<p>How does the education say in the top 10 LACs compare to that in top 10 National university. I am speaking purely in terms of academics and not prestige etc.</p>
<p>anyone ?????</p>
<p>Many people say that LACs give a better education, because they tend to have smaller classes, taught by full professors.
Others say that the opportunities for world-class research and facilities outweighs this, and Unis are better.
But most people, I think, realize that there is little actual difference between the top schools, in terms of what you learn. And by "top schools", I mean going a lot farther down the list than top 10. Perhaps one or the other, LACs or Unis, will provide a better experience for certain students, but at the level you mentioned, top 10 of each...they're all incredible. Top 10 Universities does not even include all the Ivies (and that's assuming that by "Top 10" you mean in USNews).</p>
<p>From my limited experience as a former student at a top-10 LAC, the coursework challenge and performance standards can be PROFOUND. I later attended a top-25 U (granted, not a top 10, but close!) and there is no doubt the caliber of education at the LAC was in general somewhat higher. At that time I was mostly involved in social sciences, so the differences I encountered were mostly related to:</p>
<p>1) a more demanding reading load (in terms of both complexity and sheer volume)
2) a typically more demanding, seminar-style class format (rather than lecture-style) where your content knowledge (or lack thereof) could be easily exposed and you were regularly put in a position to express yourself verbally;
and
3) more, and more involved, independent assignments, including research papers, than are "typical" at other institutions. Some assignments might be quite unusual and exceptionally demanding.
4) tougher tests and exams, no short answer, multiple-choice, true/false etc. to be found anywhere</p>
<p>Furthermore, fellow students who were involved in the sciences (many pre-med) certainly worked significantly harder than I did, again, with an empahsis on small classes and high performance standards- no multiple-choice or true/false tests to be found there either.
And almost everybody was smart.
So, although I can't give you a completely direct comparison, it was clearly the relatively small class sizes, undergraduate emphasis and personal attention that made the experience pretty intensive, and I can't really imagine a larger, top-10 U exceeding this experience on the undergrad level in any meaningful way.</p>
<p>Check out this thread "Harvard vs. LACs".
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=343141&highlight=harvard+lac%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=343141&highlight=harvard+lac</a></p>
<p>As the product of an LAC, I agree w/ weldon. I would also point out that I have a distinct advantage over someone from a large university in the fact that I can can actually WRITE. I'm not talking about a grammatically correct sentence. I can write a cohesive, well-structured and interesting report that people can actually understand. I truly believe has resulted from my well-rounded eductation and gives me a distinct advantage over those who did not attend LACs.</p>
<p>I think if you really know what you want to do, and you are incredibly good at it, a large school is better. But, if you go in, not really knowing what you want to study, a LAC is a better place to discover yourself.</p>
<p>One of the factors that US News uses to rank colleges and universities is the "alumni giving rate", which is the "average percent of undergraduate alumni of record who donated money to the college or university." According to US News, "The percent of alumni giving serves as a proxy for how satisfied students are with the school."</p>
<p>I don't have the statistics handy, but if you check US News, you will find that the top LACs generally outperform the top universities in this regard. It's not unusual for top LACs to have alumni giving rates in excess of 50%. In other words, they can count on most of their alumni to donate money to the college every year.</p>
<p>Only a handful of universities have comparable giving rates. Those that do tend to be smaller-than-average universities with a greater-than-average focus on undergraduate education, like Dartmouth or Princeton. In other words, the universities with the highest giving rates tend to have LAC-like characteristics. </p>
<p>If you agree with US News that the alumni giving rate is a "proxy" for student satisfaction, then the LACs must be doing something right.</p>
<p>Damn good...</p>
<p>LAC's usually have some of the most loyal alumni. Williams, Amherst, Bowdoin, Holy Cross, Davidson, Wellesley all have alumni giving rates in the 50% range.</p>
<p>How about in terms of overall undergraduate experience including pretige etc. </p>
<p>I have heard many people say its like </p>
<h2>top 10 universities</h2>
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<h2>Huge Gap</h2>
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<p>top 10 LACs</p>
<p>because universities easily beat the LACs in terms of prestige and thus graduates from universities get better grad school placements and jobs...
is that true?</p>
<p>It's not. Top recruiters from LACs include Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan.</p>
<p>Thats not true... In the world of Academia, a grad school knows what coming from a school like Swarthmore means. And actually because a LA degree isn't a specialized degree, many students will go on to grad school. I don't know the numbers off the top of my head but, I do believe Swarthmore has one of the top graduate school admission percentages over both LACs and Universities.
Depending on region going to a LAC, and then entering the professional world, schools might not be as well recognized. But big name companies are known to recruit at the LACs.</p>
<p>Only 2 universties have alumni giving rates of 50% or more - Princeton and Dartmouth, whereas there are 19 LACs in the same category.</p>
<p>Swatty has the highest econ PhD rate of ANY school, and many LACs are right behind it on that list. Obviously LAC students aren't put at a disadvantage</p>
<p>supern3rd</p>
<p>I see by the information provided you are new to CC…..</p>
<p>Go to the search engine provided by CC and search for interesteddad…look over his past posts and you will find a lot of information comparing the advantages of LAC vs. universities </p>
<p>I think but it's only my thinking that most people will get a better education at a top 10 LAC than at a top 10 university</p>
<p>You ask do graduates from universities get better grad school placements no, see list provided below</p>
<p>Percentage of graduates receiving a doctorate degree. </p>
<p>1 California Institute of Technology 35.8%
2 Harvey Mudd College 24.7%
3 Swarthmore College 21.1%
4 Reed College 19.9%
5 Massachusetts Institute of Technology 18.3%
6 Carleton College 16.8%
7 Bryn Mawr College 15.8%
8 Oberlin College 15.7%
9 University of Chicago 15.3%
10 Yale University 14.5%
11 Princeton University 14.3%
12 Harvard University 14.3%
13 Grinnell College 14.1%
14 Haverford College 13.8%
15 Pomona College 13.8%
16 Rice University 13.1%
17 Williams College 12.7%
18 Amherst College 12.4%
19 Stanford University 11.4%
20 Kalamazoo College 11.3%
21 Wesleyan University 11.0%
22 St John's College (both campus) 10.6%
23 Brown University 10.6%
24 Wellesley College 10.4%
25 Earlham College 10.0%
26 Beloit College 9.6%
27 Lawrence University 9.5%
28 Macalester College 9.3%
29 Cornell University, All Campuses 9.0%
30 Bowdoin College 9.0%
31 Mount Holyoke College 8.9%
32 Smith College 8.9%
33 Vassar College 8.8%
34 Case Western Reserve University 8.7%
35 Johns Hopkins University 8.7%
36 St Olaf College 8.7%
37 Hendrix College 8.7%
38 Hampshire College 8.6%
39 Trinity University 8.5%
40 Knox College 8.5%
41 Duke University 8.5%
42 Occidental College 8.4%
43 University of Rochester 8.3%
44 College of Wooster 8.3%
45 Barnard College 8.3%
46 Bennington College 8.2%
47 Columbia University in the City of New York 8.1%
48 Whitman College 8.0%
49 University of California-Berkeley 7.9%
50 College of William and Mary 7.9%</p>
<p>51 Carnegie Mellon University 7.8%
52 New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology 7.8%
53 Brandeis University 7.7%
54 Dartmouth College 7.6%
55 Wabash College 7.5%
56 Bates College 7.5%
57 Davidson College 7.5%
58 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 7.2%
59 Franklin and Marshall College 7.2%
60 Fisk University 7.1%
61 Wheaton College (Wheaton, IL) 7.1%
62 University of California-San Francisco 6.8%
63 Allegheny College 6.8%
64 Furman University 6.6%
65 University of Pennsylvania 6.5%
66 Washington University 6.5%
67 Bard College 6.5%
68 Northwestern Univ 6.4%
69 Rhodes College 6.4%
70 Agnes Scott College 6.3%
71 Spelman College 6.3%
72 Antioch University, All Campuses 6.2%
73 Kenyon College 6.2%
74 University of Dallas 6.2%
75 Ripon College 6.1%
76 Colorado College 6.1%
77 Bethel College (North Newton, KS) 6.1%
78 Hamilton College 6.0%
79 Goshen College 6.0%
80 Middlebury College 6.0%
81 Erskine College 6.0%
82 University of the South 5.9%
83 University of Michigan at Ann Arbor 5.8%
84 Drew University 5.8%
85 Wake Forest University 5.8%
86 Tougaloo College 5.8%
87 Goucher College 5.8%
88 Chatham College 5.7%
89 Cooper Union 5.7%
90 Alfred University, Main Campus 5.7%
91 Tufts University 5.7%
92 University of California-Santa Cruz 5.6%
93 Colgate University 5.6%
94 Colby College 5.5%
95 Bucknell University 5.4%
96 Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology 5.4%
97 Concordia Teachers College 5.4%
98 University of Virginia, Main Campus 5.4%
99 Sarah Lawrence College 5.3%
100 Southwestern University 5.3%</p>
<p>This is just the proportion of people pursuing doctorates...it says nothing about the quality of the graduate programs.</p>
<p>Look at this list from the WSJ:</p>
<p>While this is a somewhat flawed and limited study, notice Williams is #5, Amherst #9, Swarthmore, Pomona, Wellesly, and many more rank very highly, without any of them having any grad schools themselves.</p>
<p>That list, if anything, highlights a schools preprofessional inclination (its only for law, medicine, and business) I think that the PhD rate is much more indicative of academic inclination, Statistics like # of Fulbright Scholars, etc. can also be indicative.</p>