What is so special about UVA, W&M, VT!?!??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DP: They're now R1 and and have 7k undergrads and apparently a *massive* stem presence (they wouldn't be highlighting this if "liberal arts vibe" screamed "we have good stem departments here" to the general public which yeah people still like to claim that W&M is not the place to go if you're planning to study stem). I just don't see that being "LAC-like".

Many people appear unaware that Liberal Arts includes the sciences, mathematics and statistics, and components of technology.

[Anonymous]

W&M hypes the sciences on tours because they already have a strong brand around humanities and social sciences, and the primary head-to-head school they're competing with for in-state students is UVA, which … has an engineering program. In a lot of peoples' minds — even in this thread — STEM === Engineering. So it makes sense that W&M would emphasize that they're a "liberal arts and sciences" school.

They already have the ear of the political science or English major. They want to capture the imagination of the "I'm thinking chemistry or bio?" major who's currently planning on something like EDing at Rice and then EAing at UVA (despite preferring something smaller).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The LAC comments may represent the “feel” of the school, and perhaps historical majors, but we just toured last week (with a junior) and they said 60% of undergrads are STEM majors.

Science and mathematics are Liberal Arts fields.

+1

LACs can have strong STEM programs.

W&M appeals to my kid who is mostly looking at LACs (for chem), but is also interested in doing research.

W&M is a nice balance wrt size, research, vibe, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:W&M is older than several Ivys - founded in 1693, I think.

UVa says founded 1819, but I think classes did not start that year.

VT is much newer, created explicitly to be the land-grant university.

UVA was built by enslaved people. What about W&M (possibly) and VT (maybe too new?)

YES, William & Mary, too. Vt wasn’t established until 1872. However, other schools were built by enslaved people: Brown, Columbia, Barnard, Dartmouth, Barnard, U Penn, Hamilton, Harvard, Harvard Law, Johns Hopkins and Princeton, Rutgers, Furman and Yale. All of these case studies can be found in the wiki article “Slavery at American Colleges and Universities”. Stanford studies also discuss slavery at Oberlin, Emory, and Alabama

Et tu, OBERLIN!!

First college in the nation to desegregate (and first to offer co-ed classes). And was a stop on the Underground Railway. So, attempts to atone have been made.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The LAC comments may represent the “feel” of the school, and perhaps historical majors, but we just toured last week (with a junior) and they said 60% of undergrads are STEM majors.

Science and mathematics are Liberal Arts fields.

And yet most LACs are majority humanities

My kid went to Oberlin. Majored in a science. If you pull out the conservatory, which is separate admissions, it was about 50%/50% STEM/ Humanities. Possibly tipped over into more than half STEM. Great STEM education and research offerings. Saw great STEM at a number of other SLACs, including Grinnell, Macalaster, Carleton, St. Olaf. Kenyon less so, but its writing program is what makes it unique. (We focused on Midwestern and not NE SLACs).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DP: They're now R1 and and have 7k undergrads and apparently a *massive* stem presence (they wouldn't be highlighting this if "liberal arts vibe" screamed "we have good stem departments here" to the general public which yeah people still like to claim that W&M is not the place to go if you're planning to study stem). I just don't see that being "LAC-like".

Then you are mistaken. I just posted about Midwestern SLACs. I took a very STEM heavy kid to visit these and they all strongly sell their STEM programs and undergrad research offerings. And they all have 40% or higher STEM.

I would actually send a kid to Oberlin for STEM before would sent a humanities kid. And, in fact loved it for my STEM kid but didn’t push it for the younger humanities focused kid. It’s counterintuitive, but Oberlin shines in Science and music.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:W&M hypes the sciences on tours because they already have a strong brand around humanities and social sciences, and the primary head-to-head school they're competing with for in-state students is UVA, which … has an engineering program. In a lot of peoples' minds — even in this thread — STEM === Engineering. So it makes sense that W&M would emphasize that they're a "liberal arts and sciences" school.

They already have the ear of the political science or English major. They want to capture the imagination of the "I'm thinking chemistry or bio?" major who's currently planning on something like EDing at Rice and then EAing at UVA (despite preferring something smaller).

I'm not so sure about this. W&M has always had great success with pre-med students who gain acceptance to med school thanks to majoring in science. 65-85% of W&M students applying to med school with at least a B+ average typically gain admission. W&M students have a higher acceptance rate, 70 to 61%, to medical school compared to UVa. Because the schools are much different in size, in terms of absolute #s UVa probably sends more grads to medical school, but you see the point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:W&M hypes the sciences on tours because they already have a strong brand around humanities and social sciences, and the primary head-to-head school they're competing with for in-state students is UVA, which … has an engineering program. In a lot of peoples' minds — even in this thread — STEM === Engineering. So it makes sense that W&M would emphasize that they're a "liberal arts and sciences" school.

They already have the ear of the political science or English major. They want to capture the imagination of the "I'm thinking chemistry or bio?" major who's currently planning on something like EDing at Rice and then EAing at UVA (despite preferring something smaller).

I'm not so sure about this. W&M has always had great success with pre-med students who gain acceptance to med school thanks to majoring in science. 65-85% of W&M students applying to med school with at least a B+ average typically gain admission. W&M students have a higher acceptance rate, 70 to 61%, to medical school compared to UVa. Because the schools are much different in size, in terms of absolute #s UVa probably sends more grads to medical school, but you see the point.

Among public universities, W&M also has one of the highest percentages of undergraduates going on to earn PhDs in STEM fields.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:W&M hypes the sciences on tours because they already have a strong brand around humanities and social sciences, and the primary head-to-head school they're competing with for in-state students is UVA, which … has an engineering program. In a lot of peoples' minds — even in this thread — STEM === Engineering. So it makes sense that W&M would emphasize that they're a "liberal arts and sciences" school.

They already have the ear of the political science or English major. They want to capture the imagination of the "I'm thinking chemistry or bio?" major who's currently planning on something like EDing at Rice and then EAing at UVA (despite preferring something smaller).

I'm not so sure about this. W&M has always had great success with pre-med students who gain acceptance to med school thanks to majoring in science. 65-85% of W&M students applying to med school with at least a B+ average typically gain admission. W&M students have a higher acceptance rate, 70 to 61%, to medical school compared to UVa. Because the schools are much different in size, in terms of absolute #s UVa probably sends more grads to medical school, but you see the point.

This is true but I think a lot of people still don't think of it as a place w strong stem programs, even though that's clearly untrue (and they also probably have some of the best STEM facilities of a public university).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:W&M hypes the sciences on tours because they already have a strong brand around humanities and social sciences, and the primary head-to-head school they're competing with for in-state students is UVA, which … has an engineering program. In a lot of peoples' minds — even in this thread — STEM === Engineering. So it makes sense that W&M would emphasize that they're a "liberal arts and sciences" school.

They already have the ear of the political science or English major. They want to capture the imagination of the "I'm thinking chemistry or bio?" major who's currently planning on something like EDing at Rice and then EAing at UVA (despite preferring something smaller).

I'm not so sure about this. W&M has always had great success with pre-med students who gain acceptance to med school thanks to majoring in science. 65-85% of W&M students applying to med school with at least a B+ average typically gain admission. W&M students have a higher acceptance rate, 70 to 61%, to medical school compared to UVa. Because the schools are much different in size, in terms of absolute #s UVa probably sends more grads to medical school, but you see the point.

You need to cite your sources. Otherwise, you’re just making up numbers.
DP

[Anonymous]

The same goes for schools known for their STEM programs. Most have excellent liberal arts as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The LAC comments may represent the “feel” of the school, and perhaps historical majors, but we just toured last week (with a junior) and they said 60% of undergrads are STEM majors.

Science and mathematics are Liberal Arts fields.

And yet most LACs are majority humanities

That is not true. Amherst degrees for instance are 38% science and math, which is a higher percentage than humanities or social sciences.

Soooo 38 vs 60?

If you are trying to reduce it to STEM vs. not STEM, most universities do not have majority STEM degrees. Harvard is about 50% STEM. Most on DCUM seem to think Harvard students study nothing but French Lit and Gender Studies. Schools like MIT, Caltech, and Georgia Tech are majority STEM.

But again - they also have excellent liberal arts programs as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:W&M hypes the sciences on tours because they already have a strong brand around humanities and social sciences, and the primary head-to-head school they're competing with for in-state students is UVA, which … has an engineering program. In a lot of peoples' minds — even in this thread — STEM === Engineering. So it makes sense that W&M would emphasize that they're a "liberal arts and sciences" school.

They already have the ear of the political science or English major. They want to capture the imagination of the "I'm thinking chemistry or bio?" major who's currently planning on something like EDing at Rice and then EAing at UVA (despite preferring something smaller).

I'm not so sure about this. W&M has always had great success with pre-med students who gain acceptance to med school thanks to majoring in science. 65-85% of W&M students applying to med school with at least a B+ average typically gain admission. W&M students have a higher acceptance rate, 70 to 61%, to medical school compared to UVa. Because the schools are much different in size, in terms of absolute #s UVa probably sends more grads to medical school, but you see the point.

You need to cite your sources. Otherwise, you’re just making up numbers.
DP

Google it for yourself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The same goes for schools known for their STEM programs. Most have excellent liberal arts as well.

Well, science and math are liberal arts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:W&M hypes the sciences on tours because they already have a strong brand around humanities and social sciences, and the primary head-to-head school they're competing with for in-state students is UVA, which … has an engineering program. In a lot of peoples' minds — even in this thread — STEM === Engineering. So it makes sense that W&M would emphasize that they're a "liberal arts and sciences" school.

They already have the ear of the political science or English major. They want to capture the imagination of the "I'm thinking chemistry or bio?" major who's currently planning on something like EDing at Rice and then EAing at UVA (despite preferring something smaller).

I'm not so sure about this. W&M has always had great success with pre-med students who gain acceptance to med school thanks to majoring in science. 65-85% of W&M students applying to med school with at least a B+ average typically gain admission. W&M students have a higher acceptance rate, 70 to 61%, to medical school compared to UVa. Because the schools are much different in size, in terms of absolute #s UVa probably sends more grads to medical school, but you see the point.

You need to cite your sources. Otherwise, you’re just making up numbers.
DP

Google it for yourself.

You must be new here. Don't make claims that YOU can't back up with citations.