@oldfort We will have to disagree on your assessment of an undergraduate business education. I went to Wharton undergraduate and it was not “lightweight” in any respect and in addition to the liberal arts requrements I managed to take a lot of history courses for fun/interest. My S went to Fordham and had a very rigorous education both in the liberal arts (through a large Jesuit core curriculum) as well as a strong business education. IMO there is time to get an excellent liberal arts education and complete a business major in four years of college. And for people with practical concerns (ex.need to get a job upon graduation) as well as an interest in business an undergraduate b-school program can be a fine path. I’m not saying it is for everyone, but that path should not be degraded.
As noted there are LACs and small universities with b-schools.
Dartmouth with over 6,000 students as well as graduate programs is a small/mid-size university not a LAC. Dartmouth does offer a very fine graduate business program (Tuck). It is the school’s choice to only have a graduate b-school program but other fine and even other Ivy League colleges (Penn, Cornell) do choose to have undergraduate b-school programs as well.
But alas, we are far off of the OP’s question which is if a larger or smaller school is best. And I remain steady in saying that the size of the school is really a matter of personal preference – a great education can be had at any sized school.