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What are some signs that a small school (especially LAC) would be stifling?

By Emeraldkity4 (Emeraldkity4) on Saturday, October 09, 2004 - 10:01 am: Edit

Well... Some students don't want to attend a school that is smaller than their high school
My daughter is attending a LAC that has 1300, but then her graduating class was 18 and her high school less than 200.
Her sister on the other hand is attending a high school of 1600 but many go on to LACs as they like the smaller focus.
All sizes of schools have advantages, I wouldn't think that a small school would be stifling.

By Nannydramabug (Nannydramabug) on Saturday, October 09, 2004 - 11:00 am: Edit

Ah, okay. My graduating class is around 700 and the school has about 2500 students. I guess for me a school of around 1500 would be a bit small, especially in a rural area. Are there any medium-sized schools that still retain their emphasis on undergrads and personal attention?

By Gnatcire (Gnatcire) on Saturday, October 09, 2004 - 03:38 pm: Edit

You should check out the Claremont Colleges (Pomona, Claremont Mckenna, Harvey Mudd, Scripps, and Pitzer). They are small liberal arts colleges, but have adjacent campuses and share resources, so it feels like it's like one big university. Additionally, they have very good academic reputations with graduate schools.

By Gnatcire (Gnatcire) on Saturday, October 09, 2004 - 03:39 pm: Edit

You should check out the Claremont Colleges (Pomona, Claremont Mckenna, Harvey Mudd, Scripps, and Pitzer). They are small liberal arts colleges, but have adjacent campuses and share resources, so it feels like it's like one big university. Additionally, they have very good academic reputations with graduate schools.

By Carolyn (Carolyn) on Saturday, October 09, 2004 - 10:36 pm: Edit

To answer your original question, my daughter is looking at small LAC's and she has decided that, for her, signs that a small school would be stiffling include: A large Greek presence on campus (she feels that this would limit social options in a small school), lack of on campus weekend activities (she has found that reading back issues of college newspapers - usually on the websites - can help identify what's going on), large population that leaves campus on the weekends (she feels that as long as there are lots of people on campus on the weekend, SOMETHING will be happening), a diverse group of students (i.e., not all preppy or all into studying). She also looks to see how many classes are offered in her major interests each semester (again, often can be done through web site) - she has noticed that at some small schools,there are more classes to choose from than others. She's also found that doing a search on livejournal for the college name under interests can help turn up some info. on what the atmosphere is like. Hope this helps -- these are just the things that my daughter has been using.

By Chocoman (Chocoman) on Saturday, October 09, 2004 - 11:15 pm: Edit

where would the student newspaper be found on a college website?

By Carolyn (Carolyn) on Sunday, October 10, 2004 - 02:39 pm: Edit

The easiest way is to just do a search on the school's web site for "student newspaper."

Or, check out this site, which has links to many college newspapers: http://newslink.org/statcamp.html

In any case, when you do find the newspaper, do a search through the archives for topics that interest you. Or just read old issues to get a sense of what campus life is like. Some schools will allow you to actually sign up to get the newspaper delivered to you via email. Great if you have a particular school that's a potential "top choice."