Science Fair Project Encyclopedia
Liberal arts college
A liberal arts college is an institution of higher education found in the United States, offering programs in the liberal arts at the post-secondary level. They encourage — and often require — their students to take a substantial number of classes in topics which may not directly relate to their vocational goals, in an effort to provide a "well-rounded" education. They may be distinguished from colleges offering programs primarily in business, engineering and technology, the trades, the fine arts, theology, or other specialized subjects. Liberal arts colleges have sprung up outside the U.S. as well, such as in The Netherlands and Canada.
Liberal arts colleges usually focus on tertiary education leading to a bachelor's degree in a program designed to be completed in four years' worth of study, though some include post-graduate programs. They tend to be relatively small, private, and predominantly residential. As such, they may offer a more uniform student experience than at a larger university with more diffuse course offerings. While they lack the name recognition of larger schools, the top liberal arts colleges are highly selective and compete with elite universities for students. Although private liberal arts colleges tend to be very expensive, there are also a number of state-supported institutions modeled on traditional liberal arts colleges.
Some institutions referred to as "liberal arts colleges" are distinguished from universities not so much by a difference in kind, but a difference in size, taking the form of small universities, complete with subsidiary schools dedicated to a particular specialized course of study and offering a limited set of graduate degrees. In this sense, large liberal arts colleges and small private universities occupy similar niches.
Furthermore, university units whose faculty and curriculum encompass the traditional liberal arts and pure sciences are frequently labeled "liberal arts colleges." Indeed, some are explicitly named a "College of Liberal Arts," or a variant such as "College of Arts and Letters" or "College of Arts and Sciences" to distinguish them from units focused on the manual arts and applied sciences. Both colloquial and professional references to "liberal arts colleges" generally refer to standalone institutions, excluding such units.
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List of liberal arts colleges
- Acadia University
- Agnes Scott College
- Albertson College of Idaho
- Albion College
- Albright College
- Alice Lloyd College
- Allegheny College
- Alma College
- Amherst College
- Antioch College
- Aquinas College
- Assumption College
- College of the Atlantic
- Augsburg College
- Augustana College
- Bard College
- Baker University
- Bates College
- Beloit College
- Benedictine College
- Bennington College
- Berea College
- Berry College
- Bethany Lutheran College
- Birmingham-Southern College
- Bowdoin College
- Bridgewater State College (public)
- Bryn Mawr College (all-female)
- Calvin College
- Carleton College
- Carroll College
- Castleton State College (public)
- Centre College
- College of Charleston (public)
- Chatham College
- Christopher Newport University (public)
- Claremont McKenna College
- Coe College
- Coker College
- Colby College
- Colgate University
- Colorado College
- Concordia College
- Connecticut College
- Cornell College
- Cumberland University
- University of the Cumberlands (formally Cumberland College)
- Curry College
- Davidson College
- Deep Springs College (all-male)
- Denison University
- DePaul University
- DePauw University
- Dickinson College
- Earlham College
- Eckerd College
- Erskine College
- Eastern Connecticut State University (public)
- Elizabethtown College
- Elmira College
- Eugene Lang College
- Evergreen State College (public)
- Fort Lewis University (public)
- Francis Marion University
- Franklin and Marshall College
- Furman University
- State University of New York at Geneseo (public)
- Georgetown College
- Georgia College & State University
- Gettysburg College
- Goshen College
- Goucher College
- Grinnell College
- Gustavus Adolphus College
- Hamilton College
- Hampden-Sydney College (all-male)
- Hampshire College (alternative)
- Hanover College
- Haverford College
- Henderson State University (public)
- Hendrix College
- Hillsdale College
- Hiram College
- Hobart and William Smith Colleges
- Hollins University
- College of the Holy Cross
- Hope College
- Houghton College
- Illinois Wesleyan University
- Ithaca College
- Johnson State College (public)
- Juniata College
- Kalamazoo College
- Keene State College (public)
- Kenyon College
- Keuka College
- King's College, Pennsylvania
- Knox College
- Lafayette College
- Lake Forest College
- Lawrence University
- Lewis and Clark College
- Louisiana College
- Luther College
- Lyndon State College (public)
- Lycoming College
- Lynchburg College
- Macalester College
- Madonna University
- Manhattan College
- Manhattanville College
- Marian College
- Marist College
- Marlboro College
- Marygrove College
- Maryville College
- University of Mary Washington (public)
- Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (public)
- McDaniel College
- Middlebury College
- Millsaps College
- University of Minnesota Morris (public)
- University of Montevallo (public)
- Moravian College
- Morehouse College
- Mount Allison University
- Mount Holyoke College (all-female)
- Mount Ida College
- Muhlenberg College
- Nebraska Wesleyan University
- New College of Florida (public)
- University of North Carolina at Asheville (public)
- Northland College
- Oberlin College
- Occidental College
- Oglethorpe University
- Ohio Wesleyan University
- Olivet College
- Olivet Nazarene University
- Our Lady Seat of Wisdom Academy
- Pacific Lutheran University
- Pitzer College
- Pomona College
- Providence College
- University of Puget Sound
- Ramapo College of New Jersey (public)
- Randolph-Macon College
- Roanoke College
- Reed College
- Rhodes College
- Ripon College
- Rochester College
- Rockford College
- Rollins College
- College of St. Benedict
- Saint John Fisher College
- St. John's College
- St. Lawrence University
- St. Mary's College of California (Private)
- St. Mary's College of Maryland (public)
- St. Olaf College
- St. Thomas Aquinas College
- Saint Vincent College
- Salem College
- Sarah Lawrence College
- Scripps College
- Siena College
- Skidmore College
- Smith College (all-female)
- Sonoma State University (public)
- University of the South (Sewanee)
- Southern Oregon University (public)
- Spelman College
- Susquehanna University
- Swarthmore College
- Sweet Briar College
- Trinity College (Connecticut)
- Trinity University (Texas)
- Truman State University (public)
- Union College
- University College Utrecht
- Ursinus College
- Vassar College
- Virginia Wesleyan College
- Wabash College (all-male)
- Wartburg College
- Washington College
- Washington and Jefferson College
- Washington and Lee University
- Wellesley College (all-female)
- Wells College
- Wesleyan University
- Westmont College
- Wheaton College, Illinois
- Wheaton College, Massachusetts
- Whitman College
- Whittier College
- Willamette University
- William Jewell College
- William Tyndale College
- Williams College
- University of Wisconsin-Superior (public)
- Wittenberg University
- The College of Wooster
- World College West (defunct)
Ranking
In 2005, the top fifteen "national" liberal arts colleges according to the influential but controversial U.S. News and World Report 1 rankings were (1) Williams College, (2) Amherst College and Swarthmore College, (4) Wellesley College, (5) Carleton College and Pomona College, (7) Bowdoin College and Davidson College, (9) Haverford College and Wesleyan University, (11) Middlebury College, (12) Vassar College, and (13) Claremont McKenna College, Smith College and Washington & Lee University.
References
External links
- The Annapolis Group (CollegeNews.org)
- Associated Colleges of the South
- Consortium of Liberal Arts Colleges
- Consortium for a Strong Minority Presence at Liberal Arts Colleges
- Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges
- Great Lakes Colleges Association
- Christian College Consortium: Christian Liberal Arts Colleges
- Selective Liberal Arts Consortium
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