“Swarthmore is smaller than the LAC I graduated from”
No, it’s not.
“you do not know them all.”
Nope, but you can’t avoid the ones you do know, and that’s what I’m talking about.
I realize I wasn’t clear, but Swarthmore’s graduating class is less than half of mine. My class was 850 students. Total school is over 3,000.
I respectfully disagree. You can move on, even in a smaller school. Despite the items that make a large school small, it is still large, and you never get the same feel as a small LAC. A similar caution needs to be made for any large school. The students need to do enough research to know what they want. If you don’t like the size of a large school, changing your major and your social circle won’t necessarily improve your experience.
“You can move on, even in a smaller school.”
Did you ever try? It sounds like you had a good experience there, and you weren’t trying to move on from anything. But I’ve been in that position, and so have some of my transfer students.
“A similar caution needs to be made for any large school.”
I differ, because the warning isn’t about whether the student wants a big school or a small school. My students always discuss that. It’s about the fact that there are more separate communities within a big school than there are within a small school. Look, Swarthmore has one dining hall. And practically no one lives or eats off campus. I believe that this raises the stakes when it comes to fitting in in that community.
@Hanna’s point is mostly social but it may also apply to some academic matters. At a smaller school it’s harder to avoid a prof you don’t like, particularly one in your major.
Yes, I admit I initially misunderstood Hanna’s point. But, now this is becoming just another big school vs. small school debate, which isn’t really a debate because different people are naturally going to make their own personal choices. It still begs the question, why a large state university where the most popular major is “Marketing”, followed by something called, “Communications” and where the athletes are seriously thinking of forming their own collective bargaining unit, is any less of a niche experience than a Little Three college?
My thoughts will be better expressed if I rewrite my first sentence: “I found @Hanna’s point somewhat novel for an educator, in that it emphasized the social aspects of college selection over the pedagogical ones, even if only on its surface.”
Btw, @bp0001, I was initially confused by your numbers as well, but you did literally graduate, “from a LAC with 850 [of your fellow] students.” And I liked your usage of LAC as an acronym, as indicated by the definite article you chose. I don’t know why that’s not more common.
2merc81
I think it’s because some of us (meaning, me) are accustomed to sounding the the letter “L” as we type and the sound “El” just makes us want to put an “an” in front of it. Unless, I’m missing your point which is highly possible.:))
Thanks for getting my point. For me, “an LAC” is a little bit like “an NASA engineer.” Honestly, not directed at you in any way, “an LAC” is ubiquitous on CC. I’m not even saying my way is better. It’s just been more natural for me, at least to this point, to think of the term as phonetically equivalent to “lack.”
“But, now this is becoming just another big school vs. small school debate, which isn’t really a debate because different people are naturally going to make their own personal choices. It still begs the question, why a large state university where the most popular major is “Marketing”, followed by something called, “Communications” and where the athletes are seriously thinking of forming their own collective bargaining unit, is any less of a niche experience than a Little Three college?”
It’s not a debate between which is better, circuitrider. You are awfully defensive of the LAC experience and you seem to have taken the niche term as an insult when it’s not.
I’m in marketing - we use the word niche all the time. A great niche is a great thing to own!
But you own it by being single-minded tops in the minds of the small group of people who want that thing, and you let go of the idea of broad or mass appeal.
LACs don’t have the broad or mass appeal of research universities, because they offer a different and somewhat smaller set of experiences. That’s the very core of their identity - that they are smaller and more specialized / focused on educating undergraduates versus doing a hundred things like research universities do - medical schools, law schools, etc. They are more niche. That is neither good nor bad - that is just different.
Four Seasons hotels are also more niche than Marriott hotels.
But, that’s axiomatic, which is why some of us are so suspicious of the sudden application of the term “niche” on one classification of colleges and not on others. Holiday Inns also appeal to a niche market.
ok, we get it. Berkeley is niche. Penn State is niche. Denison is niche. Wittenberg is niche. It’s just that some niches are bigger than others.
Happy now?
Actually? Yes! 
“Four Seasons hotels are also more niche than Marriott hotels.”
Four Seasons is niche because those seeking a room for the night might not see the value in choosing them. But not because they offer a fundamentally different, or in any way narrower, service.
The niche arguments are running themselves into butter. Rather than try to call, eg, Berkeley niche, we should say some of its depts or progams may be.
Niche is less about how, say, UColorado attracts skiers, or Nebraska attracts Nebraskans, than how more specific integral- and distinct- needs are met. A small or unusual business has different needs, to succeed. A product or service tailored to that, disregarding the needs of most larger corporations, could be called niche. Or we might refer to the niche market for certain things, made up of those small or unusual potential clients.
The trick (always has been/always will be) is to know a college well and how it meets your needs, how you fit theirs. Your needs and people like you.
I was thinking they are more like the scene in City Slickers - “Even the cows know how to program a VCR”
“Four Seasons is niche because those seeking a room for the night might not see the value in choosing them. But not because they offer a fundamentally different, or in any way narrower, service.”
LOL- Four Seasons is niche precisely because the pot of people who seek what those hotels offer – premium service and facilities at premium prices – is far, far smaller than the pot of people who seek moderate price and good-enough lodging in their hotels. It IS a fundamentally different service - premium luxury IS a different service from decent and clean and safe.
I think the exact quote was “The cows can tape something by now.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQGgaI-BcI4
A corporate meeting planner booking an event at a Four Seasons believes they offer a fundamentally different product from the Motel 6, Holiday Inn, Marriott, etc. down the street.
You “niche” guys are being intentionally pedantic, I fear.
But now that we’ve agreed that both Wittenberg and Penn State are niche schools- and that on occasion, a kid might be interested in both, but generally, they appeal to kids looking for different things, I say Namaste on Niche.
Is there a better term than YMMV for such a statement? While it may harder to avoid a professor you do not like, it is also easier to get into the class of one you like. The large catalog at larger school does NOT immediately translate into more OPEN choices because there is something like … all the other student at that larger school, with many with preferences. In addition, one has to consider that the popular professor are often prone to take sabbaticals and highly restrict the number of students from the UG.
And that does not begin to address the Achilles’ heel of “larger” schools: the named professor is easy to spot; the persons who will deliver most of the instruction, the grading, and the office hours will NOT. It will be named as STAFF or be someone you cannot identify. Some might be great --if one is extremely lucky-- or terrible.
As usual, the small school versus big school is a debate of bias and opinions. Few people have really the opportunity to be part of both systems. Hanna happens to be one who can speak from experience. Pizzagirl can talk about the differences in experience from listening to her twin kids. And so on … Oh yes, and Circuitrider can talk about how it was in the last millennium. 
Count me in as someone who has both big school and small school experience - granted most of it from the last millenium.