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This is extremely dependent on the university versus the LAC. At an AAU school (ex: Cornell and Wisconsin), it’s very easy for students to get involved in research starting from their freshman year. At a large school with a limited research budget, your statement is somewhat more accurate. There are some LACs that are great for starting research as a freshman. Just look at Pomona or Carleton. There are other LACs that are not great for doing any type of research. But just going off your statement that large schools will be worse for research than smaller LACs could lead one to conclude that freshmen at schools like Columbia and UCLA have no opportunities to work with professors, something that could not be further from the truth.</p>