<p>@International95 I think the most I can apply to would be 8 schools, if I jump through the form filling hoops our admissions office has… Our officer has a rather short temper, and to be honest I’m reluctant to go behind his back with applying to different schools because he has had rather bad reactions to similar events with other students in the past.</p>
<p>I find that absurd and impractical. It sounds as if the school wants to limit over-paying and encourages this policy so students can make “smarter decisions.” But now, with practically every student across the nation applying to 12+ schools, you simply will have minimal success securing a spot at top university regardless of your stats. </p>
<p>What a backwards policy. It puts you and the school at a disadvantage, therefore violating the very purpose of the principle anyway. Tragically, instead of helping you and saving grief in the admissions process, this principle only harms you. </p>
<p>Good luck, and I would even try to petition for a policy change at your school (could even make a great essay if you succeed). </p>
<p>@15dkcrater19 Many people have brought it up before - I guess I can try again. But anyway I guess I’m just working with what I have now! Thank you for the encouragement 
I shall think about </p>
<p>*it, after this hectic season of IAs and essays is finally over. (whoops!)</p>
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<p>However, frosh/soph level chemistry, math, and physics courses are commonly taken by students in other majors, so they are often larger than they would be if only majors in those subjects took them. Or, at LACs, more sections would be offered (taking some of the faculty capacity away from being able to offer junior/senior level courses for majors in those subjects).</p>
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<p>That is not a given. The flip side of LACs is that the more advanced undergraduate courses are often offered less frequently, and there may be a smaller selection of them overall, due to faculty capacity being consumed by having to offer small frosh/soph-level service courses for non-majors. This is likely more of an issue with subjects like math and chemistry which have many non-majors taking their courses.</p>
<p>Perhaps the LAC versus research university question on undergraduate focus would be better phrased in terms of what part of the undergraduate experience is most important – the frosh/soph part or the junior/senior part? LACs obviously focus on the frosh/soph part, while research universities’ advantages are in the junior/senior part.</p>
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<p>LACs are not the only places where small frosh/soph-level courses may be offered. Community colleges and non-PhD-granting universities may have small classes, since they cannot expand class size by adding PhD students as TAs.</p>
<p>@13lia1, </p>
<p>Sure.</p>
<p>CMC has 11 on-campus research institutes. Among them are the Rose Institute of State and Local Government (probably the most prestigious and accomplished of the 11) and the Kravis Leadership Institute (named in honor of illustrious alumni Henry Kravis). </p>
<p>You can see a full list of the institutes and navigate through some of their research by checking out <a href=“Research Institutes and Centers | Claremont McKenna College”>https://www.cmc.edu/institutes/</a></p>
<p>What I think is unique about these institutes is that some of them offer “sequences” (basically a minor). A couple of the most popular sequences at CMC are the Financial Economics Sequence and the Leadership Studies Sequence. Personally, I’m torn on which of these two I’ll choose to pursue.</p>
<p>Watch this video to learn what professors and students have to say about Leadership Studies: <a href=“LSS Promo - YouTube”>LSS Promo - YouTube;
<p>As far as PPE at CMC, the highlight of the program is the weekly tutorial. Every week, students write a paper for one of their peers to critique. Students are challenged to stand by their views and develop valuable verbal skills. This is an especially important skill to have for MBA programs that emphasize the case study, such as Harvard Business School.</p>
<p>There are three professors that lead this major–one for philosophy, one for politics, and one for economics. Because of the immense personalization that PPE demands, the program is selective and only admits about 14 students every year. However, due to growing popularity and a sharp increase in applications, CMC is looking to add an identical “track” in the coming year–increasing the number of PPE majors to 28. As a result, the college is looking to hire three more professors to accommodate the increase. They have already filled the position for the philosophy professor, Adrienne Martin, whom will be coming from UPENN.</p>
<p>You can read more on PPE through this Forum (CMC’s student-led publication) article:
<a href=“http://cmcforum.com/news/02012011-an-in-depth-look-at-the-ppe-program”>http://cmcforum.com/news/02012011-an-in-depth-look-at-the-ppe-program</a></p>
<p>And the expansion through this TSL (Pomona’s student-led publication) article:
<a href=“Philosophy Professor Hired for Second PPE Track - The Student Life”>http://tsl.pomona.edu/articles/2014/4/11/news/5119-philosophy-professor-hired-for-second-ppe-track</a></p>
<p>Sorry for all the links. There’s just too much wonderful information to fit into one forum post.</p>
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<p>No doubt, large research universities provide relatively more faculty attention to undergraduates in their junior/senior years. Does that mean large research universities provide undergraduates a richer academic experience in those last two years, with more faculty engagement, than LACs do? Maybe. However, it may be the case that at some LACs, many students build on their strong freshman/sophomore foundations to work more independently (under a faculty mentor) in their last tyear or two.
<a href=“Theses - Biology Department - Reed College”>Theses - Biology Department - Reed College;
I’m not sure how that impacts the relative distribution of faculty time. Do senior projects free up faculty to spend more time teaching elementary/intermeditate courses? Or do they actually consume more total mentoring time than teaching advanced courses would? I don’t know. If the OP is the kind of student who would advance fairly quickly past elementary/intermediate courses, then a research university might provide better opportunities … but I suppose that depends on a variety of factors he’d need to identify and investigate.</p>
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<p>True, but those schools generally appeal to a very different market than students seriously considering “Stanford vs. Penn vs. Princeton vs. Yale”. I would think the OP wants to identify colleges where his admission chances are a little better than they would be at those 4, yet the “undergraduate focus” is at least as strong, and the teacher & student qualifications are nearly as high. A public honors college (or a LAC) might provide all that.</p>