2026 USNWR LACs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pomona is the loser this year.

It shouldn’t matter and it won’t matter

It was tied with Bowdoin for 5th spot last year, now it's tied for 7th spot this year. Not a big drop or change IMO.

+1 didn’t know there were so many Pomona haters here

Swat is 95/100, Bowdoin 94/100, Pomona 93/100. These are insignificant.

Bowdoin has ranked top 7 for over a decade now- it’s part of the WASP group as is Wellesley. CMC is climbing fast and deserves to be there too. Harvey Mudd is already there or exceeds for STEM students but it’s more niche.

[Anonymous]

Haverford and Colgate seem to be slipping. Thought Colby would have done better now 24. Holy Cross steadily improving. No one will dethrone Williams anytime soon. Williams is the Princeton of the LAC crowd,

[Anonymous]

Williams grad here but I would be happy to have my kid at a lot of the T-25 LAC’s. My kid didn’t even like Williams and preferred bigger, more urban schools. I’m a happy Eph but the rankings are dumb.

[Anonymous]

I feel like this list process must be especially stressful for Williams and Princeton. One of these years, they're going to show up as number 4 and that will be headlines.

Even though it's meaningless.

But Pomona dropping when it's only getting more and more selective, and richer and richer with more opportunities shows that anything can happen

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everybody slobbers all over Kenyon and it’s ranked 45th. Losers

Kenyon is a fine school, especially if your kid is a writer, but who on this board slobbers over it? People barely tolerate Pomona.

There are man threads on this board where posters insist it’s as good as Grinnell. What a joke.

Again, fine school, but this is just crazy talk. Endowment alone makes Grinnelll a much more attractive option.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Haverford and Colgate seem to be slipping. Thought Colby would have done better now 24. Holy Cross steadily improving. No one will dethrone Williams anytime soon. Williams is the Princeton of the LAC crowd,

Love how so many on this board are ten toes down that Colby is on the rise. When you have maybe the least transparent data in all of selective college admissions and employ games to maximize applicants and decrease acceptance rates that would make Chicago and Northeastern blush, it’s hard to be taken too seriously.

[Anonymous]

Colgate had a drop of 3,000 applicants for class of 2029. Might have lost its appeal.

[Anonymous]

Dumb rankings. Someone who would love Oberlin might be miserable at Furman or Washington and Lee

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Dumb rankings. Someone who would love Oberlin might be miserable at Furman or Washington and Lee

Oberlin is falling like a rock!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I feel like this list process must be especially stressful for Williams and Princeton. One of these years, they're going to show up as number 4 and that will be headlines.

Even though it's meaningless.

But Pomona dropping when it's only getting more and more selective, and richer and richer with more opportunities shows that anything can happen

It shows that these rankings have become increasingly irrelevant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's always been weird to me that people say WASP with the exclusion of Bowdoin, when Bowdoin is every bit as good as those

There are a dozen or so schools which are all every bit as good as any of the others and another group that has little if any real difference. Bowdoin and WASP aren’t at all special in this group and they never have been.

WASP-B + Grinnell + Wellesley all have over a million per capita endowment per student. None of the other usual suspects are even close, except for CMC and Smith. So there’s that.

This is a meaningless statistic. Endowment per capital is important up until a point. Any school with $1B or more in endowment is in excellent shape.

Go ask Midd if it would like to triple its endowment and be like Williams. Or if someone, who is already middle class, would like to triple their wealth or salary. Meaningless.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dumb rankings. Someone who would love Oberlin might be miserable at Furman or Washington and Lee

Oberlin is falling like a rock!

That's what you get for messing with the bakery. Don't screw with my baked goods.

[Anonymous]

Does any go to Oberlin these days,

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does any go to Oberlin these days,

The funning thing is the only people that I know that go there are lax bros.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's always been weird to me that people say WASP with the exclusion of Bowdoin, when Bowdoin is every bit as good as those

Bowdoin bounces around. I believe it’s been in the top 4 before, but then bumped up around in the 6-7 range. USNews didn’t change the methodology much this year after Morse retired. Wait until a year when they mix things up again.

No, it hasn't. It wouldn't surprise me if that changes in the coming years, but that's why it's never been WASP-B before. Now I think it's up for debate!

Bowdoin was 5 last year. No change. Others moved up or down quite significantly.

Pomona was tied with Bowdoin last year but it moved down to the group tied at 7 this year. These are very small meaningless changes.

Why is Pomona dropping? It is more competitive than ever, endowment is performing on par with everyone else, financial aid is as generous as ever…is it simply just a quirk of USNEWs this year?

+1, there’s something going on at the school. Maybe financial?

Lollll. It isn’t “dropping.” It’s in top 5, not including service academies, same as last year. The idea there’s a meaningful difference in its tying for 5th (with Bowdoin last year) and tying for 7th (after a service academy at 6th this year) is ludicrous. What IS notable is that 3 of the 5 Claremont colleges are now in the top 10. When you go to any of these schools (Pomona, Harvey Mudd, Claremont McKenna), you have the benefit of single social world that is significantly larger (and thus more fun, with more connections) than any of the other top LACs by themselves. The consortium is really doing well and offers a really unique, attractive experience.