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I love the tight knit community and stuff of LACs and i was considering carleton bowdin and middlebury. I know since they are smaller they dnt have the huge opportunities of bigger schools. But this could be better in finding lab work and stuff right?
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You should look closely at specific schools, maybe talk to some undergrads about what their experiences have been like, but in general top LACs also have good sciences with plenty of opportunities, though which ones are strongest in your areas of interest will vary. </p>
<p>I suggest you definitely check out Wesleyan if you like Brown—we have a similar kind of student body but with a smaller LAC feel. But we do have some tiny grad programs in science (small enough that we're still considered and LAC). That means grad school level funding and research, but with TONS of openings for undergrads because there are only a handful of grad students. I don't know a single science student who couldn't get a job in a lab here if they wanted one, and the research being done is new — maybe not the same kind of cutting edge stuff done at a big uni, but still pretty neat, according to my science friends.
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There's cut-throat/competitive and there's co-operative. There's laid-back/easy and there's intense/stressful. I feel like "strong academically with a laid back atmosphere" is a contradiction. You get out what you put in. I agree that Reed is strong academically, intense, stressful for some, but students are highly co-operative, learning together. I think many schools have these features.
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I don't agree that strong academics and laid back atmosphere are a contradiction, since I experience it at my school. I mean, sure, if you want so laid back that nobody is ever doing work, you can sit around and chill or party all day everyday with anyone you want, that's not going to be a strong academic school. But there are different ways to approach work—from talking to my friends at Reed, people tend to approach it very intensely, leading to an intense not laid back atmosphere. I mean, when I was visiting it as a pre-frosh, a friend there told me "don't starts smoking (cigarettes), it takes too much time away from studying." </p>
<p>To me, that's insane…people who smoke at Wes find the time to do it without feeling like it takes away from their work. Indeed, a cigarette break may become a half-hour chat on the porch with friends, and that's ok, just get back to work later. (Of course, smoking is bad for you, and my friend was also being slightly hyperbolic, but the point remains).</p>
<p>Now, I know everyone at Reed (and other schools that are often considered similar, like UChicago) doesn't have the same experience, and it's a great school and the right atmosphere for some, but I definitely think that there is a difference between Reed's intense (but cooperative)/good academics and Wesleyan's (or Brown, or etc) laid back (and cooperative)/good academics: all have strong academics, but the atmosphere is different. Of course, both of those are different from Local Party State U's laid-back-party-every-day/not so good academics. They are also both different from Cuthroat U's intense (because cutthroat)/good academics. Different strokes for different folks. </p>
<p>PS. That's not to say every Local State U is like that!</p>