<p>I'm making a list of colleges and universities and trying to give examples of each with different sizes of undergrad population. </p>
<p>I'm struggling to find LACs with enrollment over 5,000 and within 400 miles of Baltimore/Washington. </p>
<p>Any suggestions? (Perhaps there are none?)</p>
<p>Thanks.
Kelley</p>
<p>I cannot think of LACs with over 3,000 students. The closest thing to a LAC woith 4,000+ undergrads within 400 miles of the DC area are Brown University, Dartmouth College and William and Mary.</p>
<p>That’s what I thought. Thanks. </p>
<p>Anyone else?</p>
<p>Those would actually be classified as small universities, and I think they provide the best of both worlds.</p>
<p>I’m currently a junior and was just like you. But then I realized that the point of LACs is to provide a small learning environment. So yea, Dartmouth and Brown mimic LACs somewhat, but if you really want to get the environment of a true LAC, the smaller ones are better IMO.</p>
<p>Big LAC’s include Smith, Oberlin, Bucknell, Richmond, Colgate, Furman. Small universitites like Clark, Tufts, Wake Forest, Brandeis, Lehigh, Rochester, and Santa Clara might be LAC-ish.</p>
<p>Univ. of Mary Washington</p>
<p>It’s usually assumed that, with a combined enrollment of 3,834, the College of Saint Benedict and Saint Johns University have the largest enrollment of any college in the national liberal arts category.</p>
<p>Wesleyan, with 2,700 full-time undergraduates, is also one of the largest.</p>
<p>I am not sure if it is classified as a LAC, but The College of New Jersey.</p>
<p>Dartmouth, Brown, W&M, and Princeton function essentially as LACs. They are very well endowed, spend a lot on undergrads, and are very LACish.</p>
<p>Others to consider:</p>
<p>Colgate, 2750; Bucknell, 3550, Holy Cross, 2800, Furman, 2750. St. Olaf, 3000, Elon, 4900, College of Charleston, 6800, Providence, 4600</p>
<p>Elon. (10 char).</p>
<p>The Claremont Colleges have an enrollment of ~5500,</p>
<p>The largest is Pomona with ~1600. Each of the other four has between 800 and 1000, and then CGU and Keck (non-undergrad) throw in a few more</p>
<p>EDIT: Sorry, didn’t see the 400 miles criterion; these are in CA.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>No they don’t. All four of those, for example, have graduate student Teaching Assistants.</p>
<p>William & Mary bears no resemblence whatsoever to any lliberal arts college I’ve ever seen, other than the fact that it teaches a “liberal arts” curriculum.</p>
<p>American University is close.</p>
<p>Holy Cross is stictly undergrad so no graduate student Teaching Assistants.</p>
<p>Kelley, I think by agreed definition an LAC is small: i.e., under 3000 students. Above that, you’re into the small university category. Plenty of choices in that range so if 1500-2500 feels too small moving up in size is always an option; however, the advantages that come with a small liberal arts college will be diluted.</p>
<p>For my son, Williams at 2200, plus being in a remote location never seemed too small. Or to look at it from another angle, the size and location were what made Williams so appealing – close knit community, maximum interaction with faculty, insular environment. Adding another 3000 students into the mix or situating it in an urban environment would have changed the dynamic considerably.</p>
<p>I can’t say whether Dartmouth, Brown, W&M and Princeton have teaching assistants.
I can tell you that my son at one of the above didn’t bump into one in four years, and my daughter at another hasn’t in her first year.</p>
<p>All four universities have TA’s, according to their websites. </p>
<p>TA’s are a lot like drunk fraternity hazing. Nobody ever admits to seeing it!</p>
<p>danas, I assume your kids attend W&M and Dartmouth because I know for a fact that Brown and Princeton have some TAs. They teach primarily intro level math classes and other elementary classes and they also assist professors in large intro level courses, but that’s the same at any elite university, no matter how small or large. I am also pretty sure that’s the case at Dartmouth and W&M, but I do not have evidence on those two.</p>