I would take a very serious look at this. This is a much bigger issue than I originally realized. I’ve been looking at the Computer Science and Math departments at LACs recently, and many of them lack certain courses that I would advise taking if choosing a Math or CS degree.
I’ve been looking on behalf of a kid who doesn’t anticipate grad school, so keep that in mind. Grad school probably requires breadth rather than depth. I don’t know anything about grad school admissions, so I won’t comment on that.
What I’ve been looking at is whether a student could take a couple of courses in an area of interest once they complete the lower division and upper division cores in their major. For example, is it possible for a Math major to take 2 - 3 electives in Statistics and Data Analytics, or Actuarial Science? Is it possible for a CS student to take electives in Internet Programming or Data Mining/Machine Learning.
I was surprised by the number of schools that don’t offer these types of courses. They might offer some, but at many schools the choices are very limited. Some of the more STEMy LACs have more options, but not as many as a student would have at a research university.
I’m pretty sure the options can be just as limited in more typical Liberal Arts subjects. I would just look very carefully at the specific departments, like @ucbalumnus said.
Given all of that, I still think the personal attention is worth it if the student can figure out a way to get all of the courses they want, either through a consortium or by taking courses at another school during summers.