Big universities: why do so many people dislike them

College Search & Selection
21

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I'm not even sure what" pure" academics means. I doubt that many students even consider such a statistic when making a college choice.

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<p>By "pure academic" I meant looking narrowly at the academic part of the college experience. The quality of the education, the preparation for advanced study in academic fields, etc. I was trying to differentiate the "academic" slice of the pie from the many, many other factors that go into the overall college experience -- and that, in most cases, are probably more important.</p>

<p>I agree that very few applicants bother to research any statistics in their decision-making process. That's a shame. There are many widely available statistical measures that can be extremely useful in getting a handle on what various schools are like. For example, conventional wisdom is that the U. of Chicago is the place to go for economics. It's strength in Econ is confirmed by the future PhD stats -- it is in the top five in total Econ Phds and per capita PhDs. But, the stats also reveal an unexpectedly strong candidate. With 2.5 times fewer students, Swarthmore produces the same number of future Econ PhDs. On a per capita basis, it is the leading producer of future Econ PhDs in the country by a mile: 37 per 1000 undergrads with the second place school (another small undergrad college) only producing 19 future Econ PhDs per 1000 undergrads.</p>

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I would also suggest that if anyone did look at so called pure academic statistics, they would look at current data, not data that was 5-14 years. old.

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<p>You have to look at long time frames to avoid having the data skewed by year to year variations. For example, one of the top univerities in the country, Duke, produced 20 future Chemistry PhDs. over a ten year period. If you look at a one-year, or even a three-year snapshot, your data will be all over the place, perhaps as low as zero or as many as five. Looking at the most recent 10 year period is the best available data. You can probably buy the annual National Science Foundation data if you would like to roll the ten year period forward, say to cover the decade from 1993 - 2002 instead of 1991-2000. But, there would not likely be a whole lot of signficant shifts over such a short difference in time.</p>

<p>I agree that adding professional schools to the data would be useful. But, apparently, nobody has gotten a massive grant to do that research in the way the National Science Foundation has been tracking PhDs since the 1920s.</p>

<p>Some schools provide USNEWS with a breakdown of what percentage go on to further study and how that group divides into Masters/PhD, Med, Law, MBA, Engineering, etc. Very informative statistics. Unfortunately, most schools do not provide that information in the USNEWs questionaire.</p>

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<p>Thanks much, everyone, for answering. I do feel that big schools are maligned on this board, and I feel like it's people like me who romanticize college and look through the rosy goggles of a viewbook, not really knowing anyting about college life but pretending I do because of my Fiske-PR expertise. </p>

<p>I was wondering if we could start talking about social life and extracurriculars now. Does the more intimate environment at a small school foster better friendships? Is it easier to get involved in new things at a small school? Does it tend to be more self-segregating at a big school? </p>

<p>Great thread guys!</p>

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<p>Yes it can be segregating at a big school only because there are more types of people to segregate. Small schools have less people, therefore less diversity so yes big schools can seem segregated.</p>

<p>I think I have made plenty of close friends here at U of I. I don't think a small evironment means closer in terms of everything, I just think it just means in terms of number of people. If you are going to make friendships you will have to try like anywhere else, sometimes friends just fall out of nowhere and they are your new good friend and sometimes after a lot of little conversations or activities together you end up liking someone more than you thought you would. Also jobs, dormmates, clubs, and classes are the number one things to bring people together so picking what feels like you is the most important.</p>

<p>At U of I, there is something called Quad Day where you can go and look at the myriad numbers of clubs they have at U of I (there are over 1,100) and write your email down and you get a notice for when the next meeting is. You can take yourself off that list if you don't want to join. And starting your own club is as easy as a president, treasurer, and mission statement. I'm not joking, it's that easy at U of I.</p>

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<p>Social and extracurricular life, just like academics, have drawbacks and advantages at LACs and at large school. Again, at a large school, a student must make an effort and be outgoing in order to benefit from the school's social and extracurricular offerings, but the offerings at a large university far exceed the offerings at a smaller university or LAC.</p>

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<p>Back to academics, for a moment if I may - one thing to consider is your own learning style. Do you do better in a give-and-take conversation/debate format? Do you enjoy that? If so, an LAC may be better for you. </p>

<p>Do you learn by listening and taking notes? Are you shy, and don't want to be called on in class? Then a bigger school with lectures may be better for you.</p>

<p>I made the mistake of going to a university (many eons ago) that had mainly lectures in the first two years. I hated it, although it is well respected. I did well and graduated from there, but don't know how much I really learned. There was a lot of spitting back my notes on exams, without much analysis.</p>

<p>Then I went to law school, where I also had big classes, but the Socratic method of question and answer worked really well for me. Strange to say, I enjoyed law school, because of this give and take and debate style.</p>

<p>So don't look at just what the big schools have or don't have, but on what you yourself need.</p>