<p>Access to a research university can allow a student at a LAC to access a greater variety of advanced undergraduate courses, graduate level courses, and research opportunities. This is mainly an advantage to a more advanced student who could potentially exhaust the offerings at the LAC (e.g. a likely math major who has completed calculus BC as a high school junior and is now taking college sophomore math as a high school senior).</p>
<p>What math will you complete by high school graduation?</p>
<p>For economics, if you want to go to graduate school in economics, look for an economics department that emphasizes math and statistics in economics at a school with decent math and statistics departments (sometimes combined). This often includes an intermediate (sophomore/junior level) microeconomics course that has a math prerequisite beyond freshman calculus.</p>
<p>For engineering, it is generally best to go to a school which offers it “natively” instead of through a 3+2 program – 3+2 programs are commonly advertised, but have a number of issues (e.g. uncertainly about admission and financial aid to the “2” school, not wanting to transfer away from the friendly small LAC to a giant university to finish engineering, etc.) that may make it less likely to complete an engineering degree. (However, a very focused student may be able to use a 3+2 program to complete an engineering degree with more non-major courses than otherwise, due to the total of 5 instead of 4 years of schedule space.)</p>