I know this has been discussed a lot, but I still haven’t determined any clear advantages or disadvantages of going to a liberal arts college. They have smaller class sizes, yes, but can’t you have smaller classes or breakout seminars at universities? And they say you can foster close relationships with your professors at liberal arts schools, but can’t you just incessantly go to office hours to become close with your professors? And I guess I have another question: I am struggling to find NOTICEABLE and VAST differences between LACs like Colgate, Bucknell, Davidson, Hamilton, etc. Could anyone enlighten me? Obviously there are differences but I have yet to find anything that completely turns me off to each school. Granted, maybe I just haven’t researched these places enough but the role of Athletics, academic levels, etc. all seem similar. This would be disregarding location. (My philosophy is rather to narrow my college list before applications than narrow it down after acceptances/financial aid).
The modern term “liberal arts college” means the school only offers ungraduate degrees and the sole teaching is undergraduate. Bucknell University offers Masters Degrees so technically it is a University.
Don’t assume liberal arts college only teach and are strong in humanities. It isn’t true. Some are stronger in sciences than major universities.
The schools you mentioned are very similar but if you applied to all you wouldn’t get into all. You have to find the one that you like the most.
When I took freshman biology the class was 500 students and taught by a TA. My son’s is 30 and taught by a full professor that often follows the students for lunch.
No doubt you will learn more and be required to participate in a class of 30. Some classes in liberal arts colleges can half that amount.
Your questions are completely natural at an early stage. But there are meaningful differences, both between universities and LACs, and within the LAC category.
For example, at a university seminars may most commonly be led by graduate students. This would be impossible at a true LAC because there are no graduate students. Beyond that, at a LAC students may occasionally meet at a professor’s home for dinner and discussion. This type of interaction would be either rarer or nonexistent at a university. As @TimeToBreath, said, depends what you like.
Regarding differences within the LAC category, one preliminary way to assess them is by athletic conference. Some colleges have scholarship athletes and division I sports (e.g., Colgate and Bucknell, and most Patriot League schools), while others have division 3 sports that prohibit athletic scholarships and certain types of recruiting (e.g., Hamilton, other NESCAC colleges.) Although this may seem superficial, it does have some bearing on the educational philosophies of the schools.
Once you start to learn about these and other, more specific, differences you should know pretty quickly which type of college appeals to you most.
At a large university, assuming your class is taught by a professor, you will be able to meet with the prof during office hours. I know some of them wish they were visited more often, as many students choose to just email them instead. I have heard of a large first semester calculus class at a large flagship where the prof doesn’t have office hours and the students only meet with the TAs, but I hope that is rare.
The common generalizations (with plenty of exceptions in specific schools and departments):
LACs have smaller faculty led classes, particularly at the frosh soph level. Research universities have wider ranges of subjects and courses, offered more frequently, particularly at the junior senior level. But check catalogs and schedules to see if the generalizations are true for a specific school.
At some large universities, there is priority (and pressure) put on having professors generate income and publicity for their employer by garnering research grants and working with the graduate students to produce results that the market wants to pay for. The professors need to publish books or papers. Teaching undergraduates is just not able to be their top priority.
At LACs, there is going to be a varying degree of research happening, but more chance of the professors involving the undergrad students. My D starting working in the chem lab her first semester, and started preliminary research her third semester. This fourth semester she is getting to choose her own research and get started (with her professor’s guidance.) She has been promoted within the lab, and is actually working as a TA in the general chemistry labs. (At her LAC, the professor is always in the lab, and they just add a TA to the class as an additional helper for the students.) And she just got promoted to be the highest ranking student employee in the entire chem dept.
I say all that to let you know that small departments can be a great place to get hands on experience and make a name for yourself with your professors. Yes, you can track down a professor at a large university and ask a question, but will that prof remember you when he sees you walking across the campus the next day? My D is setting herself up to gain valuable research experience and hopefully get a great professor recommendation for grad school applications.
LAC vs University is not a right or wrong decision. Some folks feel more comfortable hiding out in a large lecture class of 200 students. And some kids feel lost in that same size class. I attended college with less than 500 students, and it was really too small a population to easily find a tribe of like minded folks. I enjoyed a lot about my school, and am glad now that it has doubled in size and is thriving with all the different types of student.
It is great that you are checking out colleges now and looking to narrow your list. My D dropped a couple colleges as the deadlines for apps got too close to deal with it all. It would have been much less pressure to narrow the list early on.
I recommend a Book called “Admission Possible” by Marjorie Hansen Shaevitz. It helped my D think about what qualities she was looking for in a college, and that helped her narrow her list. We found a copy at our local library, but you can also buy it on Amazon.
I suggest you visit one LAC, one mid-size university, and one large university and the differences should be pretty apparent. One type of school is not better than the other – it is about finding an environment where you will be comfortable and thrive.
At uni’s (yeah, even Harvard), most written comments are by TAs, most students will only be known by name by a professor or two, and most professors are under tremendous pressure to (A) publish extensively and (B) work with grad students, whereas the profs at an LAC are there to (A) teach and (B) foster undergrads.