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<p>I concur, and would caution anyone looking at LACs, especially the smaller ones, to closely examine how many grads are produced in your area(s) of interest, how many faculty in the dept, and the depth of course selection. This is especially true in the sciences, where a significant monetary investment is needed to develop a “critical mass” within the depts.</p>
<p>Actually only about 10% eng at UW. The low end–well it is a state school and you have a fair number of elem ed majors and such not to mention a large number of athletes. However the large number of people in the top half of the class (about 2800 students per class) who tend to be in the more demanding majors are pretty darn good.</p>
<p>But to bring some balance here- huge universities can’t be excellent if they have huge student teacher ratios and class sizes, even at the upper levels, and students may not even know their professors.</p>
<p>There is a trade-off. Actually I think the product my daughter is getting at an LAC is much superior to what I received at a large university.</p>
<p>I was only addressing the shortfalls from the LAC side previously because that was what this thread was about, not because I think they are worse on balance.</p>
<p>I think its not so much that less Uni students go onto grad school, but that more students DON’T (Hard to make sense of in writing)</p>
<p>Uni’s tend to have more programs that do not lead to a PhD than LACs, whereas the majority of students in liberal arts schools are enrolled in (surprise) liberal arts majors.</p>