big, research univeristy vs small colleges?

[Catfish]

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1. Smaller classes – you won’t have huge classes, even intro classes, at an LAC. Your biggest intro class, say, intro psych, might be 50 kids as opposed to, perhaps, 300 at a research university (even a really good one).

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<p>Not necessarily true. Even at the best LAC’s there are a very few large intro classes. At mine intro psych was ~150. At my school, these fall into two categories:</p>

<p>Classes that are prerequisites for popular departments (Intro Psych, Intro Econ). Generally these are broad surveys that don’t suffer much from the lecture format, so the departments decide to focus their faculty resources into providing more upper level classes and electives, which is a good thing. At my school, intro Econ is even team taught, so you can go to any number of professors to get help. It’s really the best of all possible worlds.</p>

<p>Either way, though, these huge classes are smaller and less common at LAC’s than at Universities</p>

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1. Once it’s beyond 20 or so, it doesn’t really matter if it’s 50 or 5000. The class is either on a personal level or it’s not.

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<p>I disagree. I’ve had classes of 50 students at my LAC, but the professor still knew my name, incorporated class participation extensively, and was available outside class for any help I needed. You don’t get that in a class of 500. On the other hand, there are some completely exceptional professors who can have a discussion based class with 100 people, but these people are not the norm (I only know of one), and the supply of them is certainly not anywhere close to the number of large classes at a university that might be smaller and discussion based at an LAC.</p>

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3. I would disagree here as smaller schools mean fewer groups in which you can try and lead. At a university there are so many clubs, groups, chances to lead that it would be hard not to wind up leading something if you want to. I’ve held leadership positions in multiple clubs at my university. Advantage: university

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<p>That may be true, but it is also much easier at an LAC to have a leadership position in the more popular clubs because you have fewer people to compete against. It’s comparatively much easier to get an editorial at the newspaper at a small school than at a large university, especially if it has a journalism school. It’s also really hard to be an athlete and simultaneously be involved in other activities.</p>

<p>You are right, though that there are comparatively more clubs you can join at a University. LAC’s are simply not large enough to support something like a Weimar Cinema club on a sustained basis, although a dedicated student can certainly get one going. Generally, I’ve found that the typical student at an LAC is involved in more clubs and activities than the typical university student. As an example, one of the captains of my school’s football team also sings in one of the premier A Capella groups, speaks Japaneses, and is an RC. People like him certainly are exceptional, but they are more common at LAC’s than universities in my experience, and the dynamic they bring to the campus is fantastic.</p>

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5. Selection bias. Students who plan on getting a higher degree are more likely to go to an LAC. Students who plan on going to work are more likely to go to a university. Advantage: pareto-optimal, no absolute advantage.

While I’m not sure if that holds true for people who are in the Arts and Sciences, it is very much true that universities have things like accounting and nursing programs, and those students are less likely to pursue a graduate degree. Also, Pareto optimality ftw.</p>