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[quote=Anonymous]
I went to a middle-of-the road LAC for undergrad on a full ride and went to Washington University in St. Louis for graduate school (where I taught and advised as well). Here's my perception of the two places:

1.  There were more NMS in the undergrads at WUSTL.  So what? It is a lousy meausre of student quality.

The students at my middle tier LAC were better students than WUSTL students. They weren't as smart or highly ranked students, but they were much more interesting. They were intellectually curious and engaged with the curriculum. They took risks with academics.  They took classes outside their major. They created quirky double majors (lots of Latin and Biology double-majors). WUSTL students are smart, but they were mostly polishing their resumes and GPA for graduate school or finance jobs.  They weren't very interested in taking a risk. If I were a teacher, I would much rather teach at my LAC than at WUSTL.

2. Faculty accomplishments. Again, so what?  LAC faculty are teachers first and researchers second.  They usually don't have grad students to teach their sections. They teach themselves.  They are more available to mentor students.

3.  Grad school admissions. This is true somewhat.  But it is also a function of the type of students that an Ivy attracts vs. the type of students an LAC attracts.  The kids at my LAC who were Ivy qualified as high school students were still qualifed when applying for grad schools; they all went on to very high end grad programs and professional programs. It was a function of student quality, not anything the LAC or Ivy was doing. It wasn't a result of value added by an Ivy.

4.  Lack of curriculum. Not my experience.  Not at all. It is true that classes are offered less often. Students tend to pass through the curriculum as a cohort. You have all the same kids in all the same classes at the same time.  You take the course sequence as it is offered and you can't jump around because not every class is offered every year.  The trade-off for that is that you get to know your peers very well because you study with the same folks for your whole course of study.

We could study anything we wanted by taking an independent study.  Sometimes a few of us go together and tackled an independent study as a group.  We also took more classes outside of our major, as I said before.

5.  My LAC could have definitely used a better career services office.  WUSTL had great career services.  That isn't how I got my job, though.

BTW,  all "top universities" have ethnic studies departments, so I am not sure what that has to do with the career services office issue.

6.  Yield?  WTF?  Yield has nothing to do with the quality of education. It's a bragging rights game for schools and alumni.

7.  Again not my experience.  LAC students were more engaged in the curriculum which encouraged more discussion and analysis. A small campus community means you don't have much room to hide  Kids at WUSTL  could live in their own little world without being challenged by other students because the place was so big .

Top universities do not have students from "too many backgrounds."  They have students from UMC and above backgrounds.  Those students do tend to be more conservative, which is a function of their economic privilege.

8.  The bubble. LACs do tend to be out in the country. That's a feature because it encourages students to be more engaged in the college community in both an academic and personal sense. Students are less likely to get lost or over-whelmed at a LAC because of the size and because they have a lot of personal relationships with peers and teachers.

RE. grade-inflation. Again, I am not sure what this has to do with the bubble issue, but Harvard is notorious for grade inflation.  It's not an LAC thing.

______________________________

I will be encouraging my sons to go to LACs before heading off to engineering school.  (3-2 engineering programs are ideal).  The Ivies give great financial aid, but most LACs can give us decent aid and the education and experience is better  in my opinion. YMMV.[/quote]

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