What does it mean for a college to be "Liberal Arts" College?

Question

I've always wondered...

Answer 1

It means that the education offered by that college is based upon a broad general education "core". While most, if not all, colleges have general education classes, they are often things which are just designed to provide you with skills you need in college (computer technology, writing), or there may be a set of subject matters they think every one should have (history). At many schools, there is no attempt to incorporate these things into your learning about other subject matters. You are mostly training for a job. At a liberal arts college, on the other hand, it is expected that regardless of your major, you are learning many ways of approaching life and handling issues and problems. For example, if you are a business major, you would be expected to look at the ethics of your decisions through the lens of things you learned about in your philosophy classes. You might be expected to use the lessons of history and economics to predict what might happen to a certain "hot" market in the future. A liberal arts education is expected to provide you with an intellectual basis for understanding life, not just skills to handle a particular job.

Answer 2

First, let me state this isn't my personal opinion. This is just what i heard. There is a stimagata to small, private "liberal arts" colleges. They are seen by some as schools for rich kids who want to buy a piece of paper, have their hand held, and party for 4 years. Whether this is true or not, i have no idea. It may be an unjust label.
Personally, I attended a Divison I University. Let me explain my first 5 minutes at the collegiate level. First day, first class, was chemistry 101. The room was a audotorium filled with 400 students. The professor's first words where "look to your left and then to your right". He followed that, by informing us "They won't be here at the end of the semester. This class has over a 70% drop out rate. Apply yourself or be a statistic." I am not sure if they have the same, in-your-face competitive spirt elsewhere.

Answer 3

A Liberal Arts school does not offer degrees in specific career fields-- no education degree, no engineering degree, no pharmacy degree, no business degree. The program of education covers those areas considered important to developing general knowledge and intellectual growth. You will be prepared to pursue further career growth in grad school, or seek employment in a variety of jobs.

But choosing a liberal arts path does not mean you have to select a smaller college or university. Many large state schools have schools of liberal arts as one of their academic offerings. I attended the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and received a BA in Audiology from their school of Liberal Arts. At the time I was a student [late 70's] there were over 32,000 students on campus, enrolled in various 'schools' of study. They had a college of education, a business college, an agricultural college as well the liberal arts school. So you can pursue a liberal arts education and still experience a full, big school atmosphere.

Good luck and GO VOLS!!

Answer 4

I was taught that global warming (which some people consider a "liberal" idea) is a reality. In fact, my professor listed a bunch of climatology professors at my school who believe that global warming presents a major problem, and also gave us a list of those who didn't. The second list was empty. We also wrote papers about global warming in which we were to research the peer-reviewed scientific literature against it. It turns out there wasn't very much and most of it had been rebutted. (That's right. There actually is a scientific consensus on global warming.) I also had a philosophy professor once argue for god's existence. (Not just present the standard arguments, but actually argue for them.) I'm pretty sure he was a believer. Those are the only two instances I can think of that relate to this point. Everything else was taught without any type of bias.

Answer 5

a liberal arts college is always small. At most schools you probably won't find more than a few thousand students. They tend not to offer any business or engineering fields, and usually limited sciences, but largely in the "liberal arts" fields, meaning fine arts, humanities, and social sciences. Examples of these would be music, art, history, English, gender studies, psychology, sociology, etc.

They are also schools that are not focused on research but rather on teaching, which is why they are so small. The system is designed to recruit professors who are interested in almost exclusively teaching as opposed to research (hence no engineering and small science departments) and the school is deliberately small so that each student receives a lot of attention in his or her studies.

Answer 6

Liberal arts are those majors not considered "hard" sciences...such as Mathematics, etc. A liberal arts education usually means an education in many areas of study.

Answer 7

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_arts_college

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]

Answer 8

Small private school with no graduate programs. As in, they don't offer masters or PhD programs.

Answer 9

its all about developing theories and thoughts....nothing tangible.