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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]When considering an undergrad school, IMO the most important thing is to look at the percentage of full professors who teach. It’s better to be taught by a Ph.D than a T.A. Second, look at class size. You are more likely to find a mentor who will help you on your career path in a class of 25 vs a class of 100 or more. For those reasons, students shouldn’t overlook schools like Mary Washington or Christopher Newport. Yes, UVA and VT have broader name recognition and more prestige, but professors at the smaller schools can really help you get into top-notch grad schools. I truly believe in the benefits of being a big fish in a small pond. [/quote]

It depends on what kind of grad school you're talking about. If you mean something like med school or law school then I agree. If you're aiming for a small grad program in a particular research field, then who your mentor is and how active their lab is really does matter. For a lot of scientific research that requires a well-funded lab, a research university is better.[/quote]

In general, research universities are focused on graduate research and not undergrad.  Lots of LACs provide students with lots of opportunities for undergraduate research and as part of that, close relationships with and mentoring by professors.[/quote]

Multiple kids at multiple ivy/+. All did research as undergraduates, very easily, and had options for real mentoring, etc. LACs are great but it is false that they are better overall at undergrad research opportunities [/quote]

There are lots of LACs on this list.

https://www.collegetransitions.com/blog/best-colleges-for-undergraduate-research/[/quote]
No one will believe it, but Liberal arts colleges make the most sense to me if you are looking at a STM degree. 
You simply can't hide and BS your way out like you can at a university. Being in my third semester physics course and only having 8 people in my class with 10 in my lab section was instrumental in testing my abilities to think critically and actually understand science, not guess around and cram for exams. 
My first year I got research, because I got a glowing recommendation from my professor for a research program. Then went on to NASA and then the SETI Institute. No, I didn't get to take Quantum Field Theory early, but it didn't matter. I had the research and could clearly learn, that's where I think Liberal arts colleges get that slight edge.[/quote]

Ok, that is great but similar experiences have happened to relatives at William&Mary, MIT, Penn, Yale, Duke. Real research with professors in the first year (for those that want it) is not only possible it is encouraged. Even paid at the big endowment schools. Small classes happen at those schools too, as in 14 person honors chem class and 9 person multivariable calc classes , 15 person engineering modeling class….on and on. LACs are great , but there are many universities that provide very similar experiences. [/quote]
Well those are all pretty small institutions. Massive research institutions with way more grad students do not give you this experience; examples: ASU, UVA, UT, UC Berkeley, USC, NYU, BU. You are a cog in these places, doesn't mean you aren't getting a decent education, but a lot of the ivy level colleges are basically LACs with a couple of research institutes-Dartmouth, Princeton, Brown, Rice. It's not that LACs are the only schools to have small classes, but, often, these bigger schools have small classes, because they failed half of their students along the journey...

When people at my LAC said they were premed freshman year, they graduated and went to med school. At most American universities, they wash out. [/quote]

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