LAC's v. Research universities for GRE prep?

Test Preparation
1

<p>Hello all. A while back, I inquired at the differences between LAC’s (STEM focused) and research universities (both public and privates for both). The impression that I got was the LAC’s focus more on teaching students for the undergrad level, while research universities tend to prep undergrads to pursue grad school in many cases. (There are other differences, but for the purpose of this thread, I’m focusing on this particular aspect) </p>

<p>My question is this: Since research universities (from what I was told) focus on prepping undergrads for grad schools vs. LAC’s which tend to focus on the undergrad years (again, from what I was told), do students from research universities tend to do better on the GRE? </p>

<p>I would assume that part of preparing students for grad school would include a class structure that is designed to teach the topics present on the GRE. As I’m not in a LAC, I’m unsure as to whether they place the same emphasis on class structure designed to prep students for GRE. </p>

<p>I’d like to hear from those who might know. Thank y’all. </p>

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The premise of your question is wrong.

There are hundreds of liberal arts colleges and research universities, and they all have different educational missions. Practically every school does things differently–and practically every ‘elite’ school, regardless of designation, aims to serve students who want to pursue academic careers as well as students who have no interest in obtaining a research degree.

Yet inasmuch as a distinction could be made between liberal arts colleges and research universities on this basis–and this is a very broad generalization–liberal arts colleges are the ones that prepare students for graduate school, not research universities. If you look at the undergraduate institutions that produce the most science PhDs, adjusted for class size, the list will be dominated by LACs, with the notable exceptions of MIT and Caltech.

Again, this is a very broad generalization, but I’m making it to drive home the point that your assumption is completely baseless.

Furthermore, preparation for graduate school has nothing to do with “a class structure that is designed to teach the topics present on the GRE.” Taking a class devoted to memorizing the difference between panegyric, philippic and eulogy, or to drilling the basics of high-school geometry, would be a monumental waste of your time and your university’s resources if the goal were to prepare you for graduate school. Unless you’re gearing up for a PhD in taking standardized tests, of course.

Learning the research methods of your chosen discipline and accumulating background knowledge in preparation for choosing a specialization are the two things you absolutely need to do as an undergraduate if you want to go to grad school. Beyond that, meaningful research experience in the form of a research internship or senior research project would make you an even more attractive candidate. These are the things universities strive to provide to students with academic career goals.

The assumption is that if you’re a serious candidate for grad school, you either will have acquired basic critical reasoning skills by now or are prepared to study for the GRE on your own time. Placing the onus of GRE prep on universities would be to saddle them with a mind-numbing, mechanical task that students could easily carry out on their own–and one that would take time and resources away from universities’ real teaching projects.

Finally, I would hazard a guess and say [GRE scores correlate with SAT scores]([1004.2731] Data Mining the University: College GPA Predictions from SAT Scores); therefore, institutions that attract high-scoring high-school students would produce high-scoring grad-school hopefuls, be those institutions LACs or research universities. I am a senior at a LAC who scored highly on both the SAT and the GRE, for example.