<p>First and foremost, I would like to say that I am in no way trying to start one of those debates that spirals out of control with each side hating on the other.</p>
<p>I just have a question based on a comment made by my friend(s).</p>
<p>I attend a LAC and they attend different state schools. It always seems like I have WAY more work than do they, and both have advised me that the school their schools are better and "seem easier".</p>
<p>At this point, I am considering transferring to salvage my GPA while I can.</p>
<p>So the question is: Are state schools really "that much easier" than a LAC, such that I would be doing much better there? </p>
<p>And this isn't a random state school like East State or Ball State, rather a UC and the likes.</p>
<p>Thanks in advance!</p>
<p>Bumping this and checking back later…</p>
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<p>I went to a state school (Georgia Tech), but I never attended a LAC. So it’s hard for me to answer your question because I don’t have any comparison.</p>
<p>Which LAC are we talking about? Even if it’s a Top 10 ranked LAC, I don’t see how a top UC is going to be “that much easier” in any way.</p>
<p>I have only ever been to a state school but heres what i think. Once you actually get into your major at a state school the work becomes more rigorous. This is because most state schools have some pretty large classes for freshman/sophomore general requirement classes. I imagine at a LAC your freshman/soph classes will (likely) be smaller which allows the profs to assign more to each individual.</p>
<p>I breezed through my 1st year with little studying but now that i’m in my major I have a lot more work.</p>
<p>Also it obviously depends on what major you are in.</p>
<p>At my large state school, many of the gen ed requirements are a joke. Huge lecture halls, incredibly easy/almost useless survey courses etc. But at the same time, I’m in the honors college, which allows me to substitute a variety of upper level classes for gen ed requirements, and then I’m also in a residential college for my major, which has more of the LAC-feel of the small intimate classes where the professors know you/there are no TAs, discussion-based, we are given more assignments on average etc. I’d say my classes within the honors college and residential college (with a similar curriculum to a LAC) are absolutely harder than if I just took the standard gen eds. But agreeing with bos4079, once you get into classes within your major, even within any state school, the difficulty levels I would say between a decent to good state school and a top LAC are probably very similar for the most part. Obviously I wouldn’t know this definitively, but objectively speaking this explanation makes the most sense to me.</p>
<p>I have been to 4 different schools (three just doing summer) </p>
<p>Although i was only at those three schools during the summers I honestly think that the difference in schools in terms of both rigor and GPA lies mostly with the individual professor.</p>
<p>I personally think that the best boost to GPA is picking professors wisely (and ones that you have plenty of study aids from friends that have taken their classes before.)</p>