<p>Ok, so what are the pros and cons of having a large amount of grad students in comparison to undergrads and what are the pros and cons of having a smaller number of graduate students compared to undergrads?(from an undergrad perspective, of course)</p>
<p>Based on personal experience or what you've heard, how do graduate schools affect an undergrad education?</p>
<p>Stanford, Harvard and Columbia among others all have way more graduate students than they do undergrads. However, Brown, Dartmouth and Princeton among others have very few grad students in comparison to their undergrad population. </p>
<p>So, in your opinion, which is better? Why?</p>
<p>I went to a top grad focused school and transferred to a top undergrad focused one. I greatly preferred the latter. There was so much more support and contact with professors and administrators. Grants/ scholarships were much easier to obtain, and overall the school community was much more tightknit because of it in my experience. At the undergrad level you aren't doing nuclear level research anyway, its amazing to have the whole campus focused on your level of education.</p>
<p>Schools with a large proportion of undergrads are going to devote a larger amount of their resouces to undergrad education. They know that is their "bread and butter" so undgrad education is a top priority.</p>
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So, in your opinion, which is better?
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<p>Neither, and it frustrates me to no end when people here put down one to boost perceptions of the other. They're different styles, and everyone is not served best by the same choice.</p>
<p>Personally, I enjoyed being around grad students. I could talk to them about what grad school was like (as their memories, unlike those of the profs, were current) and get advice and perspective. In large classes (and even small schools are going to have a few large classes) the grad TAs were essential, and they were sometimes better teachers than the profs. I liked being at a school that was research-driven, as opposed to teaching-driven, because I just like that environment better (it was important to me in picking a school), and research-driven schools tend to have grad students. Opportunities for undergrads to do research were expanded, because instead of one professor wanting one undergrad to help with research, the lab might want an undergrad for each grad student to help. And I liked being able to make friends with a wider age range of people.</p>
<p>There are downsides, obviously, and I'm sure people will do a great job of telling you what they are, because I've noticed that that's the way CC tends to roll in these threads.</p>
<p>As for large vs. small, my ideal is "Small enough that you aren't completely lost in the crowd, but large enough that there are lots of options for classes, and lots of subfields represented with some depth in each, and the classes are offered frequently enough that scheduling isn't a hassle." This is a really fine line.</p>