<p>One interesting trend that I notice in international applicants to US unis is that we tend to neglect the Liberal Arts Colleges (LACs), not all but the majority of us do, favouring major research universities and technical institutes instead. </p>
<p>Although one of the aims of a liberal arts education is probably to make up for the horrendous quality of the US pre-college education, or lack thereof, it cannot be denied that such impartation of general knowledge and development of intellectual capabilities does wonders to our written and verbal skills and the honning of our creativity and ability to adopt inter-disciplinary approaches to problems.</p>
<p>While they definitely compensate for the lack of foundational knowledge compared to a purely professional or vocational curriculum (detractors of the above statement its time to wake up, US unis arnt miraculous machines that somehow manage to equip their students with the same amount of vocational knowledge in half the time, while spending the other half teaching them how to wax lyricals in completely irrelevant fields), in my opinion this is not a big issue. Fresh-graduates are rarely equipped with all the necessary foundational knowledge for a job in their field of study, most of the times not even half of it. While employers do expect a certain degree of capability and know-how, most of them agree that knowledge is not the most important criteria when it comes to recruitment. Its the attitude towards work, ability to converse in a confident and articulate manner, and the potential to learn anything required in their work, 2/3 qualities which the liberal arts education equips you more than adequately with.</p>
<p>So why not LACs? Despite being a great fan of the liberal arts education, partly because I was denied the chance to study arts subjects in the past 6 years of my pre-U education, I myself chose the UK route. That decision was mainly due to time constraints; thanks to the mandatory 2 years of National Service (Army) and the diff in school terms between my high school and Unis worldwide, i am 3 years behind my counterparts in the US. Plus my field of study, law, is postgrad in the US, meaning with 4 years of college education and a few years of work experience thats compulsory for admission to top-tier law schools, i’ll be almost 30 before i even whiff the scent of a legal education.</p>
<p>I’m quite sure if given the luxury of time, I would have chosen the US route. So for countless others out there, why not? I’m intrigued by your choice =)</p>
<p>I like LACs, and Liberal Arts education is exactly what has attracted me to US colleges. :)</p>
<p>However, I believe the big problem to most of us is the finances. I guess many people apply to bigger research unis because those probably have more money than most of the LACs. And also the fact that HYPM -the big research unis- have the best financial aid policy to foreign citizens does not go in favor of LACs. I’ve heard of small LACs giving full-rides to intls but that doesn’t happen as often so people might feel better trying out their chances at bigger unis where everyone can get aid (if he/she gets admitted, of course).
Okay, there are also Middlebury and Dartmouth out of smaller institutions that are need-blind to intels but I think the biggest problem with them is the location. Might be too rural for many people? (while the HYM are in urban settings, and P is relatively close to major cities)</p>
<p>Another problem that I personally have with (most of) LACs (I’ve read about?) is that they were quite small. Yes, it has good sides as in more faculty attention, smaller class sizes, etc, but I wanted to go to a bigger environment as I’ve spent my whole life in relatively small place. Also, I liked the idea of having a graduate institution and grad students (although not sure how much interaction there is between UGs and grad studens) within my choice of uni.</p>
<p>Besides, can’t you get a liberal arts education in UG institution within those big research universities anyways? (+ you might have more opportunities later -as in internships? More research facilities? … Bigger libraries? I don’t know, I guess it depends on people’s preferences)</p>
<p>LACs give more aid to internationals… Large unis give little aid because they have no problem attracting internationals… while LACs give aid to attract us… so if you need aid, you have a better chance at a LAC</p>
<p>everyone get aid if you’re admitted at a large uni? You’re SO SO wrong… Cornell admit you regardless of your finances and for those who needs lots of cash won’t get in, because you can’t attend… same case at JHu and lots of other LARGE unis… while for unis like emory, rice… if you can’t prove that you can pay, you have ZERO chance… only HYPM can afford to give aids to every int they admit…</p>
<p>On the other hand, of the top 30 LACs, i think about 20 gives significant aid…</p>
<p>personally i feel that prestige is probably the biggest concern…even if you can cough up the money required for a LAC, would you really spend it on a relatively unheard of institution, esp outside of the US? this is even more through for those not planning to proceed onto grad school. Sure its one thing to argue from the sidelines about the benefits and advantages of a liberal arts education, but the picture changes totally once you are placed in a position having to worry bout employment prospects or career advancements =)</p>
<p>btw would everyone like to share if they’ve applied or enrolled in a LAC? i’ve not =)</p>
<p>I am attending a LAC, as a math major who is procrastinating on 200 pages of philosophy reading and who is looking forward to studying Classical Greek next year :)</p>
<p>I’m from Malaysia, and it is unfortunate that over here, liberal arts colleges (even prestigious ones like Williams and Amherst) are relatively unknown compared to larger research universities.</p>
<p>For example, I applied to 8 LACs for the fall admission this year, and every single person I have discussed my college choice with has gone, “What college?”</p>
<p>Nobody here (other than people who have actually done a bit of research) has heard of Grinnell or Colby or Swarthmore, so obviously there’s this worry that graduating from an unheard of college will make you a lot less employable.</p>
<p>yeah the prestige is definitely a huge factor. either that students aren’t aware of the existence of LACs like amherst, williams, wellesley, etc… or they just don’t think its worth it to pay so much money and go through so much effort instead of attending a prestigious university in their home country.</p>
<p>I’d say that those applicants who put in a bit of research do find the prospect of liberal arts education very enticing. However, most students do not do the research and go by prestige alone. Most people, even those in the United States, havent heard of LACs like grinnell, swat, colby, or even amherst and williams. THat is definitely a factor.</p>
<p>i think that prestige or name-recognition has a big part to do it. i think a lot of applicants would wonder “if i go to colby would i be able to come back home and get a job since almost no one in my country knows what colby is?”. i also think that a lot of applicants from abroad look to get into engineering/technology as these fields are considered to be prestigious and financially rewarding. most LACs do not have engineering programs and this makes them look elsewhere.</p>
<p>Skunk,
“Most people, even those in the United States, havent heard of LACs like grinnell, swat, colby, or even amherst and williams. THat is definitely a factor.”</p>
<p>Really? I thought these were well known throughout the united states. That’s something new!</p>
<p>Another reason people outside the US don’t go to LACs is that they think a liberal arts college is an “art” college. I’ve had many people ask me why I didn’t want to do science any more. It can be pretty frustrating trying to explain that a liberal arts college is not an art college.</p>
<p>In my country people probably don’t know any American unis other than Harvard, MIT, Princeton and Yale. They have never heard of great unis like NU, UChicago, UPenn and so many others. I assume its like that in many places. So just ignore those people and go where you like. When you apply for grad school they will know how good Oberlin, Colby or Grinell is.</p>
<p>yeah to my surprise most of the class 2012 internationals are applying to LACs…its really an eye-opening experience watching them talk about all the obscure names (i only knew like one darthmore and one williams bfore this)…is it because most of them plan to go to grad school in the US hence the lack of prestige wun really matter or is it coz of a genuine change in attitude in college aspirants?</p>