<p>This topic gets a lot of discussion on College Confidential… Agree with katliamom that (at least the perception) is that universities are cheaper. Although financial aid and merit aid can bring that cost fairly close in some cases, a lot of people are not aware of that. Universities (state ones) get direct subsidies from state governments that LACs do not get; in our state, the public university system has eight four year state universities. Given the large size of most of them, they produce a lot more grads than the LACs in our state (and most states, I assume).</p>
<p>One other difference not mentioned above is that many universities have graduate programs, and often those grad students teach the undergraduate classes (especially intro sessions).</p>
<p>Here are two sort of opposing schools of thought on the choice:
- If you can get a cheaper education at a university and think you want to go to Grad school, then go for the cheaper education. You will have more money for grad school. Even if your grad school is funded (say, in the STEM areas), you will still be better off without the loans. Even if you don’t go to grad school, you would be better off without the loans.
- Opposing perspective would be to go to an LAC for undergrad for the individualized attention, then move on to the research university (which often is more focused on graduate education) for the grad degree. But ONLY if finances support this. FYI, this is the route my kids have taken.</p>
<p>I notice you are from Maryland, one of the few states that has an LAC as part of your state university system (St. Mary’s of Maryland). So you could get the low cost of in state AND and LAC experience there. It is a nice school, we visited for D2, even though we are out of state.</p>