I am just wondering if you notice personality or other differences such as interests between the students who consciously want and do decide to attend small liberal arts colleges vs. those who consciously want and do decide to attend larger “national” colleges? The reason I am asking is I always thought my kid would fit in well at small “caring” – for some reason, I associated small liberal arts colleges with a greater level of caring for that reason – and I made a conscious effort to visit small liberal colleges such as Pomona and Claremont McKenna Colleges nearby because our kid told us he met some nice and interesting college kids at some conferences he attended, and they were from small liberal arts colleges, but I was surprised to hear him say he preferred larger colleges. I could never persuade – and didn’t – my kid to seriously consider quality small liberal arts colleges such as Williams, Pomona, Claremont, even Rice, but was curious to see if there were some observable differences in kids’ personalities or interests?
The flip side of the assumed more personal atmosphere at liberal arts colleges, more discussion in class, more contact with professors, is that the student is known and cannot hide. There is a certain level of exposure in that and in my experience, some kids want the option of anonymity with the personalization more in their control. Big schools can be broken down into smaller parts. The fishbowl quality of those pretty LAC green campuses is a turn off for some students. Being in a city can mitigate this a bit. One of mine said he didn’t want to be identified as a student when he walked down the street and in the city, whether small or large school, that seems more possible.
It’s a good question and I don’t have an answer. I will say that both of my kids turned away from LACs after visiting campuses, feeling they were too “like high school”. I was surprised but perhaps I should not have been - their secondary education wasn’t like mine, 30+ years ago. I went to a 160 person high school so a LAC with 1400 kids felt plenty big to me at first and I didn’t mind the ivory tower. My goal after high school was to immerse myself in my studies after an “easy” high school. My kids went to larger high schools where they had already been pushed academically - for college they were looking beyon academics to a wide range of related opportunities: social, artistic, professional. They felt the small size of LACs made the communities more insular. So some of it may be personality but I think more of it is what the individual student values and looks for in a school. Kids with similar personality profiles coming from different high school / social environments might want different types of colleges.
Most kids don’t really have a choice between an LAC or a national university so I hesitate to attach a personality. My two were fortunate to get into an LAC that matched our need but had they not, they would have been in huge public universities. They are vastly different personalities outside the classroom but in class, they function similarly.
@CaMom13 , the “like high school” was exactly the same response my daughter had to a couple of the campus colleges we visited (one wasn’t so small, either). D19 is very taken by the large urban colleges. She’s one of those kids that is quite shy and anxious but hides it well under an extrovert exterior, and has never had trouble making friends across a spectrum of people. I’d never thought about the “hide in plain sight” aspect of a large college that @compmom mentions, and that’s possibly a subconscious factor, but it’s not just the size that appeals to her - it’s very definitely being an exciting urban environment. She just loves the big city and all it has to offer!
We have a well respected public university, but it is huge. My son has no interest in applying and I get it 100%. He was drawn to schools ranging from 1800-5000 students max, so mostly LACs. He is quiet, but he really likes the idea of smaller classes and more personalized attention. He thinks, and I agree, that he would struggle at a large university.
My kid that really wanted and ended up at a small LAC has said in hindsight she would have been fine anywhere, including our massive state universities. That said, when we were visiting schools, she just really wanted small. And that’s coming from a high school 1000 students larger than her college. I wouldn’t say there’s anything particularly different about her. She’s not shy or an introvert (I wouldn’t call her an extrovert either), in high school she was highly involved in a lot of different things. In college she wanted to be known, and not have to fight to avoid just being a number, and has done well in that environment. I think it was just her preference.
I thought a LAC would be perfect for my quiet son (or at least he was quiet when he started college LOL)…but we visited one and he couldn’t wait to leave. He felt the school was too small and thought everyone would be in each other’s business. His comment was “If you get a cold the whole school will know.” I think what he really was trying to say was that he felt that the college was so small that he could not kind of step back for a bit if he wanted. His “sweet spot” ended being mid-sized universities. The classes were small, generally 30 or so and he knew his professors and it was easy to get involved in activities, but there were more people around and about on campus. He had a fantastic college expereince.
My much more outgoing D wanted a LAC from the start and never wavered (we did insist she look at some larger colleges). But she has always thrived in close-knit, more intimate settings so her interest in attending a LAC came as no surprise. And she also had a fantastic college expereince.
Certainly in our case it was not driven by how quiet or outgoing the person was – it has more to do with the college environment they each were looking for. So my advice would be to listen to your child and (within the realm of affordability) try to seek the type of school where he/she feels most comfortable.
I really doubt that you can divide the population of college students in two that easily.
I think very few people in the real world get to muse over fit like they do on CC. Most people follow the money. Large public universities have a WIDE range of students. I graduated from a big 10 as someone who would have really been much more at home at a LAC. If you’re chasing merit, LAC’s can sometimes beat your flagship. We’re playing money games over here. My senior applied to schools from a student body of 1400 to 50,000+. I think either situation could work great for him as long as he can find his people.
I am someone who went to both a small college and one of the largest universities’ in the US. Personally I love the ambiance of large university life. It feels very freeing to be on a campus that has a vibe of a small city with its own restaurants and convenience stores and gyms, etc… However, when it comes down to faculty and staff, there is a big difference between big college and small college. The advisors at bigger universities are so overwhelmed with the swelling number of students that you never really feel like you have their full attention. Took me nearly two years of moving between advisor and advisor before finding one that took the time to understand my concerns and actually point me in the right direction. Small colleges have less, if the not the same amount of advisors and they are all specifically trained to help you with anything you need even if its not necessarily school related. I’ve had teachers tell me I should have planned a family emergency better. That emergency was my grandmother dying from cancer. Small colleges the teachers know your name and they understand you are human. I vote small college any day.
My kid loves LACs, because he thinks that they’re like high school should have been. Our neighborhood school building is in terrible shape, I’m sad to say, and the county has been slow to fix things. It was built on the cheap and it shows. My kid has felt like a bit of an outsider at the school all his life. I suspect he’s looking for a small LAC experience in order to get something that our public school system was never able to give him.
I have 2 kids, one went to major public flagship and the other went to LAC.
Our flagship kid has a quick mind and a deep intellect. He visited top LACs and found the small size stifling, but loved the pace, independence, and breadth of opportunity at flagships, He liked the possibility of disappearing into the anonymity of the lecture when he wanted to, while still working closely with faculty in Honors seminars and Honors thesis. His ability to produce excellent work overnight (literally) saved him more than once. Although outgoing, high school was not always easy socially so the potential to “shape shift” at a large university was probably appealing. He had an amazing academic experience, but had to take responsibility for finding opportunities, which he did very successfully.
My LAC kid, on the other hand, is quieter though easy going and gets along well with pretty much everyone. While he enjoys intellectual debate, he lacked confidence in his academic abilities growing up in the shadow of his older sibling. He knew he would drown at a school with hundreds in the lecture hall, and that he needed to be in a small, close setting to stay focused and learn. He has flourished at his LAC, where professors know him well inside and outside the classroom and support him for research, work, and leadership opportunities.
While the older one would probably have had a good experience if he did go to a LAC, we cannot imagine the younger one at a large university, and are just happy they each found what they wanted (and each was affordable).
it’s a long time ago, but…my offspring and I all ended up at schools in the “small university” category. The best of both worlds, IMO.
My D did an EC that would probably make a list of “what nerds do in college.” One of the reasons she didn’t want to go to a LAC was that she felt everyone on campus would know she did this activity and make a lot of assumptions of what she was like. She also avoided colleges at which everyone involved in her EC roomed together.
My Pomona kid has the best of both worlds: a traditional LAC with small class sizes and frequent interactions with professors within a large consortium of 6,000 students and a huge selection of classes and activities.
Wouldn’t specific LACs sometimes attract a particular type of student, not necessarily the kind that some other LACs sometimes attract?
My kids did not want to attend a college smaller than their HS.
But for the masses, the answer to your question, web, is financial. In general, the big public State U’s cost a whole lot less that a private LAC.
Some kids also look forward to the rah-rah school spirit experience associated with big time sports.
My older son only cared about the academics. For him tiny Caltech and huge Berkeley were both fine. Younger son was adament that he wanted a place bigger than his high school (3000+) which pretty much eliminated all LACs. He kept Vassar (fairly large for an LAC at just under 3000) on his list in case he changed his mind. By April Vassar’s campus seemed really empty and he never was persuaded by the idea that at an LAC everyone there would be smart and reasonably academic unlike his high school, so that in reality there were probably more potential friends there. He ended up at a mid-sized university of about 5000 undergrads.
Self assured, and a people person, S1 wanted a bigger school in a bustling city. Liked the excitement, and action of a big, sophisticated, city. While he has found some of that, he’s found that the rigor of his studies are such that he is spending much of his time in his room alone, studying, LOL.
S2 is a bit more of a loner, and likes to "grind’, as he would say. He wants a smaller school, and is fine with it being in the country. Feels like he won’t get lost there, and will get more attention from profs and students alike.
I never thought about any of that stuff. I went to the school that said yes to me. Sort of like my love life, now that I think about it.
Any student that applies to a LAC has the choice between those schools and an in-state larger school so it puzzles me that people respond that this choice is rarely made - it’s made all the time! Yes, some students have no options for schooling other than their state schools due to finances but those students aren’t the ones to OP asked about.
@57special - that made me laugh! I think the creation of the common app opened up the “field” of colleges to consider far wider than what was common in the days when you had to write (a letter!) asking for a paper application, fill it out by hand or typewriter and stick it in the mail, remembering to use enough postage. And that’s how I applied to school! My kids also went in completely different directions in the urban/rural decision but that was separate from the university vs LAC discussion. D1 didn’t want a city environment, D2 insisted she be in the center of things.
I do think the mid-sized universities are a sweet spot for a lot of kids but I would say “best of both worlds” only applies if both worlds are what you want. I do know students who chose only to apply to LACs because that close, small, personal environment was exactly what they wanted out of school. I also know kids (and have one) for whom anonymity as a student was a plus. I remember my older D walking away from a Vassar information session saying “they all have the same speech about why their environment is special. I don’t want to get to know my professors that well!”. Ironically, she went to a large state school, almost immediately found a mentor and is now personal friends with many of her professors. Life is funny like that.