2026 USNWR LACs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pomona is a wonderful school from what I know about it. The kids who attend seem brilliant, absolutely incredible in fact, and should be extremely proud, as should their families and friends. It would be helpful to know why it stands out from other colleges rather than attacking it with negative and likely false hyperbolic statements. Please fulfill the point of this site. Let’s help each other!

My daughter goes to CMC and her good friend from home goes to Pomona and two other friends from home go to Scripps. All the students take classes at the other 5Cs. They have a huge wide range of classes to take, plus clubs that encompass all of the 5C's. You can choose a large community (5k) experience or stay small (1.1k) at your school. The campus life is vibrant and fun and fully integrated. Even for the Mudders who throw some of the best parties. Athletics aren't a huge deal, and I don't think they dominate admissions in the same way that they do at other SLACs. It's just been a fantastic experience all around so far.

Crazy thing is The Claremont Colleges have now exceeded 8100 students. The place Is getting massive, and both Pomona and CMC are looking to expand.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The real bargain is Grinnell. Excellent school that automatically gives $20k in merit aid to any student accepted ED and typically awards even more. Many are turned off by the location, but it's not like the other top LACs are in or near major metropolitan areas either. Our kid from the DMV attended and loved it.

Pomona, Wellesley, Barnard, Davidson…

Carleton, Williams, Amherst, Middlebury

I was specifically pointing out the LACs with locations near major metropolitan areas.

Duh. Very typical of DCUM. I never meant to suggest that none of the top LACs are near metropolitan areas. Obviously some are -- as you couldn't wait to jump up and prove me wrong. My point was meant to be more general. Grinnell is almost uniquely discounted for its rural location.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Last year my daughter was waitlisted at 4 different schools. All 4 are now listed #13.
She is attending a school that is in the 20s and loving it. But I find it interesting that all these schools that are ranked the same also ranked her as waitlist.

My son is applying to two of the 13s this year and his Naviance suggests he has a ~25% chance of admission and a ~75% chance of WL. Neither have ever rejected a 1500 from his school but even with 1500 they are far from automatic. The WL would end up being a polite rejection presumably.

He’s looking at 4 schools in the #20-30 range, and they all appear to be almost safeties per his Naviance. FWIW, these school rankings seem to align with his Naviance selectivity, which seems to be largely driven by SAT score.

My assumption, coming from his public HS, is that for these SLACs grades have to be close to 4.0, max rigor, and despite the assertion that test scores are only one data point, if unhooked you have to have the test scores. In other words, be around 75% in the 25%-75% range.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pomona is a wonderful school from what I know about it. The kids who attend seem brilliant, absolutely incredible in fact, and should be extremely proud, as should their families and friends. It would be helpful to know why it stands out from other colleges rather than attacking it with negative and likely false hyperbolic statements. Please fulfill the point of this site. Let’s help each other!

My daughter goes to CMC and her good friend from home goes to Pomona and two other friends from home go to Scripps. All the students take classes at the other 5Cs. They have a huge wide range of classes to take, plus clubs that encompass all of the 5C's. You can choose a large community (5k) experience or stay small (1.1k) at your school. The campus life is vibrant and fun and fully integrated. Even for the Mudders who throw some of the best parties. Athletics aren't a huge deal, and I don't think they dominate admissions in the same way that they do at other SLACs. It's just been a fantastic experience all around so far.

Crazy thing is The Claremont Colleges have now exceeded 8100 students. The place Is getting massive, and both Pomona and CMC are looking to expand.

Source? I know CMC is expanding because of their new campus but I've not heard anything from Pomona

[Anonymous]

I’m a huge believer and proponent of the SLAC model, but really do worry that name recognition will be a handicap throughout life. The exceptions are probably limited to only Williams and Amherst imo, and unfortunately those will be a crapshoot for my unhooked high stats kid. Do either of those schools try to yield protect during RD by rejecting ivy-looking kids? May call me myopic or narrow minded, but I’ve told him those are the only 2 SLACs he can apply to

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m a huge believer and proponent of the SLAC model, but really do worry that name recognition will be a handicap throughout life. The exceptions are probably limited to only Williams and Amherst imo, and unfortunately those will be a crapshoot for my unhooked high stats kid. Do either of those schools try to yield protect during RD by rejecting ivy-looking kids? May call me myopic or narrow minded, but I’ve told him those are the only 2 SLACs he can apply to

Your kid will not get into Williams/Amherst without a hook.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a huge believer and proponent of the SLAC model, but really do worry that name recognition will be a handicap throughout life. The exceptions are probably limited to only Williams and Amherst imo, and unfortunately those will be a crapshoot for my unhooked high stats kid. Do either of those schools try to yield protect during RD by rejecting ivy-looking kids? May call me myopic or narrow minded, but I’ve told him those are the only 2 SLACs he can apply to

Your kid will not get into Williams/Amherst without a hook.

My kid did.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a huge believer and proponent of the SLAC model, but really do worry that name recognition will be a handicap throughout life. The exceptions are probably limited to only Williams and Amherst imo, and unfortunately those will be a crapshoot for my unhooked high stats kid. Do either of those schools try to yield protect during RD by rejecting ivy-looking kids? May call me myopic or narrow minded, but I’ve told him those are the only 2 SLACs he can apply to

Your kid will not get into Williams/Amherst without a hook.

Clearly you are not. And if name recognition is your thing, Williams and Amherst don’t work for you in any event.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a huge believer and proponent of the SLAC model, but really do worry that name recognition will be a handicap throughout life. The exceptions are probably limited to only Williams and Amherst imo, and unfortunately those will be a crapshoot for my unhooked high stats kid. Do either of those schools try to yield protect during RD by rejecting ivy-looking kids? May call me myopic or narrow minded, but I’ve told him those are the only 2 SLACs he can apply to

Your kid will not get into Williams/Amherst without a hook.

My kid’s paid college advisor told us that every year there are about 50-75 unhooked spots at each of these two schools. And about 15,000 applications at each. So what I’m telling you is, there IS a chance! LoL.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think having the ties makes sense in some ways because those who think there is truly a lot of difference between 14 and 15 are morons. Is there a difference between 2 and 29? Probably. Between schools that are one or two notches apart. No.

2 and the 13s already are very different.

No

+100

Keep telling yourselves that.

Several of the 10-13 group are as good as or often better for IB, MBB, And med school than several of the WASP so it’s pretty obvious that there is no difference.

Forbes perfectly demonstrates this with its focus on outcomes.

Forbes has the exact same top 7 LACs as US News does, just in slight different order. WAS, Claremont, Wellesley, Pomona, Bowdoin.

Don’t need to stop at 7, basically the top 20 are the same just a slightly different ordering. No difference between these schools. They are all excellent.

Forbes is whack. They rank W&L above Bowdoin in their ranking of the 50 best small colleges, but Bowdoin ranks above W&L in the overall ranking. Makes no sense.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/emmawhitford/2025/08/25/forbes-top-50-small-colleges/

Also, they say that Middlebury has 4,137 undergrads, so it's not included in the top 50 small colleges rankings. What?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a huge believer and proponent of the SLAC model, but really do worry that name recognition will be a handicap throughout life. The exceptions are probably limited to only Williams and Amherst imo, and unfortunately those will be a crapshoot for my unhooked high stats kid. Do either of those schools try to yield protect during RD by rejecting ivy-looking kids? May call me myopic or narrow minded, but I’ve told him those are the only 2 SLACs he can apply to

Your kid will not get into Williams/Amherst without a hook.

My kid’s paid college advisor told us that every year there are about 50-75 unhooked spots at each of these two schools. And about 15,000 applications at each. So what I’m telling you is, there IS a chance! LoL.

I call bs on those numbers - that simply can’t be true

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a huge believer and proponent of the SLAC model, but really do worry that name recognition will be a handicap throughout life. The exceptions are probably limited to only Williams and Amherst imo, and unfortunately those will be a crapshoot for my unhooked high stats kid. Do either of those schools try to yield protect during RD by rejecting ivy-looking kids? May call me myopic or narrow minded, but I’ve told him those are the only 2 SLACs he can apply to

Your kid will not get into Williams/Amherst without a hook.

My kid’s paid college advisor told us that every year there are about 50-75 unhooked spots at each of these two schools. And about 15,000 applications at each. So what I’m telling you is, there IS a chance! LoL.

I call bs on those numbers - that simply can’t be true

250 athletes (50 percent), 75-100 Posse, other FGLIs and geographic diversity, 75-100 relevant legacies and other VIPs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The real bargain is Grinnell. Excellent school that automatically gives $20k in merit aid to any student accepted ED and typically awards even more. Many are turned off by the location, but it's not like the other top LACs are in or near major metropolitan areas either. Our kid from the DMV attended and loved it.

$20K merit from Grinnell truly elevates it as an option above Carleton or Pomona IMO - that's a great deal in merit aid and it's locked in each year for all 4years! $80K saved.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pomona is a wonderful school from what I know about it. The kids who attend seem brilliant, absolutely incredible in fact, and should be extremely proud, as should their families and friends. It would be helpful to know why it stands out from other colleges rather than attacking it with negative and likely false hyperbolic statements. Please fulfill the point of this site. Let’s help each other!

My daughter goes to CMC and her good friend from home goes to Pomona and two other friends from home go to Scripps. All the students take classes at the other 5Cs. They have a huge wide range of classes to take, plus clubs that encompass all of the 5C's. You can choose a large community (5k) experience or stay small (1.1k) at your school. The campus life is vibrant and fun and fully integrated. Even for the Mudders who throw some of the best parties. Athletics aren't a huge deal, and I don't think they dominate admissions in the same way that they do at other SLACs. It's just been a fantastic experience all around so far.

Crazy thing is The Claremont Colleges have now exceeded 8100 students. The place Is getting massive, and both Pomona and CMC are looking to expand.

Source? I know CMC is expanding because of their new campus but I've not heard anything from Pomona

Pomona is renovating oldenborg so that it can accommodate more students. The school wants to go from 1700->2000 students by 2030. It’s why they tapped the relatively new admissions director from NYU- they want more applications to keep the acceptance rate low, yield high, and more students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a huge believer and proponent of the SLAC model, but really do worry that name recognition will be a handicap throughout life. The exceptions are probably limited to only Williams and Amherst imo, and unfortunately those will be a crapshoot for my unhooked high stats kid. Do either of those schools try to yield protect during RD by rejecting ivy-looking kids? May call me myopic or narrow minded, but I’ve told him those are the only 2 SLACs he can apply to

Your kid will not get into Williams/Amherst without a hook.

My kid’s paid college advisor told us that every year there are about 50-75 unhooked spots at each of these two schools. And about 15,000 applications at each. So what I’m telling you is, there IS a chance! LoL.

I call bs on those numbers - that simply can’t be true

250 athletes (50 percent), 75-100 Posse, other FGLIs and geographic diversity, 75-100 relevant legacies and other VIPs.

amherst was one of the first to eliminate the legacy benefit