How do top liberal arts schools compare to undergrad Ivys?

bigkagi
Thu, 19 Nov 2009 23:44:06 +0000

It depends on where you’re going, what you’re doing, and what’s important to you.

Pretty much everyone in the country knows what Harvard, Cornell, and Columbia are (you’d be surprised about Penn). Pretty much everyone in the highly educated strata of the country, plus pretty much everyone in the Northeast, knows what Amherst is. So, if you’re going into academia, or Washington, or NY-based business and arts (possibly even LA-based business and arts), the name “Amherst” on your resume looks pretty good – maybe even better than an Ivy, because people know that your professors actually paid attention to you. But speaking as an alum who has lived in the South for most of his life, I can say that, outside of academia, it doesn’t open too many doors below DC. And if you’re going outside of the US, it’s pretty much the same – in Europe, and even in Canada, the small liberal-arts college concept is unknown.

Some opportunities might be better at a small school. Amherst gave me a small fellowship for grad school, for instance – I don’t know whether a bigger university would do that, but I feel like it might be a bit more competitive. And it’s MUCH easier to get a professor’s full attention at a small school than at a big one – I’ve been a professor at both, so I know. That’s not to say that you can’t get good personal guidance and recommendations at a big school, but you’ll have to compete with more people.

While I can’t compare directly, I do think that graduates of smaller colleges are also a little more likely to take time to help a fellow alum. My best friend went to Brown, and I do think that he’d be a little less likely than I would to go out of his way to help a new graduate. That might just be a personal thing, but I think it’s also just due to the pure numbers.

On the other hand, there are things you just can’t do at a small school. Your choices of major are more limited. In the sciences (I hear), you might be able to work more closely with a prof than you would at a big school, but the prof’s project is less likely to be huge and impressive. Etc.

Ultimately, though, you should choose your school based on what kind of person you want to be, not at the start of your career, but at the end. When you retire, and no longer have to worry about making a living, what will do? What will you think about? The answer to those questions may say something about what kind of school you should choose now.