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<p>Any LAC worth its salt would answer, “Why not?” to that. Liberal arts is not synonymous with superficial or amateurish. It’s a combination of breadth <em>with</em> depth, often with Honors theses, original research or a capstone experience that involves some fairly narrow research. </p>
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<p>I don’t think you understand how a liberal arts degree works; departments have different levels of course work, ranging from the “foundational” to the the advanced. Typically, a major would have to include some advanced course work before receiving their degree. In the sciences, especially, you can get into some pretty narrow sub-specialties. A bigger research university might have a proliferation of sub-specialties to which someone with the right aptitude might be attracted, but, in each case, the amount of specialization required to graduate is the same for Yale as it is for Wesleyan.</p>