College question for College minded folks

[Youngspanion]

Can anyone explain what this means?


"Mission Statement: The mission of St. Lawrence University is to provide an inspiring and demanding undergraduate education in the liberal arts to students selected for their seriousness of purpose and intellectual promise."

What exactly is "undergraduate Education in the liberal Arts"???

[McHaven]

Undergraduate: Leading to a Bachelor's degree.

Liberal Arts: English, History, Sociology, Political Science, Geography, Anthropology. Things like that.

[MatticusMania]

A BA

[Cabazon]

"undergraduate education in the liberal arts" is the only part of that statement that actually means something.

[ADbassman]

""undergraduate Education in the liberal Arts"???"

Bachelors of unemployment.

[nutdog]

It means they hired a consultant at some time in the past and he told them they needed a mission statement.

[jmattbassplaya]

You're worried about that? You should be more worried about what the female population on campus looks like

[Deluge Of Sound]

Originally Posted by jmattbassplaya

You're worried about that? You should be more worried about what the female population on campus looks like

+1.

[fdeck]

A "liberal arts college" is simply one that focuses on undergraduate teaching, and typically on mainstream academic subjects. But lots of those schools have unusual specialties. I attended a liberal arts college that was a powerhouse in science, and since I graduated, they have added an engineering department.

More important than mission statements is to find a program that is right for you. What are your interests?

[jonathan_matos5]

that is "legalese" for" we offer a bachelors program in liberal arts, and there is an entrance application process."

[jondog]

A liberal arts education is traditionally contrasted with pre-professional training. A pre-professional degree prepares you for employment in a specific field, such as nursing or accounting. A liberal arts degree gives you a broad range of skills that apply to many fields. Skills like critical thinking and clear writing and speaking are needed everywhere. Think of liberal arts in the sense of liberty, these arts "free" you and open up your options. A traditional liberal arts degree, like philosophy or history, frequently gets slammed for not pointing to a clear career path. I disagree. Lets say you get a nursing or accounting degree, but then find you don't like the work, where are you? Stuck. A history major can work in many fields, whereas an accounting major only knows one aspect of business and is qualified to work in only one department. The liberal arts skills also tend to facilitate community involvement and democratic leadership.

With all that said, I think the mission statement you quoted is pretty lame. It basically says they have high standards for admission and difficult classes to push students to achieve their best in the liberal arts.

[Dirk Diggler]

A proper translation would be, put on your skates it's hockey time.
Dirk

[KeithBMI]

"undergraduate in liberal arts" means you spend 4 years learning how to say, "would you like fries with that?"

[hrodbert696]

Originally Posted by nutdog

It means they hired a consultant at some time in the past and he told them they needed a mission statement.

+1. That's the most generic, useless mission statement I've ever read.

"Liberal arts" are a bit of a pun, actually. Depending on how you pronounce it, "liber" in Latin can be either a book or a free person (as opposed to a slave). So the "artes liberales" can be taken both as book-knowledge (literature, history, etc.) and as the skills of free people.