Anyone touring top schools and finding then all to be dumpy and unimpressive?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'd absolutely leave Sidwelll (or any private HS) if they doubled or tripled the size.

I pay primarily for the small class size. Size matters. Research is pretty clear that the ideal learning environment is less than 16 students per class.

What research and for what kind of school…I have seen something similar with public schools where you have kids with varying backgrounds and discipline. However, similar research says class size doesn’t matter much if all the kids the motivated and high performing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'd absolutely leave Sidwelll (or any private HS) if they doubled or tripled the size.

I pay primarily for the small class size. Size matters. Research is pretty clear that the ideal learning environment is less than 16 students per class.

Ok small sizes in high school is understandable, but super small class sizes in COLLEGE? That is unappealing to many. Part of the college experience is being in a larger environment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a rising senior and have been doing the rounds of many top 25 schools (universities and colleges). We started with safety schools last year and then junior year grades came back so this summer we've been touring some top schools. My kid is trying to figure out an ED.
We have a rising junior as well so we have a couple of kids with us.

The more of these schools we tour, the less impressed I am. They're sort of all a bit falling apart, poorly maintained, with pretty odd students (tour guides, summer students and especially touring students alike--don't jump all over for for saying this--being brutally honest), little sense of community, same-old, same-old stuff about study-abroad, etc. Many have very large class sizes, etc.

I feel like we're (kid and parent alike) are supposed to love these schools and want to pay $90K for them and my kids can't find one they really like. I very, very, very much feel like we're being sold a product that we're supposed to want to buy because of prestige and name but when we see the product up close it doesn't look great and I feel like a sheep lining up to say "yes sir. let me put my kid through mental/emotional twister for a 5% chance of being admitted to your school and then I will gladly pay you $90K for the honor. Yes sir." It just feels... gross. Maybe not gross but yucky. My kids are like, "well I didn't really like this or that here but I could probably make it work." They too feel the pressure to LIKE these places. The Almighty XYZ or ABC school! It's supposed to be their dream!

Please don't jump on me. I know it's summer and we're not seeing the universities at their best but ugh. They're all kind of disappointing. I can't be the only one who feels this way? (I'm not going to name university/college names because then this post will turn into a giant thread about whatever school(s) I name.

Hey Debbie Downer,

So nice that you can arrive for a tour and judge everyone you see as "pretty odd" but beg others " don't jump all over me". You know what feels gross? People like you.

-Just being brutally honest.

+1. I have more information about OP to make a judgment than she does based on 30 seconds glimpse she's had on other students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'd absolutely leave Sidwelll (or any private HS) if they doubled or tripled the size.

I pay primarily for the small class size. Size matters. Research is pretty clear that the ideal learning environment is less than 16 students per class.

The vast majority of Sidwell grads (90%+) attend Ivy and other top schools with class sizes well above 30 and many 200 for certain intro classes.

At least check with your kid that they want to attend a college that is tiny.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd absolutely leave Sidwelll (or any private HS) if they doubled or tripled the size.

I pay primarily for the small class size. Size matters. Research is pretty clear that the ideal learning environment is less than 16 students per class.

Ok small sizes in high school is understandable, but super small class sizes in COLLEGE? That is unappealing to many. Part of the college experience is being in a larger environment.

It depends. A 200 person course in intro chem is just fine, especially since there are smaller sections for help. But it would be nice to have a 10 person freshman seminar in English lit.

[Anonymous]

I was literally about to make a thread titled “why is Harvard so dumpy in person”?

Then I came across this thread

Spot on op

[Anonymous]

Is it time to post the link to Aesop's "Sour Grapes" fable again?

[Anonymous]

I feel bad that you are not helping your child get excited about the next phase of her life.

Decide what really matters to you (which should not be cosmetic). My kid wanted a great sense of community and quality education (ie, small classes, lots of faculty exposure/attention). That drive her to SLACs on more remote areas (so students attended school events and lived on campus all four years).

What you are seeking is not a unicorn. Maybe your mistake has prioritizing ranking over fit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd absolutely leave Sidwelll (or any private HS) if they doubled or tripled the size.

I pay primarily for the small class size. Size matters. Research is pretty clear that the ideal learning environment is less than 16 students per class.

Ok small sizes in high school is understandable, but super small class sizes in COLLEGE? That is unappealing to many. Part of the college experience is being in a larger environment.

It depends. A 200 person course in intro chem is just fine, especially since there are smaller sections for help. But it would be nice to have a 10 person freshman seminar in English lit.

200? Cornell has some intro classes that are 800-1,000 students!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd absolutely leave Sidwelll (or any private HS) if they doubled or tripled the size.

I pay primarily for the small class size. Size matters. Research is pretty clear that the ideal learning environment is less than 16 students per class.

Ok small sizes in high school is understandable, but super small class sizes in COLLEGE? That is unappealing to many. Part of the college experience is being in a larger environment.

I loved my lecture hall courses. Coming from a small HS and feeling a bit anonymous was refreshing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:First of all, nothing in the T25 is a safety school.

Second, you could spend a few minutes doing the virtual tour to decide if you want to invest time and money in the in-person one.

Michigan is if you’re full pay with decent marks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd absolutely leave Sidwelll (or any private HS) if they doubled or tripled the size.

I pay primarily for the small class size. Size matters. Research is pretty clear that the ideal learning environment is less than 16 students per class.

Fine…skip all nationally ranked colleges and just pick a SLAC. Have fun because I guess your kid needs the same handholding as 13 year old.

Handholding is expecting billion dollar institutions to have support resources? Also many ivies you can go four years without a class about 20 students, but you just won't be a STEM student.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd absolutely leave Sidwelll (or any private HS) if they doubled or tripled the size.

I pay primarily for the small class size. Size matters. Research is pretty clear that the ideal learning environment is less than 16 students per class.

Fine…skip all nationally ranked colleges and just pick a SLAC. Have fun because I guess your kid needs the same handholding as 13 year old.

Handholding is expecting billion dollar institutions to have support resources? Also many ivies you can go four years without a class about 20 students, but you just won't be a STEM student.

Don't understand the issue. Went to a T20 school. Great classes freshman/sophomore year with classes with roughly 150 students. By senior year, it was seminars with 15 or so. But what I remember as my favorite were the big ones.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd absolutely leave Sidwelll (or any private HS) if they doubled or tripled the size.

I pay primarily for the small class size. Size matters. Research is pretty clear that the ideal learning environment is less than 16 students per class.

Fine…skip all nationally ranked colleges and just pick a SLAC. Have fun because I guess your kid needs the same handholding as 13 year old.

Handholding is expecting billion dollar institutions to have support resources? Also many ivies you can go four years without a class about 20 students, but you just won't be a STEM student.

Don't understand the issue. Went to a T20 school. Great classes freshman/sophomore year with classes with roughly 150 students. By senior year, it was seminars with 15 or so. But what I remember as my favorite were the big ones.

I have no problem with class sizes, but I think it is a bit ridiculous when people get on these threads and act like class sizes don't matter when most colleges are in an arms race to have lowest class size and many of the top colleges have the largest size similar to what you said of 150. Heck, my Probability course at a liberal arts college had 95 students. It's always a conversation about handholding and spoonfeeding, when I do think that the most rigorous environments are small ones where you, the individual, are challenged.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd absolutely leave Sidwelll (or any private HS) if they doubled or tripled the size.

I pay primarily for the small class size. Size matters. Research is pretty clear that the ideal learning environment is less than 16 students per class.

Fine…skip all nationally ranked colleges and just pick a SLAC. Have fun because I guess your kid needs the same handholding as 13 year old.

Handholding is expecting billion dollar institutions to have support resources? Also many ivies you can go four years without a class about 20 students, but you just won't be a STEM student.

Don't understand the issue. Went to a T20 school. Great classes freshman/sophomore year with classes with roughly 150 students. By senior year, it was seminars with 15 or so. But what I remember as my favorite were the big ones.

I have no problem with class sizes, but I think it is a bit ridiculous when people get on these threads and act like class sizes don't matter when most colleges are in an arms race to have lowest class size and many of the top colleges have the largest size similar to what you said of 150. Heck, my Probability course at a liberal arts college had 95 students. It's always a conversation about handholding and spoonfeeding, when I do think that the most rigorous environments are small ones where you, the individual, are challenged.

Shh, people from massive state schools get defensive and love pushing that everyone who doesn't want overflowing classrooms with overworked TAs and uninterested professors is an idiot who won't make it in the real world