Research Universities vs. LACs???

TheGreyKing
Tue, 19 Jun 2018 21:25:06 +0000

I agree with @happy1 that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Fit is very personal.

My husband, son and I all chose small liberal arts colleges. It was interesting for H and me to see our son arrive at that preference on his own. He walked off the Cornell campus saying the college was too big and not for him, and then saw Colgate and Hamilton the next day and announced that that was the type of college he preferred. This preference stayed strong throughout our tours: he consistently preferred the small colleges.

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IMO, I do not find the “like high school” comment about small liberal arts colleges to be accurate. In high school, there are only a few students at your level of intelligence and intellectualism hanging out with you in the “nerd group,” but when you go to a top small liberal arts college, every student in the whole school is like that! Your potential friend group at college is therefore much larger. I am not implying that you can’t be friendly and kind to students in high school who are different from you academically— but it is exciting to be at a college where everyone loves learning and ideas as much as you do. This would be true at any top college, whether small or a large research university.

I did not find either high school or college to be “suffocating,” and greatly enjoyed the sense of community at my LAC (which, BTW, had no frats- and many of the top LACs do not have frats). But as @Publisher’s experience shows, individuals vary.

Visit a variety of colleges at different sizes and in different locations and see which you prefer!

There is not a “better” model— just a better fit for you!

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Re: your question about open curricula: There is no relationship between size and requirements, so that is a different factor to consider.
The colleges with completely open curricula include one research university and a few LACs:
Amherst
Brown
Grinnell
Hamilton
Smith