<p>As the spouse of a humanities prof in a top 15 grad program, I would add to some of the comments above. If grad school is the goal, then recommendations from professors who are known and respected researchers in their field are critical to admission at good grad programs. Sadly, profs at LACs often do not meet that criteria – they are fabulous mentors, teachers, but not leading scholars/researchers. My husband has shared snippets of admissions decisions to his program where there are smart kids from excellent LACs who are denied, typically because(1) the writing samples are well-written but do not show the capability to do more than explain and (2) recs from unknown profs. </p>
<p>As the parent of a rising senior, we struggle with this dichotomy – small school where our late blooming son will be listened to and feel confident enough to explore his talents vs. State university with well-known faculty who could, if he connects with them as a Jr/sr, after he makes it through intro level lectures, be great mentors as well.</p>
<p>All in all, 2 tenured faculty is very small dept, either because the school has struggled to keep folks or has determined that dept is a low priority. I agree that further investigation needed, talk to current majors, find out about grad school admissions from the past 5 years etc.</p>