Reply to Colgate v Middlebury....not academics!

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I am sure the academics are good at these schools. But they are now more like extensions of overpriced boarding schools. Send your kid off to the woods for 4 more years of an overpriced education where they can party to their hearts content. Like boarding schools only exist for the super rich and a few scholarship kids. Most "normal" people now will be aiming for their big instate flagships with strong research opportunities and a better price. [/quote]

I have one at each right now and there is a place for both, although agree that the SLACs really don't offer the same opportunities as the flagships.  One of the things the SLACs used to offer is great teaching and focus on undergraduates but my DC at a SLAC has had some pretty crappy profs, many of whom have been visiting profs. Plus if you are in a narrow field of study you probably will have a department of 2-3 profs at most. If you don't like one you are screwed. My DC at Big State U (not instate unfortunately) can basically find a top 10 program in any field DC chooses.[b] Yes the lectures might have 300 people in them, but the discussion groups are small, and the overall learning seems to be as robust, if not better, than the SLAC.[/b]

Back to the OP - I thought Hamilton was a lot more like Middlebury than Colgate based on our visits (2x to all those schools). [/quote]

MY BIL, who teaches in a STEM field at a flagship state university (always on the list of "Public Ivies", is urging his kids to look at top SLACs for undergrad.  His reasoning is that he knows how little involvement he has with teaching undergrads beyond those huge lectures, and he knows his grad students, who lead the discussion sections, are not as good as faculty at a strong SLAC.     [/quote]

But that's my point. We are finding that teaching strength of the SLACs isn't so good anymore, and as fields become more specialized they simply can't offer the same depth as schools with more students. I went to a top SLAC and it's changed. Hopefully your experience will be better but I am not convinced we are getting our $63k worth of teaching. There are certainly lots of other pluses of SLACs though.[/quote]

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