How many colleges are "better" than Williams?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"Far better to be a philosophy major at AWS than a finance major at State U."

It is certainly true that it is better to have a philosophy DEGREE from AWS than a finance DEGREE from State U.

BUT the odds are much greater for an AWS student who HATES philosophy to flunk out of AWS

than for the same student to have any trouble getting a finance degree at State U even if they HATE finance.

Wrong--look at the graduation rates from AWS. 95%+ of students graduate. AWS have the ability to admit only those students who have a high probability of succeeding; they also have tremendous resources to make sure that each student gets the help she needs to graduate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"Far better to be a philosophy major at AWS than a finance major at State U."

It is certainly true that it is better to have a philosophy DEGREE from AWS than a finance DEGREE from State U.

BUT the odds are much greater for an AWS student who HATES philosophy to flunk out of AWS

than for the same student to have any trouble getting a finance degree at State U even if they HATE finance.

this is so unbelievably off. almost no one flunks out of the top lacs- their standards are incredibly high as is the quality of students they enroll. furthermore, they provide a ton of support to make sure students do well, hence why their average gpas are quite high despite being rigorous colleges

pomona which is the west coast version of aws has the highest six year graduation rate in the country, at 97%.

[Anonymous]

Going to Williams, or its peers Amherst and Swarthmore, pretty much guarantees professional success.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Going to Williams, or its peers Amherst and Swarthmore, pretty much guarantees professional success.

I went to Williams and loved it, but it's really not true that any college or university degree can guarantee professional success. It's that kind of thinking that makes parents anxious and overbearing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"Far better to be a philosophy major at AWS than a finance major at State U."

It is certainly true that it is better to have a philosophy DEGREE from AWS than a finance DEGREE from State U.

BUT the odds are much greater for an AWS student who HATES philosophy to flunk out of AWS

than for the same student to have any trouble getting a finance degree at State U even if they HATE finance.

you have no clue about anything at aws or at a big10 state school (as an example) do you?

You are crazy if you think this is the case.

AWS will go to the mat for you - be ultra flexible to your situation to make sure you graduate.

State U is very easy to fail out of if you aren't 'happy'. the adminsitration will not care and they won't 'bend rules'.

aws - 'rules' are really ad hoc. AWS is impossible to fail out of unless you die pretty much.

your post is HORRIBLE advice for those who need it.

If your kid needs the most flexibility with 'rules and regs', send him/her to a slac. they will work with him/her and their individual needs.

[Anonymous]

my sister went to aws. she would've been in jail if she went to our state flagship due to her drug use and trafficking.

her AWS school worked with her, shielded her from cops (i.e. state schools WILL turn you over to the police....aws never did), worked with her bi-polar issues, professors gave her extra time to do assignments...

without the support and care of her AWS school, she would not be at a TOP tech firm making 150-170k all in comp at age 24, traveling the world on cool assignments.

she'd be in local or state prison.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To PP's point- majors don't really matter at all at SLACs because you can do whatever you want after you graduate. Major in history, go into finance then on to Wharton. No problem. Major in English, head to Harvard med after a post Bach and on to a career in internal medicine.

Liberal arts schools teach you how to think critically, write, and explore. Departments matter at bigger schools because they're inherently more competitive with more students, and also harder to just rely on the brand for networking and professional purposes without more targeted "direction."

Just different strokes.

Not much right about this post.

Care to refute any specifics? In my experience, this was and remains very much "right."

[Anonymous]

Majors certainly matter in STEM fields and premed. You cannot go into Engineering or a Chem PhD without a core of required science classes. Overall, SLACs are relatively weaker in the Sciences than big state university. You just cannot justify large expensive equipment when you may have just 3 professors using it. Hard core science research requires a lot of money. Also, having grad students helps a lot as research is very time intensive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Majors certainly matter in STEM fields and premed. You cannot go into Engineering or a Chem PhD without a core of required science classes. Overall, SLACs are relatively weaker in the Sciences than big state university. You just cannot justify large expensive equipment when you may have just 3 professors using it. Hard core science research requires a lot of money. Also, having grad students helps a lot as research is very time intensive.

This is blatantly wrong. Of the top 15 schools for STEM PhD production, 9 are LACs (http://www.swarthmore.edu/institutional-research/doctorates-awarded, second column). You can see more detailed information by discipline; the only area where there aren't many LACs represented is engineering. Not very surprising when maybe like 3 or 4 of them have an engineering program, total.

[Anonymous]

Just remove the comma from the link above, it's not broken

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just remove the comma from the link above, it's not broken

Interesting stats. I would have thought that the larger research universities would have ranked higher, but clearly not the case. A lot of SLACs do better. I guess because of the emphasis on crtical thinking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Majors certainly matter in STEM fields and premed. You cannot go into Engineering or a Chem PhD without a core of required science classes. Overall, SLACs are relatively weaker in the Sciences than big state university. You just cannot justify large expensive equipment when you may have just 3 professors using it. Hard core science research requires a lot of money. Also, having grad students helps a lot as research is very time intensive.

This is blatantly wrong. Of the top 15 schools for STEM PhD production, 9 are LACs (http://www.swarthmore.edu/institutional-research/doctorates-awarded, second column). You can see more detailed information by discipline; the only area where there aren't many LACs represented is engineering. Not very surprising when maybe like 3 or 4 of them have an engineering program, total.

I know someone who went to Swarthmore for engineering and is now a Prof of EE in the ivy league. It happens.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just remove the comma from the link above, it's not broken

Interesting stats. I would have thought that the larger research universities would have ranked higher, but clearly not the case. A lot of SLACs do better. I guess because of the emphasis on crtical thinking.

No, it's because this stat is calculated in terms of percentage of undergrad population getting PhDs -- not in terms of absolutes #s of people getting PhDs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just remove the comma from the link above, it's not broken

Interesting stats. I would have thought that the larger research universities would have ranked higher, but clearly not the case. A lot of SLACs do better. I guess because of the emphasis on crtical thinking.

No, it's because this stat is calculated in terms of percentage of undergrad population getting PhDs -- not in terms of absolutes #s of people getting PhDs.

But an earlier point was that SLACs did not have the STEM resources, so kids would be less likely to get a STEM PHd. Clearly not true.

[Anonymous]

None of the private schools listed are worth $66-$72K a year in after tax dollars. Go state. Then go private HYP for grad school.