The students who get into top SLACs and top universities don't seem to be picking the former

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DC who graduated from a NESCAC had a far superior education than my DC who will graduate shortly from an Ivy. The access to professors and research opportunities at LACs is objectively better. And I can’t even imagine attending some soulless public university where students are just a number and the majority of students come from a single state.

I went to a NESCAC school and had a great experience. My husband went to Michigan and had a great experience. Soulful? I dunno, but he is my soulmate and we met at an Ivy law school (where we had comparable grades and post-grad job offers). BTW, I enthusiastically recommend Summer of Soul -- awesome movie that should have won Best Picture. Why can't docs be nominated for Best Pic? Now, that's soulless.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is just personal experience, but I know of at least six students this year who had an acceptance from a top 5 SLAC but are turning them down for top universities.

It seems like students these days want to be in major metropolitan areas. and they prefer the university social life. A number of the admits above raised the concern that the LAC social life would feel "dead" by comparison. It seems sad that the hallmark academic and collaborative strengths of LACs seem to be ignored these days. I'm not saying a LAC experience is good for everyone, but I feel like they're admitting students in RD who have no real interest in going to one.

Are they STEM majors?

My BIL is a STEM prof at an Ivy. He is encouraging his own STEM-oriented kids to go to a SLAC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are kids even applying to SLACS then?

Colgate had something like 22000 applicants this year. A few years ago it was 9000.

Why are kids applying to 10+ schools period? They are casting a wide net.

There are plenty of large universities to cast a wide net without applying to SLACS. So why are kids still applying to SLACS?

If you asked my DC who just applied to 20 schools all over the map he would say:

For variety
For fun
Because I can

Nothing wrong with applying to a variety of schools, but 20 applications? Wow. Your kid sounds kind of entitled and also like he needs to find other (more fun) stuff to do in life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sad? The truth is that SLACS, especially cold, rural ones, are out of style. They have no lay name recognition and are absurdly expensive with no opportunity to live off-campus later to save $.

Hmm. You must be right. I guess that's why the top SLACs have admit rates of under 10% and 1500+ SAT scores.
Those places still manage to fill their classes every year with very, very strong students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sad? The truth is that SLACS, especially cold, rural ones, are out of style. They have no lay name recognition and are absurdly expensive with no opportunity to live off-campus later to save $.

Hmm. You must be right. I guess that's why the top SLACs have admit rates of under 10% and 1500+ SAT scores.
Those places still manage to fill their classes every year with very, very strong students.

Even the top LACs rely on binding ED to fill their classes each year. Probably for similar reasons that small towns are dying and urban metro areas are booming--more options & opportunities in everything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Regular Decision Yields (% of students admitted RD who choose to attend) of top 5 SLACs:

Pomona- 43.4%
Williams- 39%
Wellesley- 31.8%
Amherst- 29.7%
Swarthmore- 28.2%

Regular Decision Yields (% of students admitted RD who choose to attend) of selected top universities:

Dartmouth- 51.7%
Brown- 46.5%
Carnegie Mellon- 33.8%
Vanderbilt- 29.4%
Emory- 18.7%

Where is this data from? I'm only able to find overall yield (i.e. RD + ED/EA) rates online.

So the Ivies do better but the yields are similar to other top 30 universities?

[Anonymous]

Neither of my kids would consider slacs, just too small a place to spend four years in their opinions. However there are definitely kids who feel exactly the opposite.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sad? The truth is that SLACS, especially cold, rural ones, are out of style. They have no lay name recognition and are absurdly expensive with no opportunity to live off-campus later to save $.

Hmm. You must be right. I guess that's why the top SLACs have admit rates of under 10% and 1500+ SAT scores.
Those places still manage to fill their classes every year with very, very strong students.

Yes, but it doesn’t take much to find a few hundred top students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sad? The truth is that SLACS, especially cold, rural ones, are out of style. They have no lay name recognition and are absurdly expensive with no opportunity to live off-campus later to save $.

Hmm. You must be right. I guess that's why the top SLACs have admit rates of under 10% and 1500+ SAT scores.
Those places still manage to fill their classes every year with very, very strong students.

Even the top LACs rely on binding ED to fill their classes each year. Probably for similar reasons that small towns are dying and urban metro areas are booming--more options & opportunities in everything.

Not sure, but my guess is that studying abroad for one's junior year of college was popularized by LACs to give students a break from the monotony of small college life.

Additionally, many LACs have done away with fraternities & sororities which tended to make small schools even smaller.

Overall, only a small percentage of high school graduates matriculate at LACs. (Would be interesting to know the percentages.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is just personal experience, but I know of at least six students this year who had an acceptance from a top 5 SLAC but are turning them down for top universities.

It seems like students these days want to be in major metropolitan areas. and they prefer the university social life. A number of the admits above raised the concern that the LAC social life would feel "dead" by comparison. It seems sad that the hallmark academic and collaborative strengths of LACs seem to be ignored these days. I'm not saying a LAC experience is good for everyone, but I feel like they're admitting students in RD who have no real interest in going to one.

Are they STEM majors?

My BIL is a STEM prof at an Ivy. He is encouraging his own STEM-oriented kids to go to a SLAC.

Just looking at the Facebook parents' group for my kid's SLAC, there do seem to be a lot of professors from larger universities.

[Anonymous]

One of my kids focused in on SLACs but most (really all) of her friends at a large academically rigorous public school did not look at these schools but rather at large universities. For my city kid who is certain they want to live in a city after college this was a chance to experience something different. My kiddo has always attended huge, public schools with large class sizes so the idea of small classes and a different non-urban vibe was appealing… but many kids stick with schools they are more familiar with.. but they would probably love the experience of a small liberal arts school if given the chance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One of my kids focused in on SLACs but most (really all) of her friends at a large academically rigorous public school did not look at these schools but rather at large universities. For my city kid who is certain they want to live in a city after college this was a chance to experience something different. My kiddo has always attended huge, public schools with large class sizes so the idea of small classes and a different non-urban vibe was appealing… but many kids stick with schools they are more familiar with.. but they would probably love the experience of a small liberal arts school if given the chance.

My kid too. They've attended large, public schools since K. This is their chance to try something different.

[Anonymous]

Not sure why a poster resurfaced this old thread. That’s two of these in one day. Makes one think there’s an agenda.

To the point of this thread, there may be some students who view a SLAC as a backup to a university, but generally, the two pools of students are distinct and don’t cross-apply.

While there is the notion that Williams and Amherst are full of Ivy rejects, this situation may be unique, as many SLACs fill half of their class from ED, so attending the SLAC is no consolation prize, by definition.

[Anonymous]

[twitter]

Anonymous wrote:This is just personal experience, but I know of at least six students this year who had an acceptance from a top 5 SLAC but are turning them down for top universities.

It seems like students these days want to be in major metropolitan areas. and they prefer the university social life. A number of the admits above raised the concern that the LAC social life would feel "dead" by comparison. It seems sad that the hallmark academic and collaborative strengths of LACs seem to be ignored these days. I'm not saying a LAC experience is good for everyone, but I feel like they're admitting students in RD who have no real interest in going to one.

Mine turned Amherst down because its very expensive and didn't offer him a single dollar in merit or aid, also didn't like athlete-non athlete divide and not having anyone from high school going there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sad? The truth is that SLACS, especially cold, rural ones, are out of style. They have no lay name recognition and are absurdly expensive with no opportunity to live off-campus later to save $.

I spent more off campus.