How Colleges and Students Differ: Other Types of Four-Year Institutions

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Research universities and liberal arts colleges as they have been traditionally defined make up a little less than 25 percent of all four-year colleges and universities. Although these two categories are the ones that are most visible nationally and internationally, other types of colleges offer excellent educational opportunities. Depending on your career goals and other factors, one of these might be right for you.

Master’s Universities and General Baccalaureate Colleges

The most common alternatives to liberal arts colleges and research universities are master’s universities and general baccalaureate colleges. These terms are not commonly used outside of higher education circles, and the colleges will probably not describe themselves using these labels. Master’s universities, both public and private, typically offer bachelor’s degrees in a wide range of fields, including business, engineering, education, nursing, and other applied areas, as well as the liberal arts, but they award over half of their degrees to students enrolled in master’s degree programs. They usually draw their undergraduate and graduate students from their local geographic region. The more than 600 universities in this category are about evenly divided between public and private control. San Francisco State University, Morehead State University (Kentucky), and Jacksonville State University (Alabama) are examples. Their regional focus contrasts with liberal arts colleges and research universities that typically draw students from across the country and the world.

General baccalaureate colleges primarily emphasize undergraduate education like liberal arts colleges, but they award more than half of their degrees in applied fields such as business, nursing, and education. About 85 percent of the approximately 320 institutions in this category are private. Examples include Elizabethtown College (Pennsylvania), Asbury College (Kentucky), and Linfield College (Oregon).

Master’s universities and general baccalaureate colleges vary greatly in selectivity, but only a small number meet the definition of a selective institution, one that accepts less than half of its applicants. It is encouraged to consider master’s universities and general baccalaureate  as part of your exploration of colleges. They can be affordable, accessible alternatives to more selective liberal arts colleges or research universities and can balance out a college list. The approach to finding a good fit that we describe later works well for colleges in these categories, too.

Specialized Programs

Yet another kind of college is the highly specialized school like a music conservatory (such as Julliard and the New England Conservatory of Music), art institute (such as the California Institute of the Arts or the Rhode Island School of Design), or undergraduate business (such as Babson College or Bentley College, both in Massachusetts) or engineering school (such as Cooper Union in New York, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Indiana, and Colorado School of Mines). Some, but not all, are quite selective in admissions.

Specialized schools can be appropriate for students with highly focused, well-developed interests and clear career goals. Other students who want to study these same subjects may find that attending a liberal arts college or research university will allow them greater breadth in their education in addition to courses in their special area of interest. It is much easier to explore other fields if the courses are readily available, and, if your interests change, it is certainly easier to switch majors within a given school than it is to switch schools. A lot depends on your level of commitment to the field—you need to be very sure this is what you want to study when you apply to such schools.