Am I the only one not enamored with LAC's?

[warblersrule]

<p>

@ucbalumnus

It depends on one’s major also. With a popular major like biology, the student is likely to find huge classes as a freshman and sophomore, and still big classes as a junior and senior. But with a less popular major like math, the student may have mostly small classes in his/her major, especially if honors courses are available and the student chooses them

That depends entirely on the university and program in question. Take classics at UCLA, for example. It’s far from a popular major, and yet only two courses this quarter are small (a freshman seminar and a capstone seminar). The others have at least 40 students, and several have 100+. The courses in Greek and Latin are smaller but still larger than one would find at a LAC.</p>

<p>Alternately, consider art history, which accounts for a mere 1.5% of all majors. Only ~30% of the 20 or so courses offered this quarter (excluding tutorials/ind. studies) have fewer than 40 students. Sample class sizes include 51, 55, 77, 147, 165, etc. students. Compare that to a LAC like Grinnell, which caps virtually every class at 30 students, and the difference is pretty glaring.</p>

<p>In any case, differences go far beyond the simple issue of class sizes. A small community feel is very difficult to replicate. A couple years ago, the trustees of Davidson paid for the lodgings, bus fare, and tickets for all Davidson students who wanted to see the NCAA tournament. What larger college would or could do such a thing? (Certainly not my alma mater.) </p>

<p>The difference between my college graduation, where all ~4500 of the graduating undergrads and grads packed into a football stadium for an impersonal graduation before drifting our separate ways, and that of my boyfriend’s graduation, where all of the ~300 graduating students got to walk across the stage individually, could not have been more different and perfectly highlights the differences between the two colleges. (You are also stunned by the difference when you realize that [one</a> of the courses at Cornell](<a href=“http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2077/1811968545_90c242c700_z.jpg]one”>http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2077/1811968545_90c242c700_z.jpg) enrolls more students than some LACs have in their entire student bodies.)</p>

<p>Anyone who has experienced both a small and large college can speak to the differences in atmosphere, red tape, ease of use of facilities, availability of study carrels in the library, etc. For example, gyms can be similarly sized at different universities, but the one at the larger college may have about three or four times as many students trying to use it – one can easily imagine how well that turns out.</p>