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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]People who claim SLACs are great for getting research opportunities due to their low student-faculty ratio, overlook the fact that professors there are typically *not* leading researchers in their areas. After all, if they are doing anything cutting-edge, why are they not at an R1 pulling in millions of research fundings and churning out papers like a well-oiled machine? I mean, professors at lowly directional schools also do research, but their topics in general aren't worthy of support from NSF/NIH/DOE/DOD. If they submit research proposals to these funding agencies, the proposals would be killed right away. So how are professors at SLACs any different? And why do kids want to do research on topics that aren't significant/timely, under the supervision of professors who aren't well-known/respected in their research communities?[/quote]

The SLAC lab that my kids works in has almost a million dollars across a couple of significant NSF grants. You don’t know what you are talking about. It is true that SLACs aren’t super reliant on fed funding but that means the funding will stay in place. R1s which lose funding will direct all of what is left to keeping their grad students fed.[/quote]

You are exaggerating the funding cut issues at R1s, making it sounds like it's an ongoing crisis while SLACs are safe. An R1 received research funding that is several orders of magnitude larger than that received by any SLAC. Even if there is cut here and there (which, by the way, is an issue that has blown over), the amount available still dwarfs that at any SLAC and is more than enough for the tiny stipends undergraduates receive.

In my twenty years of working as a STEM faculty at an R1, I have never reviewed any journal/conference manuscripts written by SLAC faculty, nor evaluated any research proposals submitted to NSF/DOE that came from SLAC. I'm sure you can point out some papers/grants/contracts here and there, but they are very few and far between. Research at SLAC has never been mainstream and most likely will remain that way.

I rather my kids work with active, accomplished researchers at R1s on projects funded with hard-to-get federal money which says something about the timeliness and significance of the research, than to have them work with lesser known researchers at SLACs on pet projects that have limited impact.[/quote]
If you’re a faculty member, I’m a bit confused by this position. Why can’t your kids be educated at a liberal arts college, participate in guided research to improve their skills, and work closely with R1 professors during the summer/semester while getting preference for admission to summer research programs. My daughter goes to Amherst but has spent summers at MIT/Harvard (Broad), Yale, Princeton, and is moving on to a PhD at Berkeley after a quick stop in Cambridge. She has been able to work with various top research faculty in various disciplines you'd respect, published 4 times, and also work in her home lab and get guided mentorship there. I don’t see how going to Harvard or whatnot would meaningfully change her trajectory and professors seem to agree with me (many faculty children attending LACs).[/quote]

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