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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]A number of small Midwestern Liberal Arts Colleges.

- Butler University
- Hanover University
- Manchester University
- Wooster College
- Ohio Northern
- Kalamazoo
- St. Olaf
- DePauw
- Hillsdale[/quote]

Not dissing St. Olaf, but it is not even the most intellectual college in Northfield. :roll: [/quote]
Agreed.  #2 in Northfield.[/quote]

These places can be great for intellectually curious kids. It's not that the overwhelming student body is intellectually stronger than elsewhere (it's not--they aren't highly selective schools with high stats), rather more that they are often isolated-ish places for professors who genuinely enjoy intellectual conversations with students.  It is also very common for top recent PhDs to spend 1-2 years as a visiting prof at a small LAC to hone their teaching skills and finish their dissertation book before launching a full scale job search.  Many departments will have one of these visitors who often will lead a faculty-student discussion group or host a film night or some other project as well as teach.   These visiting profs are still so close to grad school that they tend to lead these things at a much higher intellectual level which can end up being eye-opening for interested undergrads. And many of the professors that are there full-time are often the ones who like learning/teaching for its own sake and are also trying to create an intellectual community.  If you attend on merit aid there are often research internships and other things built in and you can get drawn into these groups.  There's little sense of competition and a strong student will get decent grades if they work hard so there's space to think and be interested in intellectual ideas.  It's definitely not for everyone, but I think non-competitive, smart, intellectually-oriented kids can thrive.  I think it's why a lot of these places have excellent PhD placement despite not being the T20 (nor T40) SLACs.[/quote]

Thoughtful post and thank you, but I’d quibble with isolated, even “isolated-ish”. Greater MSP metro region is about 3.5 million people and downtown is about 45 minutes from Northfield, the ‘burbs far closer. Lots of kids at both schools do internships and take jobs in the city. I imagine (though I’m guessing here) that some faculty and staff live in or near the twin cities.  [/quote]

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