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[quote=Anonymous]I don't know why there's all this debate about terminology and numbers when the post is about[b] a study[/b] on the return on investment from degrees from liberal arts colleges.  The study defines the terms based on higher ed classification system and presents the numbers based on data.  What people feel the term "liberal arts" means or what they think the return on liberal arts colleges is doesn't really matter if they don't engage with the data/study design.  Look at the study, its design, its data sources and classifications, its findings, if you want to critique. 
  
Based on the data, I think there's strong support for liberal arts college degree's economic value when you look at lifetime return on investment rather than the more traditionally used 6-10 year income levels compared to other public and private universities.  However,  I would want to see if they separated the data out by parental income when calculating the return on investment--for instance, do middle class kids who go to liberal arts colleges experience similar strong returns on investment as upper middle class/wealthy kids who likely have more parental connections (but also likely paid less for their liberal arts college degree).  I don't think this study did (not every study can do everything and they were looking at institutional level variables (e.g., % of Pell grant recipients, % of STEM majors) not individual.  But I'm curious about that.  I personally think the trend would likely still hold, but maybe not to the same degree, due to the advantages of having wealthy connections.  But I could be wrong, mc kids could do better due to the lower cost of the college for lower income (investment) and perhaps a stronger motivation to earn income if you don't have family money (return on investment).  [/quote]

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