<p>A lot of the putative benefits of a university over a LAC just don’t hold water, at least not for all LACs v. all research universities.</p>
<p>Libraries: While it’s certainly true that research universities have more extensive library holdings, most undergrads are not going to need many of the specialized holdings–and if they do, pretty much everything in the world is readily accessible through inter-library loan (which even faculty and grad students at top research universities depend on).</p>
<p>Research labs and facilities: LACs with top science programs are fully up-to-date in most areas. Granted, the LAC may not have its own particle accelerator for state-of-the-art high-energy physics experiments, but then most research universities don’t, either, and even at those that do it’s not likely an undergrad is going to get her hands on the machinery. </p>
<p>Research opportunities: These may actually be greater for undergrads at some LACs since there are no grad students at the head of the line for research opportunities.</p>
<p>Alumni network: Naturally larger universities will have larger alumni networks, but size isn’t everything—if it were, then the biggest state universities would have the most effective alumni networks. In my experience, what the best LACs lack in size, they more than compensate with the fierce loyalty of their alums which seems almost inversely proportional to the size of the school.</p>
<p>More majors, more specialized course offerings within majors: Yes, but . . . at the end of the day, you’re only going to have one major, or at most two, and LACs tend to offer the most popular ones. As for specialized and graduate-level courses, I think that matters more in some fields than in others. For someone who is a true math genius, I probably wouldn’t recommend a LAC, because that person might want to accelerate into esoteric, graduate-level math pretty quickly. For someone who wants to study English, history, or poli sci, the trade-off is that while at the LAC you won’t have quite the same breadth or depth of course offerings, you’ll still have no shortage of courses to choose from, and you’ll have all small classes and much more personal attention and develop much closer relationships with the faculty.</p>
<p>Bottom line, I think it’s mostly a question of personal preference. I’ve spent most of my life at research universities, public and private, both as a student and as faculty, and I certainly think that a self-motivated student can get an outstanding education at a good research university. My D1 opted for a small LAC, where she is also getting an outstanding education–in my opinion, equal to or better than what she could have gotten at a bigger school, in an intimate atmosphere that she’s just more comfortable with. I’d have found her school too small and, well, stifling; she’d have found mine just much too large, cold, and anonymous. Neither is “better” in the abstract; it depends on what you want, and what you value.</p>