+1 IYKYK |
NP. But this is actually true for the most part except for very elite academic circles...the vast majority of people outside the NE have not heard of these schools ![]() |
DP. You’re both right. You ignored the PP’s qualifier about “highly educated, ‘highbrow’” circles. Among those groups, prominent SLACs are very well known, even across the Midwest and South. But you’re right that there are obviously many successful professionals who didn’t grow up in those circles and aren’t familiar with SLACs. |
It's okay. Most people have no idea that DCUM is a website vs some twisted offshoot of P Diddy freak offs. |
Why are you sure of that? I'm from the South and hadn't heard of Colgate until I met someone who went there when I was an adult and moved away from the South. Never heard of Holy Cross until I started reading this board. And I'm well educated. |
I ignored the highbrow part and bolded the part I bolded because I don’t necessarily disagree with the highbrow part. But I also don’t conflate highbrow with “well-heeled professional classes” or the three professions listed. There are highbrow people in those professions, but far more seem to inhabit academia, academia-adjacent roles, journalism, or the arts. Those people are more likely to have heard of these schools, yes, but even then the likelihood would fall as you move further away from the northeast (with maybe the exception of academics). |
Fair enough, but I’d also add that there’s certainly a correlation between both affluence and high-achieving kids and awareness of SLACs. I went to a prep school in a mid-sized Midwestern city with a very affluent student body. Everyone knew all of the T30 SLACs. No Similar at my kid’s high school in the South. Less affluent and public, but top 30% of class is shooting for highly selective colleges. SLACs v well known among this crowd. |
Not all people who haven't heard of these schools are dumb, MAGA rubes. I'm an extremely liberal, progressive, well-educated person but I had not heard of Colby or Bates until I started reading this board and only had heard of Bowdoin because I happened to have a classmate who went there (and she was constantly fielding questions about it because no one at my large public high school in the South had heard of it except the college counselor ![]() |
Yes, and many of the people you are describing are black and not MAGA. |
Heads up that LACs are the original “real college experience”. |
That's the point. Not every attorney is going to know what Williams is, but the partners at Cravath know it. |
The elites who power America- journalists, NGO/non-profit staff, university faculty, critical thinkers, etc. know the SLACs. |
I'm from the northeast and expected it was something like Salve, Stonehill, Curry, Simmons, Lasell, and the like. The really small LACs.
Bates, Bowdoin, and Colby are HUGE names. I get that the average person doesn't know them, but anyone who knows SLACs knows them. |
They might. Will the ones at Kirkland & Ellis or Baker McKenzie in Chicago, or at Latham & Watkins in LA? Maybe, maybe not. Plenty of them haven’t. It’s weird to assume they have. Also, Williams is probably a different story than Bowdoin, Bates, Colby. |
"journalists, NGO/non-profit staff, " because the are the neponbabies who went to SLACs ![]() "Critical thinners" lol |