What does it mean to be a liberal arts college?
The liberal arts have been traditionally been described as the trivium (grammar, rhetoric and dialectic) and the quadrivium (arithmetic, music, geometry, and astronomy). Generally speaking, the curriculum in a liberals college enrolls only undergraduates and the curriculum is focused on the transmission of knowledge. (For more on liberal arts colleges, see the Grinnell College website.) An Overview of Significant Events in American Higher Education Earliest Colleges • 1636 – Harvard founded; opened in 1638 • 1694 – William and Mary opened • 1702 – Yale opened 1745–1775: Colonial Colleges • College of New Jersey (Princeton) opened 1747 • Kings College (Columbia) opened 1754 • Dartmouth opened 1769 1800-1830 • 1801 – South Carolina College (University of South Carolina) – first public college • 1818 – University of Virginia – founded by Thomas Jefferson 1830-1860: Antebellum Expansion and Efforts at Reform • 1832 – City University of New York (CUNY); first BS degree (to this point, only
