<p>LACs have a few primary benefits that I like to cite (as a fan of LACs):
- 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).
- No TAs – the only non-professor that will help you is an upperclassman who aced the class and might help out in setting up labs. Either that, or there might be a qualified lecturer on occasion.
- Big fish in a small pond – it’s easy to be a leader in a smaller group of students, which looks good and is, one would think, fun. Plus, you don’t need to be the star to participate in lots of activities – you can be a football player in a D3 school without sacrifices to the degree that a D1 player might have to do (as far as I’ve heard).
- Research availability – professors are doing research, but they’ve got no grad students or post-docs to give the work to! Guess who gets those research assistantships, co-authorships, and footnote mentions! That’s right! Undergraduates!
- More students, by percentage, go on to receive higher degrees!</p>
<p>Among other benefits…</p>