What is the appeal of SLACs for non-1%ers?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:SLACs have very low ROI compared to state schools:

https://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/info-Salaries_for_Colleges_by_Type-sort.html

They seem like a total scam except for the 1%. Much better for your future to go to UMD or Ohio State or Indians or Purdue or VA Tech to study engineering or business while enjoying college sports.

SLACs seem like a waste for all but the wealthy 1%era who don’t have to worry about finding a job after graduation. Many of them don’t have big college sports or Greek Life to generate alumni loyalty. What’s the point of them?

Anyhoo.. If you want to study a 'hard' subject that gives you a job after an undergrad, go Public or top large private (non-LAC). If you want an undergrad education with plans for immediate grad school (law, medicine, etc.) go (S)LAC. Most are unreasonably expensive for what you get in return but tend to subsidize COA outside the top 10-20, maybe 30.

Simplistic advice reflective of ignorance.

My DC graduated from a LAC last year and is making six figures working on data analysis. DC plans to go to grad school for applied math eventually.

Awesome for your kid! Congratulations! However, unless you can tell me that this is the outcome every kid enjoys from that SLAC, I'm not sure it's relevant. Students out of GMU that study analytics have similar outcomes.

By that metric, can you tell me every student out of GMU has the same outcome? Of course not. It comes down most of the time to choice of major and the learning environment where a student can do best.

FWIW, I have one student at a big state U in a STEM major and another headed to a LAC in a different, more research-focused STEM major. The LAC costs close to what we pay for big state U so from an ROI standpoint the college cost part is the same. #1's major will likely be higher paying at least just out of school. #2's major will require a master's and what she wanted most in undergrad was close faculty relationships, mentoring, research involvement, and a close student community. Which she will get at the LAC and which #1 does not seem to have gotten at his big school (which he likes).

I don't get why the anti-SLAC poster is so personally offended by the existence of SLACs and that some people find it a good educational choice. If you think they are so awful why not just smugly go on your way, happy that the misguided will not be competing with your kid.

[Anonymous]

You know what’s a really, really bad ROI? Having kids.

People who focus on ROI for college, but didn’t when they decided to have kids, are just bitter that they screwed up their whole lives with a bad investment. Apparently, they weren’t smart enough to realize that all the little costs of raising children for 18 years added up to more than the cost of college when discounting those costs to present value. Moreover, now their kids won’t even be contractually obligated to repay them when they are old and in need of care even if they go to college and get a great job, so they get nothing at all out of the deal. Kids are really a bad investment if you look at it from a ROI perspective.

If you’re very focused on expenses and returns and you want your kid to go to college, send them to community college and have them transfer to your state school for the last two years. That makes more sense than a four year school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DC goes to a WASP. We pay less than what we would have to pay to in-state schools and DC loves everything about the school. To us, it’s the best deal!

What's a WASP (school)?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:SLACs have very low ROI compared to state schools:

https://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/info-Salaries_for_Colleges_by_Type-sort.html

They seem like a total scam except for the 1%. Much better for your future to go to UMD or Ohio State or Indians or Purdue or VA Tech to study engineering or business while enjoying college sports.

SLACs seem like a waste for all but the wealthy 1%era who don’t have to worry about finding a job after graduation. Many of them don’t have big college sports or Greek Life to generate alumni loyalty. What’s the point of them?

"Party school" ?!
That's a joke website, OP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:SLACs have very low ROI compared to state schools:

https://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/info-Salaries_for_Colleges_by_Type-sort.html

They seem like a total scam except for the 1%. Much better for your future to go to UMD or Ohio State or Indians or Purdue or VA Tech to study engineering or business while enjoying college sports.

SLACs seem like a waste for all but the wealthy 1%era who don’t have to worry about finding a job after graduation. Many of them don’t have big college sports or Greek Life to generate alumni loyalty. What’s the point of them?

I'm going to put on a limb here and say that the point of a Small Liberal Arts College is to teach Liberal Arts in a small-group environment.

[Anonymous]

From the standpoint of what is studied, what is the difference between a LAC and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at UVA? (The largest component of UVA.) I think the answer is "not much". Are LACs objectionable because they are small? Because they are mostly private? Because they may not have engineering?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DC goes to a WASP.

Best post of the thread

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DC goes to a WASP. We pay less than what we would have to pay to in-state schools and DC loves everything about the school. To us, it’s the best deal!

What's a WASP (school)?

An abbreviation for four SLACs commonly referred on this forum - Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore, Pomona.

[Anonymous]

There are SO many threads on this. Read them if you want to gain insights (vs argue),

[Anonymous]

"If you gotta ask..."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:SLACs have very low ROI compared to state schools:

https://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/info-Salaries_for_Colleges_by_Type-sort.html

They seem like a total scam except for the 1%. Much better for your future to go to UMD or Ohio State or Indians or Purdue or VA Tech to study engineering or business while enjoying college sports.

SLACs seem like a waste for all but the wealthy 1%era who don’t have to worry about finding a job after graduation. Many of them don’t have big college sports or Greek Life to generate alumni loyalty. What’s the point of them?

Anyhoo.. If you want to study a 'hard' subject that gives you a job after an undergrad, go Public or top large private (non-LAC). If you want an undergrad education with plans for immediate grad school (law, medicine, etc.) go (S)LAC. Most are unreasonably expensive for what you get in return but tend to subsidize COA outside the top 10-20, maybe 30.

Simplistic advice reflective of ignorance.

My DC graduated from a LAC last year and is making six figures working on data analysis. DC plans to go to grad school for applied math eventually.

Awesome for your kid! Congratulations! However, unless you can tell me that this is the outcome every kid enjoys from that SLAC, I'm not sure it's relevant. Students out of GMU that study analytics have similar outcomes.

That's why a student's major - no matter where they go to school - along with graduate education drive the "ROI" (a silly way to look at education IMO).

Do you have a trust fund? For most, ROI is the most important part of college.

Agree that education should be pursued for it's own sake. However, it is a business, a cartel at that, and seeks to extract as much as possible from us. Let's nationalize all universities and make education free. The ROI talk will automatically stop.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:SLACs have very low ROI compared to state schools:

https://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/info-Salaries_for_Colleges_by_Type-sort.html

They seem like a total scam except for the 1%. Much better for your future to go to UMD or Ohio State or Indians or Purdue or VA Tech to study engineering or business while enjoying college sports.

SLACs seem like a waste for all but the wealthy 1%era who don’t have to worry about finding a job after graduation. Many of them don’t have big college sports or Greek Life to generate alumni loyalty. What’s the point of them?

Anyhoo.. If you want to study a 'hard' subject that gives you a job after an undergrad, go Public or top large private (non-LAC). If you want an undergrad education with plans for immediate grad school (law, medicine, etc.) go (S)LAC. Most are unreasonably expensive for what you get in return but tend to subsidize COA outside the top 10-20, maybe 30.

Simplistic advice reflective of ignorance.

My DC graduated from a LAC last year and is making six figures working on data analysis. DC plans to go to grad school for applied math eventually.

Awesome for your kid! Congratulations! However, unless you can tell me that this is the outcome every kid enjoys from that SLAC, I'm not sure it's relevant. Students out of GMU that study analytics have similar outcomes.

By that metric, can you tell me every student out of GMU has the same outcome? Of course not. It comes down most of the time to choice of major and the learning environment where a student can do best.

FWIW, I have one student at a big state U in a STEM major and another headed to a LAC in a different, more research-focused STEM major. The LAC costs close to what we pay for big state U so from an ROI standpoint the college cost part is the same. #1's major will likely be higher paying at least just out of school. #2's major will require a master's and what she wanted most in undergrad was close faculty relationships, mentoring, research involvement, and a close student community. Which she will get at the LAC and which #1 does not seem to have gotten at his big school (which he likes).

I don't get why the anti-SLAC poster is so personally offended by the existence of SLACs and that some people find it a good educational choice. If you think they are so awful why not just smugly go on your way, happy that the misguided will not be competing with your kid.

Of course not! But you are paying a fraction of the cost of a Private college education at GMU. Again, if ROI works out, it doesn't matter for most people. I agree that an anti-SLAC bias is stupid but the SLAC-pushing on here is bizarre as well. DS1 goes to an expensive non-SLAC OOS school and (S)LACS never entered the picture because of what he wanted to study. We recently started looking at SLACs for DC2 (has exec functioning issues; unsure what he wants to study, etc.) and he was quite unimpressed by the first SLAC we visited (Bucknell). He categorically said he can't see himself going there. We will be visiting a few more over the summer that hopefully make a better impression on him.

[Anonymous]

The appeal for non-1%ers? They will get to connect with 1%ers!! Yeah, they'll also get a fantastic education. But if you are mindful of the adage of not what you know, but who you know, this is a tried and true way for a non-1%er to elevate him/herself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:SLACs have very low ROI compared to state schools:

https://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/info-Salaries_for_Colleges_by_Type-sort.html

They seem like a total scam except for the 1%. Much better for your future to go to UMD or Ohio State or Indians or Purdue or VA Tech to study engineering or business while enjoying college sports.

SLACs seem like a waste for all but the wealthy 1%era who don’t have to worry about finding a job after graduation. Many of them don’t have big college sports or Greek Life to generate alumni loyalty. What’s the point of them?

Greek Life . . . College Sports . . . Engineering/business/hard sciences . . . all things that would completely turn my kid off of a college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DC goes to a WASP. We pay less than what we would have to pay to in-state schools and DC loves everything about the school. To us, it’s the best deal!

What's a WASP (school)?

An abbreviation for four SLACs commonly referred on this forum - Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore, Pomona.

I e never heard those terms but I went to one of those schools. I think any data on SLACs is meaningless because there is such a wide range. If you’re going to one of those four mentioned and you do well, you can pretty easily get into a top professional school or PhD program. I also got a lot of financial aid so for me it was about the same price as an out of state public (my in state public would have been free for me).