1. What according to you works better at an undergraduate level, a small liberal arts school or a larger university? Does having to meet a core curriculum turn out to be an annoyance in any way?

I went to a high school that had a large number of students. Therefore, being around thousands of people was a way of life. This is what lead me to apply to big universities in the US. However, after studying at St. Stephens in India where the community was rather close-knit, I feel that a smaller college works better. There’s always the trade-off between the prestige of a larger university and the close-knit community of a smaller college (luckily, St Stephen’s ticked both the boxes).

Talking about core curriculums. In Stephens we didn’t have an array of diverse subjects that we were required to study. We had our basic economics requirements and requirement for subjects, which were in some way related to what we were studying. However, I feel that the ‘liberal arts’ system and the strict core curriculum that follows it leads to a holistic development and I see no reason as to why it should be an annoyance.