Are the NESCACs worth the money?

[Anonymous]

Amherst is need blind, including for international students (one of less than 8 colleges that are).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My wife and I both graduated nescacs and our two children graduated ivies and my impression is that nescacs deliver a far superior undergrad experience. Abundant opportunities to work with professors on research and loads of mentorship. Go visit and decide for yourself. I wouldn’t bankrupt myself for the opportunity but attending a NESCAC is a special experienc.

Keep in mind that Conn College gives a substantial portion of students merit aid (it is the only one, though). Also, if you qualify for any financial aid at Williams, the student contribution includes no summer earnings whatsoever. And no work-study during the academic year, even. I believe they are the only school in the country that does this. Your kid won’t need to earn a dime during the summer or the academic year, for that matter, and can focus on academics alone. For anyone who has done work-study in college, you know this is absolutely huge. Hope other elite schools follow Williams’ lead here...

The problem is that most parents around here can't afford the expected contribution so the no summer earnings is a moot point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Amherst is need blind, including for international students (one of less than 8 colleges that are).

I was talking to a friend of mine who is STEM faculty at Amherst. One of the negative side effects of need-blind for international students is that they get kids who really should be at other schools (e.g. engineering schools) based on their interests and background but end up at Amherst because it's free.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Amherst is need blind, including for international students (one of less than 8 colleges that are).

I was talking to a friend of mine who is STEM faculty at Amherst. One of the negative side effects of need-blind for international students is that they get kids who really should be at other schools (e.g. engineering schools) based on their interests and background but end up at Amherst because it's free.

Possibly, but like everything else in life, there are always tradeoffs.

Keep in mind though that Amherst college students can cross register for classes at UMass Amherst, which has a large engineering program. Also, many LACs have a 3-2 or 4-1 engineering program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My wife and I both graduated nescacs and our two children graduated ivies and my impression is that nescacs deliver a far superior undergrad experience. Abundant opportunities to work with professors on research and loads of mentorship. Go visit and decide for yourself. I wouldn’t bankrupt myself for the opportunity but attending a NESCAC is a special experienc.

LOL, ok.

PP, are you still using a rotary or a flip phone and thinking your rotary or flip works just as well as a smartphone in calling or receiving phone calls? The original PP is trying to explain to you the benefits of a smartphone. If you never owned one, everything goes over your head.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My wife and I both graduated nescacs and our two children graduated ivies and my impression is that nescacs deliver a far superior undergrad experience. Abundant opportunities to work with professors on research and loads of mentorship. Go visit and decide for yourself. I wouldn’t bankrupt myself for the opportunity but attending a NESCAC is a special experienc.

LOL, ok.

PP, are you still using a rotary or a flip phone and thinking your rotary or flip works just as well as a smartphone in calling or receiving phone calls? The original PP is trying to explain to you the benefits of a smartphone. If you never owned one, everything goes over your head.

I think you are wasting your time. People who comment with LOL, ok and Ha! are often cynical and passive-aggressive with little desire to add anything substantive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My wife and I both graduated nescacs and our two children graduated ivies and my impression is that nescacs deliver a far superior undergrad experience. Abundant opportunities to work with professors on research and loads of mentorship. Go visit and decide for yourself. I wouldn’t bankrupt myself for the opportunity but attending a NESCAC is a special experienc.

LOL, ok.

PP, are you still using a rotary or a flip phone and thinking your rotary or flip works just as well as a smartphone in calling or receiving phone calls? The original PP is trying to explain to you the benefits of a smartphone. If you never owned one, everything goes over your head.

I think you are wasting your time. People who comment with LOL, ok and Ha! are often cynical and passive-aggressive with little desire to add anything substantive.

+1

Ironically that PP seems to be demonstrating his own lack of substantive education. He is an unintentional advertisement for SLACs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My wife and I both graduated nescacs and our two children graduated ivies and my impression is that nescacs deliver a far superior undergrad experience. Abundant opportunities to work with professors on research and loads of mentorship. Go visit and decide for yourself. I wouldn’t bankrupt myself for the opportunity but attending a NESCAC is a special experienc.

LOL, ok.

PP, are you still using a rotary or a flip phone and thinking your rotary or flip works just as well as a smartphone in calling or receiving phone calls? The original PP is trying to explain to you the benefits of a smartphone. If you never owned one, everything goes over your head.

I think you are wasting your time. People who comment with LOL, ok and Ha! are often cynical and passive-aggressive with little desire to add anything substantive.

+1

Ironically that PP seems to be demonstrating his own lack of substantive education. He is an unintentional advertisement for SLACs.

Try not to engage with people like that because the next step will be name calling - strivers, boosters, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NECSAC is an athletic conference of 11 schools of differing levels of excellence. The best NECSAC schools offer some of the best undergraduate education in the US. Let's momentarily set aside the USNWR ranking that stupidly splits universities and colleges into two lists, and temporarily ignore the ill-informed chatter of its DCUM groupies. The (better) WSJ ranking system places the top six NESCAC schools (Amherst, Williams, Tufts, Bowdoin, Middlebury, Wesleyan) among the top 50 in the nation. The others NECSACs aren't quite as highly ranked, with Trinity (104) and Connecticut (109) although fine bringing up the rear.

Obviously for NECSAC -- just as for Ivy or Big Ten or State U -- the finances have to work (and if $ is a concern, you'll probably want to major in something a little more marketable than say gender studies). But it's not like a NECSAC education is a lesser product that's only attractive at a discounted rate. That one even feels the need to explain that about extraordinary colleges like Williams or Amherst is just further evidence of the general uselessness of DCUM's received wisdom.

The best NECSAC schools will be (well-) known to employers, and grad schools. They may not be as well known to your father's second cousin or your grandmother's neighbor back in the old country, though, so if impressing them is a top priority and determinant of "worth the money," better to go to some huge university where a few professors have Nobel prizes and you need binoculars to see from the back of the lecture hall.

+1

For a similar and less expensive experience, consider other LACs such as e.g. Oberlin, Grinnell, Denison, College of Wooster, Allegheny.

~NESCAC alum whose DCs had better experiences at other non-NESCAC LACs

Grinnell is as good and highly respected as any NESCAC. Any prof at, say, Williams or Amherst would agree with that. The other schools on your list? Not so much.

[Anonymous]

they are great places for wealthy moderately above average athletes to spend 4 years after hs

don’t expect them to help find u internships or jobs - gc at a nescac told my son to “use family connections”. for $87k this coming year and a 3.8 gpa econ major, i was hoping for more

so i did use my connections

this at a school next rung under williams / amherst

my kid really does like the experience though - hope he can get a job next year

my next kid will NOT be attending a NESCAC - will be attending a school that helps find a job

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My wife and I both graduated nescacs and our two children graduated ivies and my impression is that nescacs deliver a far superior undergrad experience. Abundant opportunities to work with professors on research and loads of mentorship. Go visit and decide for yourself. I wouldn’t bankrupt myself for the opportunity but attending a NESCAC is a special experienc.

LOL, ok.

PP, are you still using a rotary or a flip phone and thinking your rotary or flip works just as well as a smartphone in calling or receiving phone calls? The original PP is trying to explain to you the benefits of a smartphone. If you never owned one, everything goes over your head.

If you think yours is a clever retort I got news for you . . .

But I'll elaborate. First, NESCAC is an athletic conference. For this poster to group them all together and say attending any single one of them is a "special experience" is ridiculous. Some are better than others, and several are not "special" at all.

In any event, my real reason for the "LOL, ok" is that this poster isn't going to school with her kids or sitting in on their classes so she has no idea whether every NESCAC delivers a "far superior undergrad experience" than their Ivy League schools. And if she responds to this post with "well, we talk about their classes all the time as a family," or words to that effect, my response is both "well, that's really weird" and "so what, it's not the same thing."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:they are great places for wealthy moderately above average athletes to spend 4 years after hs

don’t expect them to help find u internships or jobs - gc at a nescac told my son to “use family connections”. for $87k this coming year and a 3.8 gpa econ major, i was hoping for more

so i did use my connections

this at a school next rung under williams / amherst

my kid really does like the experience though - hope he can get a job next year

my next kid will NOT be attending a NESCAC - will be attending a school that helps find a job

Interesting you say that as I've looked at the outcomes data provided many of the NESCAC schools and their graduates do quite well with vast majority employed or interning in a field of their study/interest or attending graduate or professional programs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:they are great places for wealthy moderately above average athletes to spend 4 years after hs

don’t expect them to help find u internships or jobs - gc at a nescac told my son to “use family connections”. for $87k this coming year and a 3.8 gpa econ major, i was hoping for more

so i did use my connections

this at a school next rung under williams / amherst

my kid really does like the experience though - hope he can get a job next year

my next kid will NOT be attending a NESCAC - will be attending a school that helps find a job

The alumni network is invaluable…..if you’re smart you’ll leverage it to find your job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:they are great places for wealthy moderately above average athletes to spend 4 years after hs

don’t expect them to help find u internships or jobs - gc at a nescac told my son to “use family connections”. for $87k this coming year and a 3.8 gpa econ major, i was hoping for more

so i did use my connections

this at a school next rung under williams / amherst

my kid really does like the experience though - hope he can get a job next year

my next kid will NOT be attending a NESCAC - will be attending a school that helps find a job

Interesting you say that as I've looked at the outcomes data provided many of the NESCAC schools and their graduates do quite well with vast majority employed or interning in a field of their study/interest or attending graduate or professional programs

The vast majority of their graduates are the children of wealthy and upper middle class parents. Those not employed can easily afford graduate school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:they are great places for wealthy moderately above average athletes to spend 4 years after hs

don’t expect them to help find u internships or jobs - gc at a nescac told my son to “use family connections”. for $87k this coming year and a 3.8 gpa econ major, i was hoping for more

so i did use my connections

this at a school next rung under williams / amherst

my kid really does like the experience though - hope he can get a job next year

my next kid will NOT be attending a NESCAC - will be attending a school that helps find a job

Interesting you say that as I've looked at the outcomes data provided many of the NESCAC schools and their graduates do quite well with vast majority employed or interning in a field of their study/interest or attending graduate or professional programs

The vast majority of their graduates are the children of wealthy and upper middle class parents. Those not employed can easily afford graduate school

So like any other elite college or university.

https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2019/03/privileged-poor-navigating-elite-university-life/585100/