<p>Does the amount of money devoted towards research matter if I want to get involved in it heavily and go on to get a science doctorate? I think I would prefer the small/teaching-focused/humanities-leaning environment of an LAC, but I don't want to go somewhere which won't have enough research opportunities for me to be a competitive applicant to grad schools with good funding.</p>
<p>Check the LACs of interest and ask about research. Don’t just say “do you have research” because most will likely truthfully say yes. Ask how to see the professor biographies for the professors in your field of interest; they will have a list of publications and research areas listed. You could even ask how many of those publications and research projects are shared with undergrads. Granted, they have less of it than the big state schools do, but many do have some, and what there is isn’t taken by the better-qualified grad students. </p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>I think the NESCAC as a whole is a somewhat buried treasure among American elite colleges, but Wesleyan in particular deserves special notice for the degree to which the entire school seems devoted to research at a very fine level. As Science Fact #7 in the cite below reveals, Wesleyan is awarded more federal grants than any other LAC, nominally or per capita, including Amherst and Williams:
[Why</a> Science at Wes?, Sciences at Wesleyan - Wesleyan University](<a href=“http://www.wesleyan.edu/sciences/why-science-at-wes.html]Why”>http://www.wesleyan.edu/sciences/why-science-at-wes.html)</p>
<p>One bit of trivia reveals why: Wesleyan is one of only two LACs in the entire country that awards graduate degrees at the doctorate level (the other, Bryn Mawr, doesn’t appear to award enough of them in the same scientific fields to compete with Wesleyan for federal funds.)</p>