<p>Many people are under the impression that universities offer more opportunties and a more comprehensive, fuller, simply "bigger" college experience than a small, fewer-populated liberal arts college could. This is simply on the basis that as a larger instiution, the university has the greater hand-- more students=more professors=more research opps. Or more students=more parties/better athletics/more varied (interesting) student body etc.</p>
<p>What are your arguments for personally choosing a LAC over a university?</p>
<p>The same reason that I would choose a small Italian cafe in the North End in Boston over The Olive Garden: a smaller, more personalized, less institutional product.</p>
<p>Advantage is smaller classes, no TAs, more interaction with professors, more undergrad research, professors grading papers, etc. </p>
<p>Disadvantage: you don't have the variety of options. For example, if your thing is goth, there probably won't be as big a goth scene as there would be at university with 30,000 students. If your thing is 17th century French art, there probably won't be as many courses on 17th century French art.</p>
<p>LACs also are more flexible for undecided majors or those wanting to change their major. At LACs, students generally have to take courses in several different subjects, and with the broad degree plans students who change majors may still be able to graduate in four years. At unversities, changing a major will almost certainly involve taking more time to graduate.</p>
<p>The LACs all seemed much more friendly to me. They are smaller, which I personally prefer. Smaller classes and more contact with professors. At an LAC, any opportunities/resources there are, will go to undergraduate students, while at a larger university, the focus might be more on graduate students. I felt like the LACs would be more understanding of me and my educational goals and more flexible. I'd have more of a chance to pursue my interests, rather than spending all my time on my major and requirements.
Overall, there is more going on at a research university--most of which doesn't involve me. I prefer to be the center of the universe.</p>
<p>I picked an LAC because it seemed personalized and had a strong sense of mission. People were friendly and knew each other. I also liked that they didn't expect me to declare an interest so early (this was in contrast to my flagship state university).</p>
<p>That's why I picked it. Other advantages I got to know after being there. </p>
<p>For example, I came into close contact with people very different from me. There may have been more international students at a large school, but I may not have been sitting next to one in an 8-person class all semester as I did at my liberal arts school. That sort of thing.</p>
<p>I liked getting to know so many of my professors well, and feeling more accountable to them for it. </p>
<p>I thought I might get bored given that there weren't 200 majors and a course selection of thousands, but my backup plan was to spend a year abroad if that happened. I needn't have worried. I turned down my abroad program, and still graduated without coming anywhere near exhausting my interests (both academic and extracurricular).</p>
<p>Having attended both: LACS have arguably better grad placement (the top ones), more opportunities to actually work with professors, more tightknit community that lasts a lifetime, more alumni connections, getting to see many people you like often, more personalized attention from administration, etc.</p>
<p>I appreciate these comments. I am really unsure which would be best for S. I think he will do fine at either, and has both unis and LACS on his list. He will have been at boarding school for 5 years by the time he graduates next spring. That leads to a sort of "been there, done that" feeling about very small colleges- and dorms in particular. On the other hand, this is a kid who is used to hanging out with his teachers, going to their houses for dinner etc. His initial feeling is that he wants DI athletics (he expects to be recruited by a few schools) which rules out many LACS. We'll just have to see how he feels after more visits- including some to DIII schools.</p>
<p>There is a strong sense of community and strong mentoring at LAC's. You can graduate in 4 years as you get classes you need. Many LAC's will guarantee this. There is also strong mentoring and proffessors get to really know you, many can write 10 pages easily on their letter of recommendations. The good research opportunities are available to undergraduates as they are not competing as much with grad students for research. The best of both worlds is an LAC in a consortium as then there is more diversity in class offerings.</p>
<p>Those were all great replies, thank you for all writing with such detail and consideration. Some of my friends who are juniors in high school (I've just graduated) were asking me for advice on applying to college, and I saw that all of them were aiming for giant universities.</p>
<p>I wanted to think up of some reasons a LAC would also be a great option for a college education; thank you for helping me help them by giving your kind opinions. :)</p>
<p>Just wanted to mention another option: master's universities can be a good combination if you don't want a large research doctoral institution or a small LAC. Comprehensive universities (examples: Trinity U in Texas, Santa Clara U in California, Villanova in PA) combine many of the benefits of both research universities and LACs with a few unique benefits of their own. Unfortunately, here on CC we tend to discuss mainly doctoral-level research universities and liberal arts colleges and neglect this third option that is somewhere in between.</p>
<p>smaller campus - easier to get around
smaller size of graduating class - less competition, tighter knit group
smaller class sizes, better student/faculty ratio, undergrad focus - more attention from profs, learn more</p>
<p>You should check out the book "Colleges that Change Lives" by Loren Pope. It explained why LACs are better than Unis. At large U's professors often dont teach because they are too busy doing research and often non-English speaking TAs teach classes. There is not a lot of individualized work, so students do not grow. Also, at larger universities you are sometimes not allowed to take classes in some areas unless they are your major, at smaller colleges you can take classes in pretty much whatever you want, regardless of what your major is. Smaller colleges tend to be more close knit, and form a nice and welcoming community. I think that the opportunities are greater at LACs for student research, and one on one work with actual professors. There are less specific majors but you can usually combine majors or make a self designed major with help from faculty at LACs. I think if you have a very specific field that you will be going into you should go to a larger school with more specific majors, but for everyone else, LACs are better. </p>
<p>I personally will be attending Lawrence University in WI this coming fall, and I can't wait. Part of the reason I applied there was Pope's book, which highly commended it. I will be double majoring in Linguistics and Music there, potentially with a minor in Spanish.</p>
<p>There are many good faculty at liberal arts colleges but the great faculty are primarily at universities. Why? Because universities have graduate programs which means free (some may say slave) labor from bright graduate students that can enable a cutting-edge professor to remain on the cutting-edge. Universities also usually have greater physical research resources. Although there are exceptions, students who need more hand holding should go to liberal arts colleges. Very dedicated and serious students are better off at Universities with a smaller number of undergraduate students. Faculty quality may not make a great deal of difference when you are a freshman but when you are a senior, the quality of your education may very well depend on the quality of your faculty.</p>
<p>"Although there are exceptions, students who need more hand holding should go to liberal arts colleges. Very dedicated and serious students are better off at Universities with a smaller number of undergraduate students."</p>
<p>I disagree with that, however, to each her own. At LAC's the classes are small and the professors (actual professors ALWAYS teach classes at LACs) care whether you are in class because you are one of 15 or 20 people instead of 500! There is more guidance and support in LACs and students do more discussion based work. I have been told that at large Uni's everything is lectures. It is harder to learn by listening than by doing! That is why LACs are better. There are also less students in classes so the professors can adapt to different learning styles and really get to know their students and help them reach their goals. At an LAC you are not a number. Just because the number of students is smaller they are not a bunch of helpless babies :), they thrive off of the closeness of the community, and the strength of the teaching methods. LACs = small classes which = learning!</p>
<p>I have seen this firsthand when I visited LACs and I have also read about it in Loren Pope's book that I mentioned before. Believe me, it is a wonderful guide...It may have helped me make the best decision of my young life in attending Lawrence University, an LAC.</p>
<p>There's not alot of goofing off in the back of a lecture hall. As one of the posters already wrote, there are sometimes 15-20 in a class and the students are expected to contribute. It's often part of the grade. Skipping classes was rare at my college......not sure how that goes now.....if you did, your grades would slip......</p>
<p>Another advantage of LAC's over large Unis that nobody has mentioned is that at many large unis, both public and private, you are not guaranteed a spot in the major of your choice just because you have been admitted. They'll make you list your top three choices on your application (at least the state flagship near us did), and the department goes through the applications and chooses the freshman they want. So imagine all your life you wanted to be a marine biologist, you study and do well in school so you can get into a "good" university. You do get in, but then they tell you "sorry, we already have our quota of marine biology freshmen for this year, you'll have to be a chemist instead, since that was your second (or third) choice".</p>
<p>If you go to an LAC and want to be a marine biologist, by golly, you could do that!</p>
<p>Well, I think it's very hard to generalize. You are not making a choice between classes of 15 and classes of 500. Top universities also offer classes of 15. Also, a former poster here found that her son at a top LAC had a lot of classes of 40, with little class discussion (because, unlike in a university lecture course, it never divided into small sections) and few assignments (because the one prof couldn't grade them all). Far more important than "LAC or university?" is WHICH LAC and WHICH university. </p>
<p>A compromise are those universities with residential colleges -- Yale, Rice, Princeton, Harvard, etc. -- which give you the school-within-a-school experience in terms of social life and advising, while also offering the resources of a larger university.</p>