<p>The tom cech article is interesting but he cherry-picked his interviewees. Furthermore, after citing the statistics, the rest of the article involved opinions, which is fine.
For one thing, I would love to see stats supporting the claim that UGs at LAC publish as often as those at universities. The success stories he provides (Baltimore, Jennifer and others) are about people who graduated from what i called the elite LACs (Swathmore, pomona etc). The success cannot be attributed to the atmosphere at the LAC per se. Now Jennifer’s pretty young, so she might be worth comparing. But Baltimore, Varmus and Cech, who are outstanding Nobel prize winners, their experience at LACs were in the 60s-early 70s. I imagine that in the 60s and 70s the curriculum was quite similar between the two classes of schools and the chasm between LACs and research Universities widened in the 80’s as technology became a larger component of education. It will continue to grow IMO</p>