Liberal Arts Colleges: What They Are and the Best Ones in the US

Last updated: November 6, 2026

Private liberal arts colleges are small colleges that teach almost only undergraduates and award most of their degrees in the arts and sciences: the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences and math. The federal IPEDS database lists 197 private nonprofit colleges in the Carnegie Classification's "Arts & Sciences Focus" group. At 20 of the best known, the newest federal data (fall 2024) shows admit rates from 7.1% to 21.0%, about 950 to 3,800 undergraduates, 6 to 10 students per faculty member, and six-year graduation rates of 88% to 95%. Below you will find what the term means, how these colleges differ from universities, the data for all 20, and what they offer a student who loves science.

These colleges admit 7% to 21% of applicants. With classes this small, every detail in your file counts. Send me the insider tips →

What is a liberal arts college?

The most precise definition comes from the Carnegie Classification, the standard system that groups U.S. colleges. Its 2021 version called the group "Baccalaureate Colleges: Arts & Sciences Focus." The 2025 version calls it "Special Focus: Arts and Sciences": colleges that "award at least 50% of their degrees in academic programs in the humanities, arts, and social sciences as well as generalized sciences," with a focus on the bachelor's degree.

In practice, a liberal arts college has four traits:

Undergraduates come first. Williams, for example, reported 2,115 undergraduates and 49 graduate students in fall 2024.
It is small. All 20 colleges in the table below enroll fewer than 4,000 undergraduates.
Professors teach. With few graduate students, the faculty teach the courses and run the labs.
The curriculum is broad. You choose a major, and you also take courses across many fields.

Most are private. Of the 216 active colleges in the 2021 arts-and-sciences group, IPEDS lists 197 as private nonprofit and 19 as public.

What does "liberal arts" mean?

"Liberal arts" names a broad set of subjects: the humanities (history, literature, philosophy, languages), the arts, the social sciences (economics, psychology, political science), and the natural sciences and math (biology, chemistry, physics, computer science, mathematics). "Liberal" comes from the Latin for "free." It has nothing to do with politics.

Liberal arts is not the opposite of STEM. Math, physics and biology are core liberal arts subjects, and Carnegie counts the "generalized sciences" in its arts-and-sciences group. A liberal arts degree is not one major either. It is any bachelor's degree in these fields, usually with courses required outside the major.

Math, physics and biology are liberal arts subjects too. The students who stand out have gone deep in one. Show me how to go deep →

The best private liberal arts colleges, by the numbers

Rankings exist (U.S. News publishes one), and they differ by method. Instead of copying one, here are four facts for 20 well-known private liberal arts colleges, all from the U.S. Department of Education's IPEDS data. Admit rates are our calculation from each college's fall 2024 applicant and admit counts. Undergraduates and student-faculty ratios are for fall 2024. Graduation rates are for students who entered in fall 2018 and earned a bachelor's degree within six years.

College	State	Admit rate, fall 2024	Undergraduates, fall 2024	6-year graduation rate	Student-faculty ratio
Amherst College	MA	9.0%	1,914	94%	6 to 1
Barnard College	NY	8.8%	3,487	93%	10 to 1
Bowdoin College	ME	7.1%	1,881	95%	9 to 1
Carleton College	MN	20.4%	2,128	90%	8 to 1
Claremont McKenna College	CA	9.6%	1,390	91%	8 to 1
Colby College	ME	7.1%	2,412	89%	9 to 1
Davidson College	NC	13.4%	1,869	91%	8 to 1
Grinnell College	IA	14.5%	1,788	88%	9 to 1
Hamilton College	NY	13.6%	2,031	91%	9 to 1
Harvey Mudd College	CA	12.7%	951	92%	8 to 1
Haverford College	PA	12.4%	1,431	90%	8 to 1
Middlebury College	VT	10.7%	2,760	91%	8 to 1
Pomona College	CA	7.1%	1,700	93%	7 to 1
Smith College	MA	21.0%	2,549	89%	8 to 1
Swarthmore College	PA	7.5%	1,623	92%	7 to 1
Vassar College	NY	18.6%	2,462	91%	7 to 1
Washington and Lee University	VA	14.0%	1,886	94%	7 to 1
Wellesley College	MA	14.0%	2,407	92%	7 to 1
Wesleyan University	CT	16.5%	3,805	93%	8 to 1
Williams College	MA	8.3%	2,115	94%	6 to 1

What the table tells you:

Admission is competitive across the group. The median admit rate is about 12.5%. Pomona admitted 868 of 12,249 applicants.
Small means small. The median college has about 2,000 undergraduates. Harvey Mudd has 951.
Almost everyone finishes. Six-year graduation rates run from 88% to 95%. At Washington and Lee, 89% finished in four years.
Classes stay small. No college here has more than 10 students per faculty member.

Colleges post a new Common Data Set each year, so their own sites may show fall 2025 figures that differ a little. The student-faculty ratio is a federal formula (full-time-equivalent students per full-time-equivalent instructor), not average class size. To check any college, use College Navigator or the College Scorecard.

How is a liberal arts college different from a university?

A university is larger and runs graduate and professional schools beside its undergraduate college. A liberal arts college puts nearly all of its people and money into undergraduates. That causes three differences:

Access to professors. Your professors teach your labs and write your recommendations.
Research. Universities have more labs. At a liberal arts college, the undergraduates are the researchers. Barnard says its "students are often invited to work on research projects with faculty members."
Range of majors. Universities usually offer more majors, including business, nursing and many kinds of engineering.

Partnerships close much of the range gap:

The Claremont Colleges. Pomona, Claremont McKenna, Harvey Mudd, Scripps and Pitzer students can take courses at the other colleges for credit.
The Five College Consortium. Amherst and Smith students can choose from about 7,000 undergraduate courses at five campuses, including UMass Amherst.
The Tri-College Consortium. Haverford, Bryn Mawr and Swarthmore share courses and most academic facilities. Haverford students can also take up to two Penn courses per semester.
Barnard and Columbia. Barnard is "an official college of Columbia University." From sophomore year, Barnard students can register for Columbia classes open to them, and Columbia confers their degrees.

At a liberal arts college, undergraduates do the research, not graduate students. Walk in already knowing how. Send me the mentors' research starter guide →

Which colleges are not liberal arts colleges?

Research universities are not, even when "College" is in the name. All eight Ivy League schools, including Dartmouth College, are in Carnegie's group for doctoral universities with very high research activity. Most universities teach the liberal arts inside an undergraduate college or school of arts and sciences. See the Ivy League schools for those eight. Colleges focused on professional fields, technical institutes, and art and music schools are also outside the group.

Two edge cases show how the labels work:

Harvey Mudd calls itself "one of the premier engineering, science and mathematics colleges in the United States" and also "a liberal arts college." Carnegie's 2021 system put it in the arts-and-sciences group. The 2025 system places it in "Special Focus: Technology, Engineering, and Sciences," because most of its degrees are in those fields.
Washington and Lee University was in the 2021 arts-and-sciences group. In 2025 it is in a mixed undergraduate and graduate group. Its School of Law is its only graduate program.

Liberal arts colleges for STEM students

If you love science, a liberal arts college can be one of the most direct paths into research. With few or no graduate students, the faculty need undergraduates in their labs.

Harvey Mudd shows the model at full scale. Each summer, "close to 200 Harvey Mudd students pursue research projects alongside nearly 40 faculty members across every department," in a 10-week, full-time program. In computer science, "each faculty member in the department has an active research program that involves undergraduates." Every Harvey Mudd student also takes at least 11 courses in the humanities, social sciences and the arts.

Federal data supports the point. The National Science Foundation's Survey of Earned Doctorates records where each new U.S. research doctorate holder earned a bachelor's degree. In its 2025 tables, released September 25, 2026:

Baccalaureate colleges produced 4,492 of the 35,857 doctorate recipients with U.S. bachelor's degrees, about 1 in 8.
About three in four of those doctorates (3,337) were in science and engineering.
12 of the 20 colleges in our table are in the NSF's top 20 for baccalaureate colleges: Carleton, Williams, Swarthmore, Smith, Wellesley, Grinnell, Pomona, Vassar, Wesleyan, Bowdoin, Middlebury and Harvey Mudd.
All 55 of Harvey Mudd's doctorate recipients earned doctorates in science and engineering.

These are raw counts, not adjusted for size. The 12 colleges from our table on that list enroll between 951 and 3,805 undergraduates each.

What this means for you: if you have already asked a real question and worked to answer it, you show the habit these colleges are built around. See whether research helps college admissions and how to find a research mentor in high school.

These colleges want students who will use their labs in the first year, not the fourth. Show me what they look for →

What are the downsides of attending a liberal arts college?

Every college is a question of fit, and these trade-offs are easy to plan for:

Fewer majors. If you want nursing or a wide menu of engineering majors, check the major list first. Harvey Mudd educates engineers, and Haverford offers an accelerated engineering master's with Penn.
A smaller community. With about 2,000 students, you will know many people. Visit to see if that suits you.
Fewer graduate labs. A university suits you if you want a large research group. A liberal arts college suits you if you want to lead your own project early.
Location. Many campuses are in small towns. Barnard is in New York City.

How to get into a top liberal arts college

With admit rates between about 7% and 21%, most applicants have strong grades. Strong applications usually add two things to a hard course load and good grades:

Depth in one or two areas. One thing you pursued seriously shows more than a long list of activities.
Fit with a small, academic community. Show the curiosity and independent work these colleges are built for.

For more, see what colleges look for. If one college is your clear first choice, check whether it offers Early Decision and what that commits you to. See early decision vs early action and the college application deadlines for 2026–27.

Frequently asked questions

What is the #1 liberal arts school?

No official source names one. Rankings differ by method. In our federal data table, Pomona, Colby and Bowdoin had the lowest fall 2024 admit rates, about 7.1%, and Bowdoin had the highest six-year graduation rate, 95%.

Which colleges are not liberal arts?

Research universities (including all eight Ivy League schools), colleges focused on professional fields such as business or nursing, technical institutes, and art and music schools.

How is a liberal arts college different?

It is small, focused on undergraduates, and broad. Professors teach the classes, undergraduates do the research, and you study many fields beside your major.

What is the most useful liberal arts degree?

No official measure exists. Choose the field you will go deepest in, then check the College Scorecard, which reports earnings by field of study at each college. For future scientists, the NSF data above shows that liberal arts colleges send many graduates on to science and engineering doctorates.

How many private liberal arts colleges are there?

IPEDS lists 197 active private nonprofit colleges in Carnegie's 2021 "Arts & Sciences Focus" group and 175 in the 2025 "Special Focus: Arts and Sciences" group. The two systems use different rules.

Sources

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