Is there an advantage to going to a small expensive LAC?

yes

No. Unless your goal is to spend a lot of money for a degree that is worthless.

If you have some artistic talent, you will do well regardless of which school you attend. The secret, before spending a lot of money, is being honest with yourself about if you have any talent.

Go to a trade school and learn something useful if you are uncertain.

One of my kids went to a semi-prestigious private liberal arts college. His top two choices were that or the local Land Grant University. He was a Merit Scholar Commended Student and NHS member, did some sports and activities, but otherwise not an incredible student. He was offered basically no aid at University of My State except loans and a ton of grant and scholarship money to Private U. The net cost was actually slightly less at Private U.

I can only assume that the demographics had something to do with it. He was the only kid on his floor who had work-study, for example, and he didn't even qualify for it at Big State. I guess not making $400K a year paid off there.

bump

Bump that man, shucks.

I went to the west coast equivalent of one of those schools. It was like summer camp for four years--an absolute blast.

He said Liberal Arts not Fine Arts.

yeah, I thought he might not have known what a LAC was, but I dont really want an answer from anyone that is too lazy to look it up r doesnt know so I didnt spell it out.

OK so some LACs can do well by some students in terms of aid but that usually only makes costs the same, what are possible advantages?

I have a neighbor whose son got an A in some class his freshman year at a LAC. As second semester started, the prof searched him out to ask if he wanted a summer internship. It seems that since the college is in the middle of nowhere, all the students try like crazy to get internships in cities after sophomore and junior years so even middle of the road freshmen end up with internships.

On the level that Letsrun can understand, I overheard the kid explain why he chose this LAC to a group of neighborhood kids. #3 It was okay with his parents since it wasn't going to cost much more than our state school. #2 He was going to get to run there. #1 When he did his overnight visit, at a mixer for the visiting HS students, someone mentioned that the school had a higher percentage of women than men and that most of them had family money.

One benefit is no competition with grad students for research positions. Faculty still need people to do the grunt work, so inexperienced underclassmen do that, and their's more opportunity for upperclassmen to do the more interesting research.

This applies at the science focused ones like Harvey mudd at least. Not sure if there's a humanities equivalent

The advantage is, unfortunately, friends with rich parents are usually more useful than talented friends

1. Typically professors at small LAC are fully vested in educating young minds rather than procuring large research grants. They actually interact with their students, holding office hours, inviting students to assist them with their research and/or book writing efforts, and sometimes even accompany students to meals and other social gatherings. They do not rely on graduate research assistants to grade, teach and serve as an intermediary.

2. The facilities at these schools often are top notch- with state of the art athletic facilities- and open to the entire student body not just a subset.

3. The grounds and dormitories are meticulously maintained.

4. The alumnae network is priceless.

In high school I applied to two large state schools, Wash U St. Louis and MIT.

Didn't get into MIT, WUSTL only gave me a bit of work study (5-10 hrs / week) which isn't really aid because it is a job. Would have cost me 50k/ year to attend excluding room & board.

Both of the state schools gave me academic merit scholarships plus one school gave me some financial aid. Would have cost about 15k / year at one state school and 8k / year at the school that I ended up attending. My scholarship was guaranteed for 4 years if I maintained above a 3.3 or something like that plus I earned additional scholarships as an upperclassman.

I was also able to graduate in 3 years because the school took lots of AP credits. I participated in undergrad research every single semester (got paid $10/ hour too) and had a paid internship each summer. Profs always replied to email quickly, were willing to talk after class or at office hours.

State School

2x8k + 1x 6k (had extra scholarships last year) = 22k

WUSTL

4x50k = 200k

Saved a ton of money and from talking to friends private schools costing the same as state schools seems to be kind of a myth (people will count things like subsidized loans and work study as scholarships and aid when they really aren't)