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I don’t claim that you can’t/shouldn’t got to Smith or Reed, only that you should be aware that cutting edge research isn’t being done there if that’s an important factor for you. I should add that while cutting edge research may or may not be done at a university, my nephew (at Rice) got his name on “the paper of the century” (according to dh) while doing summer research in the DC area not at Rice. But he had a great experience at Rice! And was doing research starting before classes started freshman year!</p>
<p>Caltech is in sort of a class of its own - it’s tiny undergrad size means it has many similarities to an LAC, but it’s got at least twice as many grad students and also is a science institute and doesn’t exactly pretend to be terribly well rounded.</p>