A total of 554 liberal arts colleges are analyzed in terms of stability or growth, full-time equivalence (FTE), part-time, female, undergraduate and graduate enrollment patterns. The institutions were divided into two groups: (1) 123 leading baccalaureate granting institutions classified by the Carnegie Council as Liberal Arts I (LA I) and (2) the remaining institutions classified as Liberal Arts II (LA II) that did not meet the criteria for inclusion in the first group. Findings include the following: LA Is are characterized generally as stable in enrollments and missions, but the changing higher education environment is altering the basic nature of LA IIs. Many of these former full-time, undergraduate, single-purpose institutions are becoming increasingly part-time, graduate, and occupationally-oriented. However, liberal arts colleges show more stable FTE enrollment patterns than all institutions nationally. The extreme growth in female higher education enrollments nationally has been shared on a much reduced scale by the liberal arts colleges, but liberal arts enrollment growth for women has exceeded that for men. Between 1967 and 1977 full-time graduate enrollment increased by 56 percent nationally, 255.7 percent in LA IIs, and 38.1 percent in LA Is. Independent LA Is were the only institutions with full-time graduate decreases. In both the independent and church-related institutions there have been larger gains of women in almost all categories. Lists of institutions in the LA I and LA II categories are appended, along with a tabular report of the findings. (CC)