Science at Liberal Arts Colleges : A Better Education ?

IT WAS THE SUMMER OF 1970. Carol and I had spent four years at Grinnell College, located in the somnolent farming community of Grinnell, Iowa. Now, newly married, we drove westward, where we would enter the graduate program in chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley. How would our liberal arts education serve us in the Ph.D. program of one of the world’s great research universities? As we met our new classmates, one of our preconceptions quickly dissipated: Berkeley graduate students were not only university graduates. They also hailed from a diverse collection of colleges—many of them less known than Grinnell. And as we took our qualifying examinations and struggled with quantum mechanics problem sets, any residual apprehension about the quality of our undergraduate training evaporated. Through some combination of what our professors had taught us and our own hard work, we were well prepared for science at the research university level. I have used this personal anecdote to draw the reader’s interest, but not only to that end; it is also a “truth in advertising” disclaimer. I am a confessed enthusiast and supporter of the small, selective liberal arts colleges. My pulse quickens when I see students from Carleton, Haverford, and Williams who have applied to our Ph.D. program. I serve on the board of trustees of Grinnell College. On the other hand, I teach undergraduates both in the classroom and in my research laboratory at the University of Colorado, so I also have personal experience with science education at a research university.