@preppedparent totally agree with its what one makes of it, and the bit of nuance is at an LAC, that is laid out for students and they don’t have to work so hard on soft skills like networking, swimming instead of sinking, proactive advising, TAs that don’t get it and fight the system, so to speak, like ours have had to do all through CA public schools. That’s in part why it’s such a terrific grad school option, as is UCLA. Best of both world would be USC in CA to a degree.