Liberal arts college

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A liberal arts college is a primarily undergraduate college with an emphasis upon the liberal arts.

Colgate at the end of Summer.
Colgate at the end of Summer.

Contents

[edit] Definition and goals

According to the Encyclopædia Britannica Concise, a liberal arts college is a "college or university curriculum aimed at imparting general knowledge and developing general intellectual capacities, in contrast to a professional, vocational, or technical curriculum." [1]

As detailed in the book, Colleges That Change Lives, a goal often associated with the liberal arts and liberal arts colleges is the development of character and commitment to social justice. This is further demonstrated through organizations such as Project Pericles.

A number of liberal arts colleges are alternative schools.

[edit] General background (United States)

Liberal arts colleges are institutions of higher education which have traditionally emphasized interactive instruction (although research is still a component of these institutions). Generally, a full-time, four-year course of study at a liberal arts college leads students to a bachelor's degree. The colleges are either coeducational, women's colleges, or men's colleges.

Liberal arts colleges are known for being residential and for having smaller enrollment, class size, and teacher-student ratios than universities. These colleges encourage a high level of teacher-student interaction at the center of which are classes taught by full-time faculty rather than graduate student TAs (who teach the classes at Research I and other universities).

Although many liberal arts colleges are secular (or not affiliated with a particular religion), others are involved in religious education such as Christian schools, Catholic schools, and Yeshivas.

Chambers Building, Davidson College, NC
Chambers Building, Davidson College, NC

[edit] Consortiums and groups

Liberal arts colleges are also often associated with larger groups or consortiums. In the United States, many liberal arts colleges belong to the Annapolis Group, Oberlin Group, and the Consortium of Liberal Arts Colleges. The Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges is a consortium of public liberal arts colleges.

[edit] Regional

Well-known consortiums in the Eastern United States include the Little Ivies, Little Three, and the Seven Sisters Colleges. Four Eastern colleges are also part of the Five Colleges Consortium in Western Massachusetts and three Eastern colleges comprise the Tri-College Consortium.

A similar consortium in Southern California is the Claremont College Consortium. The Claremont College Consortium differs from other consortia, however, in that its members are far more proximal to each other.

Other well known groups, particularly in the Southern United States, include the Associated Colleges of the South, historically black colleges (which also includes colleges in other regions of the United States) and the Seven Sisters of the South.

A number of schools in the Midwestern United States belong to the Associated Colleges of the Midwest, Associated Colleges of the Twin Cities, and the Great Lakes Colleges Association.

[edit] Reputation and rankings

The book, Hidden Ivies: Thirty Colleges of Excellence, offers an indepth discussion of the reputation associated with thirty well-known liberal arts colleges. In addition, two well known college ranking guides offer annual issues which rank liberal arts colleges. They are the U.S. News and World Report [1] and The Washington Monthly's "College Rankings" issue.[2]

[edit] SAT optional movement in the United States

In the early 2000s, a movement began among small liberal arts colleges to make the SAT optional for admission. [2], [3] Indeed, according to an 31 August 2006 article in the New York Times, "It is still far too early to sound the death knell, but for many small liberal arts colleges, the SAT may have outlived its usefulness." [4]

On 07 October 2006 abcnews.go.com published a list of schools which have made the SAT optional. [5] The full list of colleges for which the SAT is optional can be found at Fairtest, [6] an organization which campaigns "against the SAT. They allege that it consistently under-predicts the performance of women, African-Americans, people whose first language isn't English and generally anyone who's not a good test-taker." [7]

[edit] Sarah Lawrence College

Sarah Lawrence College dropped its SAT test score submission requirement for its undergraduate applicants in 2003,[8] thus joining the SAT optional movement for undergraduate admission. The president of Sarah Lawrence, Dr. Michele Tolela Myers, described the rationale for this decision in an article for The Washington Post on 11 March 2007, saying, "We are a writing-intensive school, and the information produced by SAT scores added little to our ability to predict how a student would do at our college; it did, however, do much to bias admission in favor of those who could afford expensive coaching sessions. At present, Sarah Lawrence is the only American college that completely disregards SAT scores in its admission process[9]. As a result of this policy, in the same Washington Post article, Dr. Myers stated that she was informed by the U.S. News and World Report that if no SAT scores were submitted, U.S. News would "make up a number" to use in its magazines. She further argues that if SLC were to decide to stop sending all data to U.S. News and World Report, that their ranking would be artificially decreased. [10], [11] U.S. News and World Report issued a response to this article on 12 March 2007 which stated that the evaluation of Sarah Lawrence is currently under review. [12]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ Liberal Arts: Encyclopedia Britannica Concise. Encyclopedia Britannica.
  2. ^ Not Missing the SAT. Inside Higher Ed (October 6, 2006).
  3. ^ More universities are going SAT-optional. USA Today (April 4, 2006).
  4. ^ Students’ Paths to Small Colleges Can Bypass SAT. The New York Times (August 31, 2006).
  5. ^ 27 Top Colleges Don't Require the SAT or ACT = American Broadcasting Company (October 7, 2006).
  6. ^ SAT Optional 4-Year Universities = Fairtest.
  7. ^ SATs Not for Everyone, But Reality for Most = National Public Radio (21 February 2007).
  8. ^ Sarah Lawrence College Drops SAT Requirement, Saying a New Writing Test Misses the Point. The New York Times (13 November 2003).
  9. ^ U.S. News Statement on College Rankings. U.S. News and World Report (12 March 2007).
  10. ^ Tolela Myers, Michele (11 March 2007). The Cost of Bucking College Rankings. The Washington Post.
  11. ^ Would U.S. News Make Up Fake Data?. Inside Higher Ed (12 March 2007).
  12. ^ U.S. News Statement on College Rankings. U.S. News and World Report (12 March 2007).

[edit] External links

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