The adjuncts who really want to be professors are IMO exploited, overworked and possibly inferior to full professors for a variety of reasons.
Professional who occasionally teach their unique skills/knowledge, semi-retired professors and the like are in a different category.
It would be nice to know which type a particular school is employing.
Pretty sure the second category is a drop in the bucket, sadly.
Here’s an example in which an LAC wasn’t chosen over a university, a decision that was later regarded as a “greatest regret”: https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/10/15/charlie-baker-takes-proust-questionnaire/p2B2GsYFIUnYnVLsZCiX3I/story.html.
@marvin100 totally agree. That is the ONLY problem I have with adjuncts. Getting a full-time position is luck and being in the right place at the right time and very rare. Adjuncts can be vastly superior to full-time professors even as mentors.
Two of my lads chose LACs and loved them. The other chose a medium sized research U and loved it. All three knew which they wanted by visiting and what felt like “home” to them.
All three are doing just fine as graduates and none have regrets about their choices. All three knew their professors well and occasionally went to their houses or met at the dining hall with them. All three were involved on campus doing things they liked.
H and I went to a large state U and loved it with no regrets. We’re doing fine as graduates too. We didn’t know our professors as well as our lads did, but it was a different era for college back in our day.
Truly… different strokes for different folks.
The academic job market is fiercely competitive and can seem arbitrary, much like a HS student seeking admission into a T20 school. The odds are similar if not worse; for one position, even niche categories, it’s not uncommon to see an applicant pool of 100 or more, of which well over half have the qualifications to do the job. It often comes down to perceived “fit” - what will the applicant bring to the position that complements or builds upon existing departmental strengths?
I know plenty of full time adjuncts who are extremely capable and dedicated. Also a common scenario for an academic couple is that one spouse gets the tenure track position and the other has to make do with whatever is available. If we’re talking an isolated LAC, there will be very few opportunities, given how specialized the academic job market is. That does not necessarily mean that the trailing spouse is less competent.
Not all adjuncts are created equal. In addition to the moonlighting professionals described above, those categorized as predoctoral or postdoctoral teaching fellows, lecturers, or visiting faculty (often filing in for regular faculty on leave) generally earn a humane wage, have dignified teaching loads, and will have more time and energy to teach well.
I would hope that private LACs treat their adjuncts better than itinerant adjuncts at community colleges and public universities that earn abysmal rates of pay, especially when one considers the time and expense of obtaining a PhD.
As for the OPs original question, if you are a “life of the mind” personality and aspire to grad school, LACs can be an excellent choice. @TheGreyKing summed up most of the advantages upthread.
I’m pretty sure most of the selective LACs don’t even employ adjuncts, @mamaedefamilia . I know my alma m. doesn’t–hell, it doesn’t even have teaching TAs.
@marvin100 For highly selective LACs, you are correct. I do know of contingent faculty at lesser ranked, regional LACs.
@mamaedefamilia and @marvin100 yes, my LAC alma mater is pretty typical, I think, in that it has only 3% adjunct. I wonder, though, about the old practice of having spouses share a full-time position which my school employed pretty frequently when I was there. The school would get two for the price of one. It was better in the sense that neither spouse had to take sloppy seconds but each only had half a salary. I bet professors in that position are still counted as “full-time” because they get benefits and such, although they do have a reduced courseload.
The way professors get tenure at LACs is different, than say any large research oriented school. LAC professors must be good teachers, first and foremost and must love teaching or they will get very bored at an LAC. It becomes a routine job, for some and a bit of a bubble for some. I think interacting with graduate students was the most helpful part of my undergraduate education! (STEM) Grad students taught me how to thin a sample for an electron microscope, and how to use a lathe. They also told me their fears about the PhD program. Professors never go over that part ! Graduate students often mentor undergrads much better than professors, because they are closer in age, and understand the decision process well, to go to grad school or professional school.
So in my opinion, some of the best interactions I had is missing at LACs, and I did go to a smaller school and have dinner with professors about three for four times over the four undergraduate years. It was a pretty close relationship and eventually resulted in me coming back after two years away, for a PhD. One of my professors even flew me
to a solar energy research lab to encourage me to get a PhD. So I felt I had no lack of close professor interaction.
Also I was somewhat undecided about a STEM major, and the larger university, I could actually walk into a plasma physics tokamak lab, and a wind tunnel, and a microscopy lab and see that stuff first hand!
At an LAC, there is often one spectroscopy machine in chemistry, and an ancient telescope on campus.
I felt like I was going back to the 1920s for science when I visited Swarthmore College, for instance, with my son.
And i know Swarthmore IS a fantastic school with a masters like research program in every major. that about 1/3 of the students take advantage of, It just seems very limiting in the sciences.
@Coloradomama the grad student connection is one reason I encouraged my oldest to go to a large research university (STEM major). I had read a take by a PhD candidate who talked about how all of their grad school applicants come from LACs because the LAC students have never met real grad students in STEM and don’t understand the poor prospects for finding jobs in research, how hard grad school life is, etc. If you meet grad students as an undergrad it’s easier to get a sense of what things are and to know whether it will be the right path.
On the other hand, my D just completed a couple dozen phone interviews she arranged with alumni of her LAC and her major, about grad school and careers (or both) and sort of generally what they did and are doing after graduation.
Her LAC made this directory of interested alumni available to her and all of the ones she spoke to were eager to help a student at their alma mater.
So, YMMV.
@OHMomof2 I get that. I went to a small LAC and loved so much about it. Having alumni connections is not the same as seeing the grind, though. I would have appreciated that perspective as an undergrad. The only picture I saw on a daily basis were tenured professors which is fantasyland for someone who wants to go further. I did get that perspective when I studied at a large research university overseas and it was really eye-opening for me. But I wish I had seen it sooner. The alums you are going to see in those directories are not the ones who dropped out of grad school or who are forever ABD because they have kids. At least not from my LAC.
Agreed, @CCtoAlaska . D’s ruled out grad school in any case, unless there’s a reason to do it later. She is very clear she doesn’t want an academic career.
…and now that I think on it, she spent the better part of two college summers working with grad students on research projects at a large U, and that might be part of the reason she “gets” it.
Wow, this is all so interesting to me. My D is at an LAC and this helps me realize that she should make sure to spend some time in more ‘real world’ research facilities. I think in her mind it’s all field research and teaching.
Do you recommend PhD science research track or should I encourage my D to run away, lol?
@OHMomof2 yes, I bet that helped a lot.
@AlmostThere2018 I don’t know but I know all my friends who became scientists suffered a lot. It’s probably depends on the field but funding seems to be scarce and post doc life can go on forever. I had an acquaintance on their 10th postdoc - no actual job in sight. They ended up adjuncting at CC. I don’t think it’s about not doing it, more about being realistic about that “it” is, KWIM?
So, grad students and TAs have gradually transitioned from their former trope as stiff competition for what little time and attention a professor has outside the classroom, to departmental Cassandras warning the young and innocent away from the field? Interesting. 
Ha!
Go for where you fit and will thrive. That’s more than the most obvious name recognition.
At an LAC, there can be “students (from) all over the world, different religions and races and views on world events…chance(s) to live in a dorm or apartment or sorority house, or co-op…dinners hosted by (kids of other religions or ethnicities,)” etc, plus diverse local restaurants. There can be profs working intensely in your major, offering that exposure and your own opps.
Not at all LACs.