One point on WUSTL’s size – there are about 7600 undergraduates on the Danforth campus. About the same as Notre Dame’s 8400 and smaller than BC’s 9100.
What makes WUSTL seem a bit larger is that there are about 5700 MBA, law and graduate students on the Danforth campus as well. The Medical School and associated hospitals are across Forest Park – with 1900 students.
Despite its size, I think there is a bit of LAC feeling at WUSTL – particularly because layout of campus resembles a “college cloister” similar to UChicago. Notre Dame and BC are more spread out – particularly Notre Dame with its two lakes and expanding residences.
7600 is more than triple the student body of Williams or Amherst and six times that of Swat (from memory–may be a tad off). WUSTL is not an LAC by any measure.
Plus WUSTL has night school, continuing education type stuff. That’s not very LAC at all.
@millie210 You are correct about more cross registration between Bryn Mawr and Haverford than with the other 2 colleges in the Quaker Consortium. BM and Haverford are pretty seamlessly connected and one can pretty much treat one campus as the extension of another. However, students still take classes at the other 2 schools, just not as frequently because students like the path of least resistance. The shuttle buses go between Haverford, BM, and Swarthmore multiple times per day, though.
@merc81 one of the great things about some of the elite LAC school Astronomy programs like at Wesleyan is that undergraduates can use the equipment even in their freshman year. Most of the larger research universities don’t let the undergraduates use the schools’ equipment, certainly not without supervision. At the top LACs undergraduates are doing the research, contributing data and driving the telescopes!