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<p>The downsides (or the disregard for them) do vary based on the student and his/her academic interests. For example, math majors (particularly the more advanced ones) are more likely to encounter the downsides of running out of course offerings and getting fewer of the upsides of smaller class sizes (because upper division math tends to have small class sizes even at big universities) than pre-meds (where the pre-med courses are often among the largest classes at any given school and are widely available almost everywhere).</p>
<p>Of course, a smaller school may have strong and weak departments; a student may need to consider his/her academic interests relative to the strength of each school’s departments. An example from a previous thread was for a prospective physics major; among LACs, some (e.g. Oberlin, Reed) are stronger than others (e.g. Marietta).</p>
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<p>In the case of the weaker departments, the department may only offer the bare minimum courses for the major, and infrequently or unreliably.</p>