<p>What is the most significant difference between the two? Are there less research opportunities at one? Is one cheaper or less prestigious?
Thanks</p>
<p>LAC are normally less prestigious (they're less well known) and just as expensive as the universities. Most LACS offer less research opportunities, but the ones that do it easier to get involved with the research and play a more substantial role. </p>
<p>In addition, at LACS the colleges and classes are smaller so you get more individual attention from professors.</p>
<p>Most of the differences are directly size related:
Large = More options but less personal
Small = Fewer options but more personal</p>
<p>Bear in mind that there are levels of academic rigor in both large universities and small colleges. You can go to a prestigious LAC or a run of the mill university and vice versa. Same for cost; there's a range.</p>
<p>Prestige is relative to the person judging. The top LACs are plenty prestigious in the eyes of graduate and professional school admissions and people who do the hiring on Wall Street and Fortune 500 companies.</p>
<p>The most important viewpoint is your own. Where would you fit? What style of education suits your personal needs? </p>
<p>At an LAC your instructors are likely to be more accessible. You can certainly get ample personal attention at a big university but you have to be the squeaky wheel. For some 18 year olds this is challenging. For others it's part of the fun. </p>
<p>I went to a mega-sized university and my son to a small LAC. As far as I'm concerned he received a far better education and now as a graduate has better opportunities. On the other hand, everywhere I go in the world, everyone has heard of my university. Internationally, few people other than academics recognize my son's college's name, even though it's rated #1 by USNWR.</p>
<p>Besides things related to size, there's sometimes a philosophical difference between LACs and unis. Many universities have specialized schools of business, international service, communication, health, engineering, fine arts, etc., that offer pre-professional training that's quite concentrated and oriented toward practical, job-related learning. </p>
<p>An LAC is more likely to subscribe to a philosophy that it's more important to learn skills like critical thinking, good writing, persuasive speaking, and to have a broad acquaintance with the ways that various disciplines think about the world before you specialize, even thought they'll require a major that requires some depth/concentration in a single field. </p>
<p>A university may have a school of arts and sciences that's more oriented toward broader educational goals of so-called liberal education, but it's often hard to escape the ethos of the overall institution.</p>
<p>The problem is that if I am going to financially invest myself, I want to do so in a college with prestige. Are there any excellent computer science programs at LACs that offer very good merit aid or are just plain cheap?</p>
<p>There are no top lacs that are "cheap". There are relatively few of the top lacs that offer merit aid versus financial aid packages. There are quite a few lacs that are fantastic for the study of math,science including cs.</p>
<p>p&j, take a look at this thread from the Parents Board, <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/52133-schools-known-good-merit-aid.html%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/52133-schools-known-good-merit-aid.html</a>
Plenty of good schools there, both LACs and medium to large universities.</p>
<p>The truth is that the most selective (to some the most prestigious, though this is arguable) colleges and universities seldom offer merit. There are extenuating circumstances and special scholarships, however, so maybe you should start another thread asking the question another way, e.g., "Which colleges have good cs & offer merit aid?"</p>
<p>Are you sure you wouldn't qualify for need based aid?</p>
<p>Size and Name Recognition (for the most part)</p>
<p>Technically, the thing that makes a place a "university" is that it has graduate courses. Even if it just has one. Like an education masters program. So technically, you could have a school of 1500, but because it offers a graduate degree in even one subject, it is called a "university".</p>
<p>PeaceandJustice, are you planning to go on to graduate school? If so, I think you can include good universities with top 50 cs programs in your list of "possibles". Many of the highly ranked universities other than Ivy, Stanford and MIT do offer merit scholarships and also offer computer science majors. You do not have to have a degree from a very top-ranked cs department to go on to graduate school at prestigious institutions. Being a top student who has taken advantage of research opportunities and gotten to know profs who will write letters for you is important; Vanderbilt--as one example--is a mid-size university with a reputation for very accessible professors.</p>
<p>If you are planning on making an undergraduate degree your terminal degree, you probably should be looking at top-ranked programs; many of them are at large flagship publics.</p>
<p>When my son (a computer science and math major) was looking for a college, he came to the conclusion that LACs did not have enough research opportunities. He also discovered a dearth of merit scholarships at the top level LACs.</p>
<p>curlygirl61: Yes, that's supposed to be the distinction, but it really isn't. For example, Sarah Lawrence, Williams and many other small college do offer graduate degrees, although in small numbers.</p>
<p>There is no hard and fast distinction, but yours in a good rule of thumb.</p>
<p>Yes, I am planning to go to graduate school, maybe Ph.D straight after undergraduate if possible...also, I dont have a list of like the top 25/50 cs programs for undergraduate level, do you happen to have any</p>
<p>^^^I've never seen a ranking of undergraduate computer science as a stand-alone field. Usually (in my experience, which is limited) it is just lumped in with the entire undergraduate engineering program. That isn't terribly useful, though, since cs can be a very different program from the rest of the engineering majors. I also don't think looking at the graduate rankings is incredibly useful, although it does give an indication of how much externally-funded research is going on.</p>
<p>I think you would do well to look carefully at the web sites of colleges you are interested in, find the names of the undergraduate program directors, and contact them to ask about research availability for undergraduates and placement (job or graduate school) of recent graduates.</p>
<p>As a scientist wanna be who dreams to get into a top graduate school.. where should I go? Should I go to a university with many prestigious professors and high tech equipment even though I may not have the chance to touch them or go to a decent LAC with small name professors and slightly lesser equipment but I could make full use of them? </p>
<p>Bottom line: Where do I get a better shot in getting into Ivy League Science Graduate programs?</p>
<p>PS: Do you guys consider a top 20 LAC good enough to give me all that I need to get into a top grad program (especially when I am an international, will being an international matter at all?)</p>
<p>LAC better educate people than large universities. You have smaller classes and more of the professors time as oppose to a big school. I went to a liberal arts college for undergraduate and a bigger university for graduate. I thought the big university was a joke and very unorganized.</p>
<p>Ummm that would depend on the university. Some universities are more equal than others...</p>