Graduate quality vs. undergraduate quality

tk21769
Mon, 27 Jan 2014 09:49:44 +0000

I challenge you to name a top undergraduate program (not at a LAC) that doesn’t have a distinguished faculty or graduate program.



In addition to Brown and Dartmouth, Georgetown. Maybe Johns Hopkins, Notre Dame, Vanderbilt, Northwestern and WUSTL as well. These are schools with arguably stronger undergraduate programs than some research universities that have more distinguished faculty and more tip-top graduate programs.

But why exclude LACs? Some of the best undergraduate instruction is at LACs that have no graduate programs at all. Conversely, some universities with very distinguished research programs really do not deliver all the same quality (relatively speaking) to undergraduates. Of course, a lot could depend how ready you are to take advantage of research opportunities at a school where top faculty ordinarily have less engagement with undergrads.