There actually are colleges that small.
But either way, 6k students at my high school was small enough. I think that’s bigger than many, many LACs.
I did enjoy doing whatever I wanted at my large uni. 
My undergrad was 1K when I attended (it as grown to more like 1200). I had a fair amount of experience with breakups. Things were usually fine. One ex was in my major so we saw each other regularly and were civil.
Even on the small campus, we didn’t have to socialize with each other outside of class/club meetings
@romanigypsyeyes , we all enjoy doing whatever we want. I don’t think the LAC experience is quite the prison you might think it to be.
It’s great that your D is happy with a large university. But I think your comment it’s pretty dismissive of kids who attend top LACs. To say that they offer a “coddling environment” or that the kids there are not independent or curious is pretty offensive. I don’t think that small classes, which force kids to prep and participate in a conversation are “coddling” their students. And those blue book and open-ended answer tests push kids far more than the multiple choice ones do, IMHO. My D chose a LAC because she wanted to be challenged, and also because she wanted class discussions that were interesting and insightful. I have a close friend whose son was tired of all the writing and need to participate in class in HS so he only looked at large Us and it’s working out great for him. But my D does not have an easier path in terms of academics, nor is she less independent or curious, even though her class sizes are much smaller than his are.
“@MiddleburyDad2 I think you’re missing how being in such an environment can stretch serious academic students in productive ways. (Warning: I’m going to anecdote you ) My serious academic D wants to attend a large university, not because she wants to hide or party or watch football games (ha!), but because she wants to put her independence and self-discipline to the test. She wants to have the freedom to fail, and wants to be around peers who have that same independent streak. On the many college visits we’ve done, she has found more of “her people” at the large publics than at the small privates. Lots of mature, independent 18 year olds don’t need or want a coddling environment, and are naturally curious enough to maximize the excellent opportunities that large universities can offer.”
Put in a more serious way, taking the whole of kids who choose to attend a large public university, a good chunk of them are there because they don’t know about or don’t really “get” the other options (much more of a thing in the west where small colleges are not as well understood as they are in the east), a good chunk are because that is what their parents will pay for, a good chunk want all the features of a large university including the sports, Greek scene, etc., and a chunk are there because they’re chasing a particular department, like CS or Biz school or some such thing. And many are there because that’s the ‘best’ school they were admitted (based on whatever, US News, etc.).
I’m sure it’s a mixed bag. Whatever the typical bundle of reasons for the average enrolled kid, I’m guessing that wanting to hide and seeking out a huge lecture hall are rare explanations.
I also think you’re missing the mark by a country mile in describing the educational experience of a LAC as “coddling” and suggesting that the large public kids are the cohort of independent go-getters who aren’t afraid to fail. There is little coddling about the LAC experience, there are plenty of opportunities to fail, and the LAC is precisely geared toward the intellectually curious kid. If anything, LACs are reputed as being more rigorous in general.
If your D found more of her people at a large public university, something I would guess to be hard to estimate given the numbers, then that’s a terrific outcome for her and it sounds like she’s where she should be.
As the guy writing the check in either case, I care more about what my kids are actually getting out of their experience than any of that. I want my kids to have to actually speak in class … for the vast majority of people, that skill will determine career trajectory more than anything. I want them to write, and to write a lot. I want them to have a heavy reading load, and I want them to be challenged with rigor all of the time. Most of all, I want them to have a well-rounded education: literature, arts, history, math, science, social policy, government, etc. etc. etc.
And I don’t think the large college experience is quite the nightmare you might think it to be. 
I certainly didn’t mean to offend, @MamaBear16 and @MiddleburyDad2 . I apologize; I should have phrased it differently. I was focused on the assertion that students are drawn to public universities primarily for the sports and Greek scene.
Last comment since it seems futile. Every single thing described here about small colleges can be and is found at large unis.
I don’t care what college anyone picks but the demonization of large colleges is based off a caricature.
And again it’s insulting for those of us who work at large unis. I care deeply for my students and want to provide an intellectually rich environment.
@ShrimpBurrito No offense taken. If I even loosely implied that the majority of kids make the decision on those bases, I would be the insulting one here.
@romanigypsyeyes, nobody’s demonizing anything. Cheese and rice. Talk about your hyperbole. I just disagree with you, particularly your last sweeping assertion that everything you find at a small college is found at a large public university. That’s utterly ludicrous. If that were even remotely true, the costly small college wouldn’t exist in a market of free choice. You give a strong impression of someone who’s never been near a small college nor appreciate anything about what it offers.
I don’t really have a dog in this hunt. My spouse and I went to an Ivy that had all of the benefits of a large research university, which it was, but was not really that much larger than Wesleyan at the college level, and had many LAC-like qualities, which contributed a lot of positives to our experience (including meeting each other). Our kids both went to a different university, but with very similar qualities, and had excellent experiences. Both my parents went to LACs and had their lives changed (for the better). I know lots of kids who have had great experiences at LACs, and I know faculty at LACs, research universities, and “masters” universities, and literally all of them are dedicated teachers. LACs and research universities to some extent offer somewhat different paths to the same objective, and either way can work (or not) for a particular student.
One small point I would like to make, however. There’s a lot of demonization of TAs in this thread. For me, TAs were a huge positive – at my university, they were often (usually) brilliant people who formed a really important bridge between students like me and the faculty. My relationships with them were absolutely critical to the wonderful academic experience I had – and I also had plenty of close relationships with big-deal, world-famous faculty. (I wasn’t shy. I went to office hours. I was good at getting people to want to teach me.) TAs with whom I had significant relationships went on to chair the English departments at Harvard and Yale, to chair the German department at Michigan, to become a famous public intellectual/feminist icon. And the other day, out of the blue, the guy who was my TA for a political science lecture class my freshman year popped up as one of the Ninth Circuit judges hearing the immigration order appeal. Having great TAs around – and having other great grad students around – was one of the benefits of a high-quality research university, not a detriment.
Also – I spent three years at MiddleburyDad2’s alma mater, and was reasonably close to a number of humanities faculty outside of my professional school, at the same time my sister was an undergraduate there. The faculty I knew were desperate for undergraduates to show some kind of interest in contact with them – it just wasn’t the norm there, but that was a function of undergraduate culture and attitudes, not the university structure or faculty attitudes. Any undergraduate who raised her hand had all of the faculty attention she could possibly want.
MODERATOR’S NOTE:
We’re getting dangerously close to debate and sidebar conversations. Let’s focus on the original topic, please.
When my kid was younger I thought I would help him chose a college according to the article but then reality hit. First was the money situation, second his uneven stats and third his inflexibility concerning his major and and the EC that he had to continue in college. All that left him with colleges to apply that we had never thought he would. A LOT of compromise. He is now a freshman and he is very happy with his school but in the same time he can see the limitations. I ll say it again, lots of compromises. From all his friends only a couple where able to have a real choice. The majority had to compromise.
As they say, life is what happens while you are making plans.
Our kids’ method of selecting colleges was simple. Let Mom and Dad (mostly) do it. And that we (mainly I) did, based on our experience and knowledge of our kids and the college scene. Neither one wanted to spend a lot of time gathering information. Couldn’t get either one to read a college guide. But consulting with them, we did the research and composed lists.
In my son’s case, aside from the state flagship and the home town university, I put every place on his list, including my alma mater (Reed). His main criteria, “a place where it’s safe to be a thinker,” and “a major league city” (as in major league sports). He knew the instate universities but didn’t do a visit or tour for admissions. He’d visited Reed a couple of years earlier when our family visited for an alumni event. The others? Never saw them until after admission. Never saw one of them (Carlton) ever. Visited Williams after admission and didn’t like it. He first saw the one he ended up attending only on admitted students day. Did an overnight. “So how do you like Chicago?” we asked the next morning. “This will do,” he said. Decision made. He graduated from UofC 4 years later.
Our daughter, despite doing little research, picked up information by participating in the pre-college summer program at the Art Institute of Chicago. We made one grand tour by car from the midwest to the east – including downeast – with my daughter and a classmate. Oberlin, CMU, NYU, Pratt, Cooper Union, RISD, Ithaca, BU, Colby, and more. She was admitted to RISD and the decision was done, though she wanted to visit MICA (to which she had been admitted) and we couldn’t arrange that.
Both kids are very happy with the colleges they attended, even with this “parent guided” approach.
@mackinaw , sounds a lot like our experience with one of our three. The other two were pretty self-directed, but candidly, a kid in the west is going to need some nudging to become familiar with Williams, Colby and Vassar, Whitman, Pomona, etc., and I made sure I did that.
Without my nudging, I suspect one of the Pac 12 schools is where all three would have ended up. That’s what they know and hear about in the west. It’s much different on the east coast.
Our daughter was a top student (2320 SAT, 3.98 uw/4.7 w) and being from CA she did not have much info on out of state options so she only looked at USNWR in the beginning of her college search.
As affordability was a major issue I ran dozens of net price calculators and kept detailed notes.
I am fairly certain that I heard about Vanderbilt on this board, and suggested she apply.
She reluctantly complied. No one at her Bay Area high school had ever attended Vandy, though a handful had applied over the years. She was accepted at several top schools: Cornell, UCLA (Regents), Duke as well as Vanderbilt but rejected from all her other reaches–she applied to 11 schools altogether.
Vandy had by far the best FA. So, she visited, and is now a VERY happy Junior.
I am very much involved in making a preliminary list for our D18, mostly for financial reasons.
She is also a great student but not so tippy top.
I added about 15 to her Naviance list for her to investigate at her leisure-I simply have more time and experience.
Through College Board I can run a net price in about 3 minutes and over-all I found them to be relatively accurate with our other daughter’s final offers.
I would say that it is fairly likely that she will attend a school that I have suggested mostly because I am also screening for her other criteria: not too political, smallish to medium sized (maybe an Honors College), near an interesting city, beautiful traditional campus with trees She has several Southern schools on her list which her friends think is “weird”.
Ohhhh…California!
My Bay Area California experience is similar to @dragonmom3 The kids at our prep school in San Francisco apply to certain schools in droves, and never apply to others of equal repute. Virtually no one applies to Duke or Vanderbilt or Notre Dame, but tons apply to Ivies, Stanford, UChicago, Amherst, Williams and the top LACs, Johns Hopkins, etc. Every good school in New York, Boston, Philadelphia or DC gets lots of applications. No schools south of DC get applications other than Tulane. The only schools in the Midwest that get applications are Chicago, Northwestern, Michigan, WashUSTL, Carleton, Kenyon, and Oberlin.
NYU alone has received ten times as many applications as Duke, Vanderbilt and Notre Dame combined. There clearly are powerful cultural factors at play here that are influencing the decision process.
@ThankYouforHelp so true of our school as well.
Better odds for us, then, if a school would like to add some kids from Silicon Valley!
Vanderbilt, Notre Dame, Duke, Wake Forest, and Richmond as well as Washington and Lee are on her list.
Per Naviance, 100% of the (5) applicants from her school have been accepted to Richmond, for example.
They were all good students but not extraordinary. And I think it looks like a really good school and possibly a great fit for my daughter.
When she mentioned it to a friend, she replied “I didn’t know they was a college in Richmond (CA).
Oh, Virginia, isn’t that in the South?”
Yep. Naviance tells me that only 6 students have applied to W&L in the past 10 years. 7 to Notre Dame. 7 to Richmond. 12 to Wake Forest. 11 to Vanderbilt. And the ones who did apply got in at a surprisingly high rate with not particularly good state - especially to Vanderbilt and Wake .
Meanwhile, 265 applied to NYU, 188 to Oberlin, and 134 to Barnard (and half the class is male and can’t even consider applying to Barnard).
I tried to get my daughter to consider applying to Duke, Vandy, and Rice. No go. She could not see herself at any of them (she gave Rice a little more thought than the other two, but not much).
^the fascination with NYU is incredible. Solid school, terrific grad programs, but not for undergrad. I know a lot of a lot of people were underwhelmed with their undergraduate experience. It’s too disjointed … no sense of place.
And there is no bigger disconnect between rep and admissions rigor than NYU. The average person hears “NYU” and associates with Ivy League levels of competitiveness, which is clearly not the case.
One of mine had an NYU obsession, so I obliged and visited, confident that the visit would take care of it, and it did. “Where’s the campus Dad?”