<p>Yes, it is easier when you go to a school that has lecture classes and lots of TAs. I do suppose that could be seen to be an advantage. If you go to a school where the main benefit is supposed to be small classes, obviously there are consequences to trying to keep them small. (At Smith, the main impact my d. saw was in first-year Italian, where folks from Amherst - where there is no Italian - had a heck of a time trying to get in.)</p>
<p>Thanks, Jamimom :).</p>
<p>Mini:</p>
<p>My S was not coming from another college. He was trying to graduate and had a horrible time in the course that he could not drop because he could not add another one.
As I said, my younger S got lots of help from TFs, though he has also talked to the profs in person and emailed queries to them. Both profs actually supervise study groups/sections.</p>
<p>I appreciate that. I have been in both environments (Williams and U.Chicago), and seen it from student, TA, and faculty end. There are trade-offs in each (it's one of the reasons I happen to like the larger LACs, and those with substantial cross-faculty possibilities. (What school was this? I haven't heard of this happening in any of better LACs recently, though I am probably out of touch. I did hear of folks getting shut out of courses at Yale, but that might have been an anomaly as well.)</p>
<p>It was one of the better and larger LAC! Don't get me wrong. On the whole, my S got a great education. But he did encounter a couple of problems along the way. I agree that the cross-registration opportunities make college consortia very appealing.</p>