Hydrogeology? Check out Skidmore if you haven’t already.
My son is also interested in geosciences. We visited Hatrwick and decided it is not a good fit or value compared with our state’s offerings.
(Edit: I see Skidmore was already mentioned sorry)
Another upstate LAC that might work for her is St. Lawrence. And they offer good merit aid.
Carolinenora, I can’t comment on UT because I don’t have direct experience. In general, students in less popular departments (because the course of study is of less popular interest rather than in situations where students avoid a department due to problems in it) even in larger schools probably get more opportunities than those majoring in popular ones. Faculty in popular topic can have literally hundreds of students clamoring to work with them. They often also have tons of grad students. The grad students oversee the undergrads. So, the tasks that the undergrads can be involved with can be pretty mundane, sometimes with little connection to the actual study and the faculty member may never even know the college students’ names. Profs in a less popular major may have trouble getting students interested in working in their labs. That could result in labs run entirely by the Prof and, if grant funded, employees or it could mean that the Prof has a very small group of college students and works directly with them, in which case the faculty member might nurture the student’s academic interests. If this happens, then the student may get to know the prof quite well.
Smaller classes are not usually the way professors make a genuine difference to students although it could lead to that. Interesting small classes are better than large boring ones (yes there are large interesting ones too). From here on, I am referring to situations that are more or less likely and usually or unusually (so in other words, not always or never but more or less likely). Professors play much larger roles in the lives of students at smaller school. The schools themselves are generally smaller, something that often leads to more overlap between profs and students while simply existing, such as eating lunch, working, walking between buildings. This interaction allows students to get to know about the academic lives and the intellectual ideas that the profs have that may have nothing to do with the topics in a class. Thus, they see their profs’ world in a way those at big schools usually don’t. A prof may have a party at his/her home or have some class sessions there-something very common in some small schools and unheard of in many universities. When students and prof interact in more informal settings, students get to know the side of the prof that seems more like themselves or the student’s own family rather than viewing the prof as an authority that exists at a podium. It is for these reasons that I think it understandable that some small schools have a disproportionate number of students who go on for PhD’s. They can see themselves living the life they see their professors living. I don’t think it is just because the small schools start off with strong students. Rather I think the climate nurtures the academic and intellectual aspirations of students in a way that large schools rarely do. These are the upsides of smaller schools. the downsides are well publicized.
Purpletitan, in addition to my other response, I will add that research isn’t all that matters for faculty trying to get tenure. They have to pass muster in service and teaching. The bar for teaching can be set low. At one place there is a oft repeated joke that any junior professor winning a teaching award won’t be around the next year. That is a double whammy. The often repeated message is that not only shouldn’t junior faculty be spending their time bothering to prepare for teaching but at a review the award and wonderful teaching evaluation won’t make up for even one fewer publication. I’ve watched those with teaching awards get booted.