Liberal Arts Colleges for PreMed

bluebayou
Thu, 11 Jun 2020 20:35:41 +0000

happy1:

My D recently graduated from a LAC and I would disagree with your premise. From what I could tell one of the advantages of attending a LAC was that there are no grad students to compete with for research opportunities. Professors are happy to have undergrads help with their research.

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No question that LAC’s encourage undergrads to get involved with their research. That being said, the “advantage” might be more of spin. The fact is that R1 Unis get boatloads more of research dollars, so they are doing more research. And yes, Grad students are involved, but that doesn’t mean that undergrads are precluded from labs. (As an aside, Johns Hopkins was founded specifically to be a research Uni, which means that the undergrads are expected to be involved in research.)

In her four years at a LAC my D worked on three research projects with three different professors. She spent two summers on campus working on research (with pay and free housing). The results of one of her research projects was published in a scholarly journal soon after she graduated.

I’m sure that there are many of us whose kids attended a R1 could say something similar.

But LAC vs Uni comes down to the student. Either will provide a great education and cover the premed basics. So it really comes down to which type of college would they be most comfortable at for the next four years. And as Dos notes, many of the LACs have different vibes. Visit if you can.