study of science. SLC is a fine school for visual and performing arts, and some humanities areas, but rather limiting in other subjects. Analogously, Harvey Mudd is strong in STEM, but other subjects exist just for breadth purposes.</p>

<p>LACs are great for some students, but the small size means that students should be especially careful about selecting them for good academic and non-academic fit.</p>