@circuitrider my kid’s list included LACs and Us (public and private, 1800 students up to 20K). For various reasons she liked them all. Some were safeties, some had a major she liked, most ere in vibrant cities (but not the one she finally chose). One was a women’s college.
…and she rejected quite a few LACs and Us also, that we’d visited or she researched.
This is why I think the distinction between LAC and U is kind of arbitrary. Size is one consideration, undergrad focus is another, but neither are the end-all, all things considered.