They say that the liberal arts teach you to think, but I think a good liberal arts college teaches you how to live. However, your follow up question as to what kind of student would benefit from such an education is a pertinent one - I agree this is not for everyone. In fact, there are many here who go through this place not having seen any evidence of what I speak of, and living as they used to before they came here, armed with a major in hand, but not changed by their learning. But if there is any evidence that someone is a lover of thinking and the thoughts of others, and is curious and introspective and passionate about what they do, perhaps they will find themselves happy in a place like this. It is difficult for me to separate the people and the place, and I think it is the former that have caused this experience rather than an institutional structure of any kind. Perhaps I have simply been lucky in the people I know - I am so much happier in the spring than I was in the fall having met the most wonderful people after returning from break - I cannot guarantee that this will be the experience of everyone who goes to a liberal arts school, but I do believe that it is in a school such as this where the kind of person I described above is found in the highest proportion.