<p>"My kid attends a small school, although not a CTCL school. He loves the small environment. My son likes class discussion, wants to know his professors, wants easy access to professor office hours (you can get this at large Us too), prefers writing papers and essays to MC exams and he does not want to remain anonymous in the classroom. He is very outgoing. He is there for 2 mos. and he has already had a meal with one of his professors. </p>
<p>I am not saying that everything has gone perfectly, but he is just so happy and loving his experience so far.</p>
<p>I will also add that my son is not in as isolated an environment as some of the CTCL schools. I do think this is a plus, but not as major of a factor as I thought it would be. There is something to be said for easy access to food and clothing stores, pharmacy, and office/school supply chain without having a car. "</p>
<p>Could you please tell me what school your S or D is attending? Is it in the northeast as your name implies and what is your students major? Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>“Georgetown, Penn, etc. are medium sized schools, imo, not big schools. Perhaps we are not all on the same page.”</p>
<p>Perhaps, although you mentioned Chicago and Syracuse as forming two thirds of your evidence about “big” schools. Penn has around 10,000 undergrads; Syracuse 13,000; Chicago 5,000.</p>
<p>During our visit to Univ of Maryland, my daughter attended a genetics class, which was in a large lecture hall. She said the professor knew students by name and the class did not feel large. They used large video screens, in which it was easy to see the presentation slides. </p>
<p>Maryland tends to use TA’s only for labs and breakout group discussions. I think the role of TA’s is exaggerated by those who are not part of the experience.</p>
<p>AP credits can really cause a challenge at freshman registration. Schools typically save spaces/have a bunch of empty sections of all the “intro to” /101 classes. The more advanced classes tend to fill up, leaving the freshman with a bunch of AP credits taking classes that he doesn’t need.</p>
<p>I will chime in about the large school experience.</p>
<p>I graduated from University of Michigan (26,000 undergrads). My daughter just transferred out of University of South Carolina (20,000 undergrads).</p>
<p>My daughter’s advisor at Univ of South Carolina was some sort of costume designer in the Theater department. For someone who actually needed guidance, she was useless.</p>
<p>My daughter was required to take freshmen writing courses both semesters. Both were taught by graduate students. I would say that my daughter learned next to nothing in both of these classes. For example, NONE of the assignments turned in by my daughter in semester two were returned with comments or even a grade. She had NO CLUE what grade she would receive for this course until it was posted at the end of the semester.</p>
<p>My daughter’s math class was also taught by a graduate student. All assignments were completed online, and there were 50 people in the class. My daughter struggled with math before being placed in this class and she struggled afterwards also. </p>
<p>So for my daughter, I would think that a small college with professors as instructors would have been more likely to provide her with valuable learning experiences than was the case at a large state university.</p>
<p>As for my experience at University of Michigan, I attended a large lecture course which was excellent because the caliber of professors was very high and they lectured well. Also, I did encounter a professor who took a personal interest in me and advised me to take an honors class I wouldn’t have known about otherwise. Another professor invited me over to his house for dinner – so I had many good experiences at my big university.</p>
<p>Part of it I think has to do with the particular student. I was a strong student and professors took an interest in me. My daughter is an average student, and the classes provided to her by TAs did little to help her become a better student.</p>
<p>Perhaps, although you mentioned Chicago and Syracuse as forming two thirds of your evidence about “big” schools. Penn has around 10,000 undergrads; Syracuse 13,000; Chicago 5,000. </p>
<p>Eh? Yes, Syracuse=big school, CU=big school. As for Chicago- it’s all about the graduate schools there. They don’t really care about undergrads for the most part. </p>
<p>I went to all three, one as an undergrad and two as a graduate student and I was TA at both Syracuse and Chicago.</p>
<p>There’s a lot of caring about undergraduates at Chicago, at least these days. The quality of the formal advising is spotty, but neither of my kids has remotely felt it was all about the graduate schools. Both had some graduate students as teachers, most of which were terrific. Which was my experience in college as well. (I was a strong student, and professors took an interest in me, but sometimes I really needed the TA to help me bridge the gap between where I was and where I had to be to get the benefit of what the professors offered. And some of my TAs were at the beginning of pretty gaudy careers as teachers – it was like seeing Springsteen at the Stone Pony.)</p>
<p>Style difference: A friend of my children’s, who graduated from a large public university and is now a PhD student at Penn: “I can’t believe the amount of handholding that goes on! I get all these e-mails reminding me of upcoming deadlines and things I have to take care of. At my college, they only sent e-mails to tell me that I had missed some deadline and now there was no way I could ever fix it.”</p>
<p>In general, though, I think the educational differences among LACs and universities are less than people tend to imagine. They exist, but they are marginal differences, not night-and-day.</p>
<p>Hanna, you are free to believe one gets as good as or a better education at a big school than a small school. I don’t believe one does. </p>
<p>Chicago is much more of a graduate institute - in fact I would argue that the undergraduates college there is more an afterthought - at least in the 80’s when I was there and I would never lump UofC into the LAC category who, for the most part, have few graduate programs or grad students.</p>
<p>So you haven’t been at Chicago for over two decades and still think you’re familiar enough with the university to make an informed opinion about it? Universities in general have changed quite a bit since the 80s. In particular, Chicago has changed quite a bit, especially in the past five years, as the realization has set in that the Chicago institutional model has failed.</p>
<p>Chicago focuses quite a bit of attention on the College nowadays. In fact, it has been noted that Zimmer is moving the university toward being undergraduate-centered, for which Boyer has been advocating. Chicago still has a reputation as a graduate school, but that’s only because public opinion lags about 10 years. As JHS noted, though, Chicago doesn’t have a lot of hand-holding, so in that sense, it’s not like an LAC. (At least in my classes, this is true. According to a few of my friends that are first-years, the professors have made the Core classes a lot less laissez-faire than they were three years ago.)</p>
<p>Remember, it was Zimmer who pushed Chicago toward the Common Application. It was the effect of apathy on the part of the University’s former presidents toward the College that such a move was never made before. Quite obviously, Zimmer sees the College as a great opportunity to enhance the University, and we can see reflections of that line of thought in the changes that have been made in the past couple of years.</p>
<p>I’m a parent, posting on the parent thread, so of course my personal experience was from a few decades ago. </p>
<p>I am glad to hear Chicago is becoming more undergraduate sensitive. </p>
<p>However, this does not change my overall opinion on big schools. Other people may have a different opinion, and that is fine, also. </p>
<p>I loved being in Boulder for college but I just did not get nearly as good an education as I would have if I had gone to the small LAC I was admitted to. It was the biggest mistake of my life.</p>
<p>emilybee
I am so glad that I read this-My D is going to a small LAC and I am happy for her but it is so small-I guess you just have fewer friends etc… alot of people think going to the BIG university is great- I don’t know how it can be a better education though!</p>