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Actually, Caltech is much more of a research university than an LAC. This is because Caltech is not teaching-focus, not even in the undergraduate level. The undergrads are somehow treated like grad students. I would personally place Caltech into research university category altogether
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<p>However, you must agree that the Caltech undergrad experience doesn't share much in common with the experience at, say, a Michigan or a Berkeley. The Caltech student body is tiny, the classes are tiny, the student camaraderie is quite tight, and you never feel like a number. I agree that the profs are far more oriented towards research than teaching. However, on the whole, I would have to say that if I had to choose one category to put it in, I would put Caltech in the LAC category. Caltech obviously doesn't fit perfectly in that category, but I think it fits even MORE imperfectly in the research university category. </p>
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l who apply to both LACs and research unis seem to have no problem comparing them
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<p>I think this hits the nail right on the head, as well as all the things that Yalesocietymember has been saying. We might say that the LAC's and the research universities are so different as to be incomparable. Yet the fact is, the people who get into a LAC and also to a research university have to compare them to decide where they want to go. Even more importantly, the employers and the graduate schools also have to compare them. For example, Harvard Medical School considers applications from those who went to both big research universities like Berkeley or Michigan as well as those who went to LAC's. McKinsey recruits at the big research universities and also at the elite LAC's. </p>
<p>So the point is, comparisons between big research universities and LAC's are done all the time. McKinsey can't cop out by saying that a LAC is not comparable to a research university. They HAVE to compare them to decide who they are going to hire. </p>
<p>Hence, if the consumers and users of education go around comparing LAC's vs. research universities all the time, I don't see why you couldn't enumerate them in one unified ranking.</p>