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The Best Private Liberal Arts Colleges offer students an opportunity to explore a wide range of academic subjects while pursuing a major in liberal arts and science. The best liberal arts colleges attract students who are interested in a more rounded college experience as opposed to narrow technical or vocational majors offered at large universities. A liberal arts college experience is unique in several aspects. First, liberal arts colleges are usually small in size. With an emphasis on their student to teacher ratio, this guarantees students personal attention from professors. These colleges also have different residential policies than major universities. Living on campus is a requirement for at least two years in most liberal arts colleges. This exposes students to a variety of cultural and intellectual experiences.
Details of The Best Private Liberal Arts Colleges
One of the best private liberal arts colleges is Williams College. Located in Williamstown, MA, Williams College is a private institution with three undergraduate branches: sciences, humanities, and social sciences. The campus is a beautiful 450 acres set at the foot of Mount Greylock. It has an undergraduate enrollment of 2,053 students and its tuition is $44,000 a year.
Amherst College is another of the nation’s Best Private Liberal Arts Colleges. It was founded in 1821 and has 1,791 undergraduate students. Located in Massachusetts, Amherst is a member of the five college consortium. In addition to Amherst College, the consortium is comprised of Smith, Mount Holyoke, Hampshire and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Students at Amherst College have the option to take classes at any of the five schools.
Pomona College is a West Coast liberal arts school located just 35 miles outside of Los Angeles. Similar to Amherst, Pomona is a member of the Claremont Consortium: Scripps College, Claremont Mckenna College, Harvey Mudd College and Pitzer College round out the consortium in addition to Pomona College. Pomona has 1,586 undergraduate students and boasts that over 50% of students study abroad. Tuition at Pomona College is $41,438 and it has a 14% acceptance rate.
Located 20 minutes north of Charlotte, NC, Davidson College is another one of the Best Private Liberal Arts Colleges in the U.S. Davidson has an undergraduate enrollment of 1,756 and its tuition is $40,809. Davidson College was one of the first liberal arts schools in the nation to replace loans with grants in their financial aid package. This allows students to greatly reduce the amount of debt incurred during college.
Like most liberal arts schools, Colorado College is small private institution. However, it separates itself from other schools through its unique style of teaching. Colorado College teaches on the “Block Plan.” Students take one class at a time five days a week for three and a half weeks. This teaching plan allows students to immerse themselves in their studies and then recharge with a four day break between classes. Although there are hundreds of private liberal arts schools in America, the aforementioned few are undeniably several of the best private liberal arts colleges in the nation.
