Why a Large Flagship/Public?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a brown URM I would never choose a LAC or SLACK because they tend to lack racial diversity. Public flagships have more people that look like me.

For the more rural LACs that can be true, but many LACs have a strong diversity of students, especially those that are more selective. You should check out their Common Data Sets to see the numbers.

I have yet to find one. Would love to be pointed in that direction. I suspect we may have different ideas of "strong diversity."

Vassar, Swarthmore, Wesleyan, Grinnell, Haverford, Macalester, Scripps, Pitzer, Occidental (Obama's first college), Reed, Williams, Amherst, Pomona, Bowdoin, Claremont McKenna, Carleton, and every women's college I've looked at all have over 40% students of color.

"students of color" don't mean much. Not PP you are responding to but I avoid SLACS for same reason. I'm black. Looking for black people. Not students of color. Vasser for example has 4% black people. Wesleyan has 3.2% Etc.....No thanks!

Then you need look no further than a HBCU.

I did undergrad at an HBCU and did my masters at Stanford for electrical engineering. My son is now looking at HBCUs and diverse non-HBCUs. There are schools that bring in more than 3 and 4% black undergrad students. They're not SLACS.

Swarthmore is 7.6% Black or African American. VT is 4.8% and UVA is 6.8%. You shouldn't generalize.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a brown URM I would never choose a LAC or SLACK because they tend to lack racial diversity. Public flagships have more people that look like me.

For the more rural LACs that can be true, but many LACs have a strong diversity of students, especially those that are more selective. You should check out their Common Data Sets to see the numbers.

I have yet to find one. Would love to be pointed in that direction. I suspect we may have different ideas of "strong diversity."

Vassar, Swarthmore, Wesleyan, Grinnell, Haverford, Macalester, Scripps, Pitzer, Occidental (Obama's first college), Reed, Williams, Amherst, Pomona, Bowdoin, Claremont McKenna, Carleton, and every women's college I've looked at all have over 40% students of color.

"students of color" don't mean much. Not PP you are responding to but I avoid SLACS for same reason. I'm black. Looking for black people. Not students of color. Vasser for example has 4% black people. Wesleyan has 3.2% Etc.....No thanks!

Then you need look no further than a HBCU.

I did undergrad at an HBCU and did my masters at Stanford for electrical engineering. My son is now looking at HBCUs and diverse non-HBCUs. There are schools that bring in more than 3 and 4% black undergrad students. They're not SLACS.

Swarthmore is 7.6% Black or African American. VT is 4.8% and UVA is 6.8%. You shouldn't generalize.

One listed here is a SLAC and the other two are DEF not SLACS. You should read with greater attention.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC is attending UVA and not doing well. The only appeal is the in-state tuition.

Sorry to hear this. Do you mean to imply DC is not doing well because of the large, impersonal nature of a state university?

That's part of it. DC is not mature and socially adept compared to peers. The drinking and frat culture does not suit DC. A lot of students and professors are not cultivating a collegial environment. DC will graduate in 4 years in a marketable major but it's through sheer hard work and mostly working alone. No friends. No internships.

Obviously DC is mostly responsible for his/her own fortune. But the school didn't provide any lift.

You cannot blame any of this on the school. Sorry.

DP. As a consumer, posters like PP can be wise consumers and choose schools that are a good fit for their kids.

PP was relating her kid’s experience, not trying to assign blame.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't see any appeal or advantage to attending a large public university as an undergrad. The competition is fierce in the intro courses, you don't get direct interaction with professors, you could easily disappear for a few days or a week and nobody would notice, you could flunk out and nobody would care, etc....

Other than fun football games in the fall semester, what's the appeal?

Because that's where some people want to go. Can't believe so many people bit on this stupid question. Get a life OP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a brown URM I would never choose a LAC or SLACK because they tend to lack racial diversity. Public flagships have more people that look like me.

For the more rural LACs that can be true, but many LACs have a strong diversity of students, especially those that are more selective. You should check out their Common Data Sets to see the numbers.

I have yet to find one. Would love to be pointed in that direction. I suspect we may have different ideas of "strong diversity."

Vassar, Swarthmore, Wesleyan, Grinnell, Haverford, Macalester, Scripps, Pitzer, Occidental (Obama's first college), Reed, Williams, Amherst, Pomona, Bowdoin, Claremont McKenna, Carleton, and every women's college I've looked at all have over 40% students of color.

"students of color" don't mean much. Not PP you are responding to but I avoid SLACS for same reason. I'm black. Looking for black people. Not students of color. Vasser for example has 4% black people. Wesleyan has 3.2% Etc.....No thanks!

Then you need look no further than a HBCU.

I did undergrad at an HBCU and did my masters at Stanford for electrical engineering. My son is now looking at HBCUs and diverse non-HBCUs. There are schools that bring in more than 3 and 4% black undergrad students. They're not SLACS.

Swarthmore is 7.6% Black or African American. VT is 4.8% and UVA is 6.8%. You shouldn't generalize.

Not the person you're talking to but VT is 9% this year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a brown URM I would never choose a LAC or SLACK because they tend to lack racial diversity. Public flagships have more people that look like me.

For the more rural LACs that can be true, but many LACs have a strong diversity of students, especially those that are more selective. You should check out their Common Data Sets to see the numbers.

I have yet to find one. Would love to be pointed in that direction. I suspect we may have different ideas of "strong diversity."

Nobody is real life actually cares about “diversity.” It’s all bogus and smoke and mirrors. Ideally, I want my kids are smart, ambitious and rich — I frankly could not care less about the racial makeup.

I care about diversity. So does my kid who graduated from DCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't see any appeal or advantage to attending a large public university as an undergrad. The competition is fierce in the intro courses, you don't get direct interaction with professors, you could easily disappear for a few days or a week and nobody would notice, you could flunk out and nobody would care, etc....

Other than fun football games in the fall semester, what's the appeal?

POV OP: Insecure parent who is overpaying $$$$$ for high brand little school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a brown URM I would never choose a LAC or SLACK because they tend to lack racial diversity. Public flagships have more people that look like me.

For the more rural LACs that can be true, but many LACs have a strong diversity of students, especially those that are more selective. You should check out their Common Data Sets to see the numbers.

I have yet to find one. Would love to be pointed in that direction. I suspect we may have different ideas of "strong diversity."

Vassar, Swarthmore, Wesleyan, Grinnell, Haverford, Macalester, Scripps, Pitzer, Occidental (Obama's first college), Reed, Williams, Amherst, Pomona, Bowdoin, Claremont McKenna, Carleton, and every women's college I've looked at all have over 40% students of color.

"students of color" don't mean much. Not PP you are responding to but I avoid SLACS for same reason. I'm black. Looking for black people. Not students of color. Vasser for example has 4% black people. Wesleyan has 3.2% Etc.....No thanks!

Then you need look no further than a HBCU.

PP, it may shock you to learn that the choices aren’t limited to 3% or HBCU. My kid is looking at at transferring from a SLAC because there are few than 30 Black students at his school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't see any appeal or advantage to attending a large public university as an undergrad. The competition is fierce in the intro courses, you don't get direct interaction with professors, you could easily disappear for a few days or a week and nobody would notice, you could flunk out and nobody would care, etc....

Other than fun football games in the fall semester, what's the appeal?

POV OP: Insecure parent who is overpaying $$$$$ for high brand little school.

+1 Although I would omit high brand, imagine just overpaying for a little school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Big flagship publics are NOT the right place for a DMV snowflake. These schools are for self starters who have good time management skills and don’t melt down at the first sign of adversity. I came from a large public school where I was in the top 5% of my class of 450 or so, and the first semester was a major eye opener. You need resilience and a level head to make it through, especially as a pre-professional student competing with other pre-preprofessionals. It can be pretty dog eat dog, but I think prepared me for the realities of real life and ultimately I graduated from med school at the top of my class. Just food for thought when you think of what kind of kids go to large flagship publics.

This is a cope.

Wow, was the post you’re responding to serious? I read it as comedy. Particularly the bit about the dog eat dog world of pre-professionals. I actually giggled.

Pretty sure my Wilson grad will be fine on the mean streets of State U. LOL.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a brown URM I would never choose a LAC or SLACK because they tend to lack racial diversity. Public flagships have more people that look like me.

For the more rural LACs that can be true, but many LACs have a strong diversity of students, especially those that are more selective. You should check out their Common Data Sets to see the numbers.

I have yet to find one. Would love to be pointed in that direction. I suspect we may have different ideas of "strong diversity."

Nobody is real life actually cares about “diversity.” It’s all bogus and smoke and mirrors. Ideally, I want my kids are smart, ambitious and rich — I frankly could not care less about the racial makeup.

We are white and our DCs are white. Both of them paid attention to demography stats when reading about and touring schools. They did not want to attend schools that were less diverse than their current high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't see any appeal or advantage to attending a large public university as an undergrad. The competition is fierce in the intro courses, you don't get direct interaction with professors, you could easily disappear for a few days or a week and nobody would notice, you could flunk out and nobody would care, etc....

Other than fun football games in the fall semester, what's the appeal?

POV OP: Insecure parent who is overpaying $$$$$ for high brand little school.

+1 Although I would omit high brand, imagine just overpaying for a little school.

Lol…..you’re equating size with quality? Obviously you’ve no experience with LACs and have little to no understanding about quality in education. I’d also encourage you to broaden your perspective regarding costs. I’m perfectly happy (and able) to pay 350k for each of my children to attend the college that the selected, which both happen to be LACs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a brown URM I would never choose a LAC or SLACK because they tend to lack racial diversity. Public flagships have more people that look like me.

For the more rural LACs that can be true, but many LACs have a strong diversity of students, especially those that are more selective. You should check out their Common Data Sets to see the numbers.

I have yet to find one. Would love to be pointed in that direction. I suspect we may have different ideas of "strong diversity."

Vassar, Swarthmore, Wesleyan, Grinnell, Haverford, Macalester, Scripps, Pitzer, Occidental (Obama's first college), Reed, Williams, Amherst, Pomona, Bowdoin, Claremont McKenna, Carleton, and every women's college I've looked at all have over 40% students of color.

"students of color" don't mean much. Not PP you are responding to but I avoid SLACS for same reason. I'm black. Looking for black people. Not students of color. Vasser for example has 4% black people. Wesleyan has 3.2% Etc.....No thanks!

Then you need look no further than a HBCU.

I did undergrad at an HBCU and did my masters at Stanford for electrical engineering. My son is now looking at HBCUs and diverse non-HBCUs. There are schools that bring in more than 3 and 4% black undergrad students. They're not SLACS.

Swarthmore is 7.6% Black or African American. VT is 4.8% and UVA is 6.8%. You shouldn't generalize.

One listed here is a SLAC and the other two are DEF not SLACS. You should read with greater attention.

No kidding!

The point was someone should not assume SLACs have a lower percentage of blacks or less diversity than universities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a brown URM I would never choose a LAC or SLACK because they tend to lack racial diversity. Public flagships have more people that look like me.

For the more rural LACs that can be true, but many LACs have a strong diversity of students, especially those that are more selective. You should check out their Common Data Sets to see the numbers.

I have yet to find one. Would love to be pointed in that direction. I suspect we may have different ideas of "strong diversity."

Vassar, Swarthmore, Wesleyan, Grinnell, Haverford, Macalester, Scripps, Pitzer, Occidental (Obama's first college), Reed, Williams, Amherst, Pomona, Bowdoin, Claremont McKenna, Carleton, and every women's college I've looked at all have over 40% students of color.

"students of color" don't mean much. Not PP you are responding to but I avoid SLACS for same reason. I'm black. Looking for black people. Not students of color. Vasser for example has 4% black people. Wesleyan has 3.2% Etc.....No thanks!

Then you need look no further than a HBCU.

I did undergrad at an HBCU and did my masters at Stanford for electrical engineering. My son is now looking at HBCUs and diverse non-HBCUs. There are schools that bring in more than 3 and 4% black undergrad students. They're not SLACS.

Swarthmore is 7.6% Black or African American. VT is 4.8% and UVA is 6.8%. You shouldn't generalize.

Not the person you're talking to but VT is 9% this year.

VT got to 9% (actually 8.7%) by combining black with multi-race, so that is changing the measuring stick. Actual is 6.8%. Still it is an improvement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a brown URM I would never choose a LAC or SLACK because they tend to lack racial diversity. Public flagships have more people that look like me.

For the more rural LACs that can be true, but many LACs have a strong diversity of students, especially those that are more selective. You should check out their Common Data Sets to see the numbers.

I have yet to find one. Would love to be pointed in that direction. I suspect we may have different ideas of "strong diversity."

Nobody is real life actually cares about “diversity.” It’s all bogus and smoke and mirrors. Ideally, I want my kids are smart, ambitious and rich — I frankly could not care less about the racial makeup.

We are white and our DCs are white. Both of them paid attention to demography stats when reading about and touring schools. They did not want to attend schools that were less diverse than their current high school.

And everybody clapped.