Anonymous wrote:SLAC stands for small liberal arts college, not "selective" liberal arts college. Of course DCUM would think the "S" stands for selective, lol.

Is it a DCUM term? Or an internet term?

SLAC stands for small liberal arts college, not "selective" liberal arts college. Of course DCUM would think the "S" stands for selective, lol.

Anonymous wrote:Well, what is the definition of "selective"?

In my personal opinion, it’s when the majority of applicants are rejected.

Well, what is the definition of "selective"?

Selective Liberal Arts Colleges, are the highest ranked liberal arts colleges. Many colleges and universities provide a liberal arts education, but they confer graduate degrees so they are universities, and not colleges. A hallmark of the liberal arts college as discussed on DCUM is not only the small class size, but the attention paid to teaching and undergraduates v. graduate students.

The "college of arts and sciences" at many research universities confer liberal arts degrees (I have such a degree). If you are attending classes in large lecture halls on the regular you are not at a LAC.

SLAC means selective LAC

Non-selective LACs are way more civilized and run than their public university counterparts and have great graduation rates, but poor financial standing.

Anonymous wrote:So, very confused. Which schools are SLAC and which LAC?

Most LACs are small, but there's a few that aren't. It's easy to find their sizes.

If you're looking for selectivity, the USNews list is a fine place to look. (https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-liberal-arts-colleges) Of course, what is "best" for US News may not be best for you, but looking at the top 100 schools should give you some ideas for schools to look at.

Most important is to figure out what you (or your child) want out of the college experience.

I hate to admit this, but I had never heard of “SLAC” till I started reading dcum.

So, very confused. Which schools are SLAC and which LAC?

It's very simple. I learned it right in this forum:

LAC stands for "Liberal Arts College".

SLAC stands for I am a petulant, pedantic, poopyhead who will jump at any opportunity to correct another poster even if there is no authority over vernacular abbreviations and they can have multiple meanings.

I went to a liberal arts college with about 10k students and our course requirements included a broad core that was flexible in specific courses but required they cover defined areas.

The difference I see in SLAC's is that in addition to what I experienced, the actual class setting is very small and (this probably depends on the school) the format may be more discussion focuses (vs lecture).

SLACs will have courses that are mostly less than 30 and some as small as 5. My classes ranged from several hundred, to 50ish, to 30ish, to 20. I never had a tiny 5 person class - and the format was always lectures.

Anonymous wrote:S=small?

I thought it was selective?

or selective depending on who you ask

S=small?

Which schools are SLACs?