Info on Liberal Arts

[Fani]

Hi everyone!

I heard in the forum about Liberal Arts, can someone please explain what is different about these colleges?

[Arrowhead]

A liberal arts college is one with a primary emphasis on undergraduate study in the liberal arts and sciences.

Students in the liberal arts generally major in a particular discipline while receiving exposure to a wide range of academic subjects, including sciences as well as the traditional humanities subjects taught as liberal arts.

A "liberal arts" institution can be defined as a "college or university curriculum aimed at imparting broad general knowledge and developing general intellectual capacities, in contrast to a professional, vocational, or technical curriculum."

The “liberal arts college experience” in the US is characterized by three main aspects that demarcate it from undergraduate experiences in other countries:

• smaller size than universities, which usually means more individual attention is given to each student;
  
• residential, which means students live and learn away from home, often for the first time, and learn to live well with others. Additionally, the residential experience of living on campus brings a wide variety of cultural, political, and intellectual events to students who might not otherwise seek them out in a non-residential setting (though not every college has such strict residency requirements); and
  
• a typically two-year exploration of the liberal arts or general knowledge before declaring a major.
  

If you want more information or have any more specific questions, feel free to ask.

Most people prefer Liberal Arts colleges because they give University students the freedom to hold off on declaring a major by allowing them to study varied disciplines in that time. Also, graduating from a good liberal Arts school opens doors at the better Universities and institutions for post-graduate education.