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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Our worst experience was at a large elite school (Cornell). Part of it was probably that we were used to the scale of a SLAC (which is what my child was leaning towards). But the contrast was glaring. Cornell's campus was like a city: right down to there being no parking, and what we finally found cost money! (Other schools had sent us parking passes in advance.) All other schools also provided coffee while we waited, while at Cornell there was not so much as an empty chair to sit on in the Admissions office. I think the elite schools feel like they do not need to curry favor because they are always oversubscribed.

Before you blast me, the education may well be excellent. But my DC AND I both appreciated the more curated experience offered by SLAC's (and she found that to continue after she enrolled).

[/quote]

I got my phd at Cornell which involved taking classes and working with faculty across four different schools. I also knew and interacted with grad students in other departments and we shared faculty experiences. The faculty at Cornell is just unbelievably amazing (for the most part). It is so far above what you would find at a SLAC that it's almost senseless to compare it. With that said, the administration and office workers are a mess (like at most top schools). When I was there, the entire financial aid office almost got fired (I think a couple people did) because they were FILLING OUT THE APPLICATIONS INCORRECTLY and approving loans to students who shouldn't have been eligible (it was NOT intentional - they were making the same mistake over and over and over again). Yes, you heard me. These people were literally too incompetent to fill out the one set of forms that the entire job revolved around. The finance and accounting office miscategorized my friend as a U.S. citizen instead of an immigrant in their tax withholding and it took two years to rectify the problem and get the improper THOUSANDS of dollars of withholding back (only after involving the university provost).

But, the education is PHENOMENAL. Please don't ever mistake being coddled at a SLAC for substituting for the quality of education being around far superior academic minds and classes that are at the cutting edge of their fields at an ivy league school. In some cases just one person in a department at Cornell could run circles around the entire same department at the best SLAC. And yes, many are willing to volunteer amazing amounts of time with students. You just need to accept that administrators and low level employees are often idiots. At a small school it's easier to see. But that doesn't mean the small school is better at being a school. [/quote]

I think my last point was confusingly written. I mean, at a small school they can more easily identify employees who are incompetent and replace them with more competent ones. But that has nothing to do with the main point of a university which is to educate.[/quote]

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