I majored in English and went to Clark University (http://www.clarku.edu -- a lot of people haven't heard of it), where I think I got a lot of mentorship and connected with my professors. That might be because I took a lot of time to seek them out or because Clark is a small liberal school, but I think the larger issue is that most, though not all, professors will offer mentorship/guidance to the extent the students seek it out.
Now I'm a grad student at the University of Arizona, and I tell my students the same thing most of the time: if they want to go beyond whatever is required in class, they should start by showing up in their professors' office hours, ideally with somewhat smart questions or comments. Most professors will, I think, respond well to this, and will often give recommendations on books to read and/or projects to work on. A few days ago I taught pg's essay "What You'll Wish You'd Known," and students glommed onto this paragraph (http://paulgraham.com/hs.html):
A key ingredient in many projects, almost a project on its own, is to find good books. Most books are bad. Nearly all textbooks are bad. [9] So don't assume a subject is to be learned from whatever book on it happens to be closest. You have to search actively for the tiny number of good books.
Very true: professors are a good place to find this. If you read whatever books they recommend and go talk to them about those books afterwords, I think that coaching and mentorship kinds of relationships will probably form, even at big state schools. Professors are often interested in you to the extent that you are interested in the subject they are interested in.
Obviously, there are exceptions, but most of the time this principle works reasonably well. But very few people follow it. If you (not the OP -- a general "you") show up in office hours say "mentor me!" you're probably not going to get much. But if you show up and ask questions x, y, and z, then read whatever the prof recommends, then come back, you'll probably have a much better shot.
This is true, but that wasn't my point. I used coaching as an analogy to point out that even people who are among the best at what they do don't do it alone. There is an attitude among technical people that "the material is out there, who needs school?" which I find too reductionist. Courses are more than just the raw material; they are infrastructure, incentives, and, yes, outside help.
I get the impression that some undergraduates at some colleges do get good coaching and mentorship, and I would like to hear from other HN participants if they know of examples of that.
I would like to hear from other HN participants if they know of examples of that.
/me raises hand
It helps to be in a small department. A friend of mine at another (larger) school once asked me for advice on how to seek out letters of recommendation. The problem was that none of the professors knew who he was, since he'd only been in large lectures and never had the same professor twice. On the other hand, there were a few professors (2 in math, 2 in CS) who had taught multiple smaller classes I was in. When I was looking for recommendations, I had a lot less trouble finding professors who knew my background (including both other classes I'd taken and areas where I'd gone wandering beyond the scope of the courses they'd taught) well enough to write them.
Most of the complaints I hear about professors/instructors being unreachable come from people who never make any serious attempt to reach them (i.e. so few try and so many complain that those who don't try must be a majority of those who complain). Beyond that, those who do contact the professor/instructor for additional mentoring typically aren't the ones who need it most.
I got my best coaching from other undergrads and occasionally other grads. Two dudes named David Kitchen and Noah Falk stood out in particular (if you guys are out there somewhere, I still think you rock!). It makes sense. The undergrad TAs and mentors all wanted to TA and they're closer to your skill level. The professors are there for when you outgrow your TA. But since I didn't seriously start learning math or programming until I entered college, I never made it that far. =(
I went to a small, well regarded liberal arts college in the Midwest. The science programs provided a lot of direct interaction with professors as well as copious lab time, projects, summer internships. Lab equipment was extensive; as it was (sometimes too frequently) put, undergrads received training on and regularly used equipment that elsewhere you might not "get to touch" until in a grad program.
It helped that the school was quite well funded/endowed. Some big name alumni had not just or even primarily given them money, but had as much or more so given them investment advice and opportunities that paid off many fold.
This is an attraction of a small (often private) college. But you have to pick carefully and ascertain that the reality there lives up to the rhetoric.
I'm not particularly pitching for this route as an education. Rather, providing a specific example, as requested by the parent.
P.S. Tuition was not as high as some schools, but it wasn't cheap. However, a majority of the population received aid (often significant) of one sort or another. If you experience "sticker shock" when shopping around, realize this and, if a school interests you, apply and see what happens. (Although it's been some time since I was there, and education costs as a percentage of income seem to have grown more and more out of scale, in general.)
Also, while that college had many excellent areas and faculty, they also had their not so good areas and some particular lemons. You can't just look things on a school level; you need to consider particular programs and departments, where you have strong interests. At the same time, often part of the liberal arts experience is figuring out just what major you actually want to pursue, so don't feel certain that your interests going in are going to remain constant.
Finally, I should mention that the college paid fairly well and was in an area with low living costs and good schools for faculty children. Faculty also had decent resources and the ability to take leave to pursue personal work/research. Thus, it was able to attract good faculty. Further, they knew coming in that the institution's primary focus is education, not research. Your research need not suffer (then again, maybe many faculty were not of the most highly obsessed research-centered nature that also produces some "super stars"), but you were there first and foremost to educate.
