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Liberal arts college

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A liberal arts college is an institution of higher education, most commonly found in the United States, offering programs in the liberal arts at the post-secondary level. Generally, liberal arts colleges enroll fewer students than universities, and encourage — perhaps require — students to take a substantial number of courses in topics unrelated to their vocational goals, to provide educational depth and breadth. This distinguishes liberal arts colleges from specialty colleges, which offer focused, single-discipline programs in business, engineering and technology, the trades, the fine arts, theology, etc. Increasingly, liberal arts colleges are becoming popular outside of the United States, with institutions opening in The Netherlands, Germany, Russia, and Canada, among other countries. Image:DCchambers.jpg

Liberal arts colleges focus primarily on tertiary education, and tend to emphasize interactive instruction rather than research. Full-time professors teach almost all courses, rather than transient part-time faculty or teaching assistants. Generally, a full-time, four-year course of study at a liberal arts college leads students to a bachelor's degree. Several colleges offer postgraduate programs; however, their postgraduate enrollments remain small compared to their undergraduate enrollments and to postgraduate enrollments at research universities. Due to their relatively small size, liberal arts colleges often offer fewer courses than universities. Many remain private, residential, and expensive. Some lack the name recognition of larger universities (excepting the Little Ivies and Seven Sisters); however, 'top' liberal arts colleges are highly selective and compete with elite universities for students. A number of state-supported institutions also operate on liberal arts college models.

Units within comprehensive universities whose faculty and curriculum encompass the traditional liberal arts often are named "College of Liberal Arts," or a variant such as "College of Arts and Letters" or "College of Arts and Sciences." Both colloquial and professional references to "liberal arts colleges" generally refer to standalone institutions.

Contents

[edit] Rankings

See main article: College and university rankings

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[edit] U.S. News and World Report

The controversial America's Best Colleges issue of the U.S. News and World Report ranks the top 30 "National Liberal Arts Colleges" as follows in the 2007 edition [1]:

The top public liberal arts colleges are [2]:

[edit] The Washington Monthly

The Washington Monthly's "College Rankings" (an alternative college guide to the U.S. News and World Report) ranks the top 30 "National Liberal Arts Colleges" as follows in the September 2006 issue [3]

[edit] SAT optional movement

According to an 06 October 2006 article by Inside Higher Ed "the movement away from the SAT has been growing this year, particularly among liberal arts colleges." [4]. This was echoed by an 04 April 2006 article in USA Today which stated that there is "a growth spurt in the [SAT] test-optional movement" [5]. Indeed, according to an 31 August, 2006 article in the New York Times, "since Bowdoin and Bates dropped their testing requirements decades ago, more than a fourth of U.S. News & World Report’s Top 100 liberal arts colleges have made admissions exams optional, and new ones are joining the list at a quickening pace." [6]

An 07 October, 2006 article by abcnews.go.com, reported that the following "27 Top Colleges Don't Require the SAT or ACT" [7]:


The full list of colleges is found at fairtest.org. [8]:

[edit] See also

[edit] References

[edit] External links

ja:リベラルアーツ・カレッジ ko:자유 인문 대학 nl:Liberal arts college sv:Liberal Arts College

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