Small private schools vs big state schools?

warblersrule
Sat, 17 Nov 2012 15:44:54 +0000

M's Mom:

Do a search here on LACs vs. Unis.

tk21769:

Many small colleges (LACs) have…

The OP did not ask about liberal arts colleges. The question was about small private colleges and large publics. I would place not only LACs in the former category, but also universities like Yale, Tufts, Duke, Chicago, Rice, and other small private universities that are far more similar to LACs in enrollment and class size than to large public universities like UCSD or UT Austin. Outside of the research university category, you could also add schools like Elon and LMU.

Such universities are often the best of both worlds - relatively small classes but a wide variety of courses and majors. Aside from cost, I think there are relatively few drawbacks.

The primary drawback to small colleges, and the primary advantage of large ones, is the size and diversity of the student body. Because of the large student bodies at universities like UCLA, you can have student organizations like a Korean Christian group, a gay Jewish group, a Turkish student group, etc. that would be less feasible at a smaller university or a LAC that lacks the numbers to support them.