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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

If you look at student surveys and responses in places like Princeton Review and Niche, research-intensive universities generally get much lower satisfaction scores for teaching and student-teacher interactions.  Research universities also use adjuncts and lecturers in addition to TAs, so not sure what your point is there.  The University of California system did a time study on how professors spend their time and it came down to about 1/3 research, 1/3 graduate education, and 1/3 undergraduate education.  So even though undergraduates have reduced in-state tuition there, the conclusion was they still subsidize research and graduate study with their tuition based on the attention they get (or don't get to put it another way).  [/quote]

It's true that research professors will not spend as much time with undergrads as in undergrad-focused universities. But ask yourself again: why do students clamor to get into Harvard, but don't care as much about Williams?

Fact of the matter is, research universities will have more academically accomplished professors. This can be very good for high-achieving students because they can leverage these opportunities by doing research for professors and get recommendation letters from renowned professors in the field that they want to go to grad school for. This is especially true in the sciences where large lecture halls don't matter as much (not much in-class discussion going on)

For middle-of-the-road students, indeed they can get easily lost in research universities. Those students probably have a better time with smaller classes.[/quote]

Research universities may have more research accomplished professors.  This doesn't mean they 1) teach undergraduates much 2) care much about or are assessed on undergraduate teaching or 3) teach undergraduates well.  Princeton, the top ranked school in USNWR does a good job of research (albeit on a more limited scale than say Michigan), and of having good teaching, student research opportunities (which are usually distinct from externally sponsored R&D), and capstone programs.  Many other research universities suck in these areas.  [/quote]
Any good research university will have professors teaching students. It's true that they may not care much for it or teach very well, but thats not the advantage they provide. The advantage they provide is deep knowledge in their expertise and research opportunities outside of class. For bright students that can more than handle the class-workload on their own, the extra research opportunities is a huge advantage for medical and grad school. Middle-of-the-road students who are not interested in research and may need more help on classwork (aka homework assigned in class) will have a harder time in research universities. I have said this multiple times in this thread.

Something to note between UNC and UVA is that while UNC is generally considered a much better research institution, UVA isn't necessarily the &quot;undergrad-focused, LAC&quot; environment that many try to portray it as. It's still a large public university thats only smaller than UNC by about 1000-2000 students. You still have large class sizes, still have students competing for attention from a single professor, still have TA's, and on top of that the TA's (who are generally grad students) may not be as good as at UNC does more/better research =&gt; better grad students flock there.

What UVA does have is probably a slightly better undergrad student population because of the in-state ratios and NOVA students. 
[/quote]

Many students that go on to medical school or graduate school do research.  But it is actually usually professor-supervised individual research.  That is often easier to get at schools with more undergraduate focus.  You can get that at a LAC or other undergraduate focused school.  Many of the top STEM PHD producing schools are LACs.  And look at the USNWR rankings of undergraduate research possibilities:  https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/undergrad-research-programs You see all types of schools.[/quote]

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