uPenn vs Middlebury

panthergrad09
Sun, 04 Apr 2010 20:45:13 +0000

I can’t exactly say anything about UPenn, but as a graduate of the MBB program at Midd, I can assure you that you will be as prepared and probably better prepared for med school or graduate school coming out of Middlebury than any research university. I’m in grad school now (Yale), and I find myself often feeling more like an undergraduate student here than I did in my last years at Midd. You say that you like UPenn because it’s a research university, but what that means is that there’s big research being done by post-docs and grad students, while the undergrads are washing dishes and are given much less intellectual freedom than at LACs. For instance, when talking about the size of a lab, profs at research universities often don’t count the undergrads as actual members of the lab-aka undergrads aren’t expected to contribute anything meaningful to what’s coming out of the lab. You might be working in a Nobel laureate’s lab, but that doesn’t mean that you’re really learning from them. At Midd, you will be given the same amount of responsibility and freedom that are given to upper-level grad students and post-docs because that’s the role that you have in a lab at Midd. You are the grad students and post-docs.

So when you’re comparing science programs at those two places, you need to really think about the role you will play as an undergrad. A place like Middlebury places ALL of its attention on the undergrads. They are what’s most important. Research universities, on the other hand, care most about their grad students. Professors are there to do research, not teach. Middlebury’s professors are there first to teach (not just in the classroom but in the lab, as well) and then to do their own research. I can assure you that you will get more out of your undergraduate education going to Midd, and any LAC, really, than a research university. That being said, LACs aren’t for everyone, and some people care more about a name than their actual education. That being said, I think my best advice is to really consider what you want out of your undergrad education and to think about what each college/university is really offering, not just what they claim to offer. Obviously I am very much a supporter of LACs, but I’ve found from my own experience that they do offer superior opportunities and training. You learn how to think, not just memorize facts for a test.