Science at Liberal Arts Colleges: A Better Education?

[Anonymous]

Check out this article. It's a little dated, but the author (Thomas Cech, a nobel prize winner who graduated from Grinnell) was saying the same thing as of a few years ago. Many liberal arts colleges have been putting even more money into their science facilities lately.

https://www.thecollegesolution.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/cech_article2.pdf

[Anonymous]

LACs were certainly the right choice for my kids both in top medical schools now. One went to Pomona and the other Occidental. The research opportunities at both schools were phenomenal as well as a chance to take a lot of art and music classes.

[Anonymous]

No.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:LACs were certainly the right choice for my kids both in top medical schools now. One went to Pomona and the other Occidental. The research opportunities at both schools were phenomenal as well as a chance to take a lot of art and music classes.

And the same opportunities would be there at an R1 university.

[Anonymous]

But at an RI university you will be competing with or supervised by a graduate student.

My sophomore student at a SLAC had three offers to work in labs, supervised by full professors and has already published a first author paper in a peer reviewed journal.

[Anonymous]

I have wondered about this. I have seen the Cech article before. And, Jennifer Doudna credits Pomona with her staying in science.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jennifer_Doudna

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:But at an RI university you will be competing with or supervised by a graduate student.

My sophomore student at a SLAC had three offers to work in labs, supervised by full professors and has already published a first author paper in a peer reviewed journal.

and taught by grad students. R1s have better facilities and usually have more distinguished faculty, but as an undergrad you may or may not ever have access to either. At a SLAC, the facilities may not be as great or the professors as distinguished, but you will have access to both

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:But at an RI university you will be competing with or supervised by a graduate student.

My sophomore student at a SLAC had three offers to work in labs, supervised by full professors and has already published a first author paper in a peer reviewed journal.

This is not really true, especially for upperclassmen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But at an RI university you will be competing with or supervised by a graduate student.

My sophomore student at a SLAC had three offers to work in labs, supervised by full professors and has already published a first author paper in a peer reviewed journal.

and taught by grad students. R1s have better facilities and usually have more distinguished faculty, but as an undergrad you may or may not ever have access to either. At a SLAC, the facilities may not be as great or the professors as distinguished, but you will have access to both

NP
Different strokes for different folks.

[Anonymous]

In general, I would say the answer is no. Large universities have incredible resources and opportunities for science. But if your kid is not confident and gives up easily, then I do think the nurturing environment of a Slac might work better for them. For med school SLACs might have an edge as big schools can be more competitive and sink or swim. But if your kid is scrappy, outgoing and doesn’t get defeated easily, you can’t compare the science education at schools like Berkeley, Michigan, Cornell, etc. with small colleges

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:But at an RI university you will be competing with or supervised by a graduate student.

My sophomore student at a SLAC had three offers to work in labs, supervised by full professors and has already published a first author paper in a peer reviewed journal.

What school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In general, I would say the answer is no. Large universities have incredible resources and opportunities for science. But if your kid is not confident and gives up easily, then I do think the nurturing environment of a Slac might work better for them. For med school SLACs might have an edge as big schools can be more competitive and sink or swim. But if your kid is scrappy, outgoing and doesn’t get defeated easily, you can’t compare the science education at schools like Berkeley, Michigan, Cornell, etc. with small colleges

You packed an impressive number of passive-aggressive hate on SLACs into that. Truly a DCUM special right there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But at an RI university you will be competing with or supervised by a graduate student.

My sophomore student at a SLAC had three offers to work in labs, supervised by full professors and has already published a first author paper in a peer reviewed journal.

What school?

Juniata College.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In general, I would say the answer is no. Large universities have incredible resources and opportunities for science. But if your kid is not confident and gives up easily, then I do think the nurturing environment of a Slac might work better for them. For med school SLACs might have an edge as big schools can be more competitive and sink or swim. But if your kid is scrappy, outgoing and doesn’t get defeated easily, you can’t compare the science education at schools like Berkeley, Michigan, Cornell, etc. with small colleges

You packed an impressive number of passive-aggressive hate on SLACs into that. Truly a DCUM special right there.

Ha! So true.
Posts like that are typically written by insecure parents who didn't find out until it was too late about the advantages of highly competitive SLACs. Oh well, live and learn. Statistics don't lie. The fact of the matter is that the training and accountability to which undergraduates are held at SLACs means that they succeed in far greater percentages than their large university peers. If you as PPs to show the evidence that large universities provide a superior STEM education to SLACs, they simply cannot.

[Anonymous]

And it is not an either or.

There are different settings to fit different students' needs.

But I do hope we can put to bed the misconception that SLAC's cannot do an excellent job preparing kids for careers in science.