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

[Anonymous]

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

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).

Curious as to why your kid picked Oberlin over all of the others? It's certainly among the weakest on the list.

[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.

lol+. DP. And they are correct! PP just doesn’t want to hear it!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

DP. Nah. DCUM posters make all kinds of claims all the time in almost all of the forums. Always one should add salt to taste. It is rare, but wonderful, if some post has citations to back claims.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Definitions vary depending on where one looks. What does seem to be true is that many here think (whether correctly or not) that Liberal Arts has an identical meaning to arts & humanities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Another reminder of why you shouldn’t get advice from people here.

[Anonymous]

They are usually labeled as school of or college of arts and sciences for housing liberal arts, humanities and science majors. I would think liberal arts is just what it is liberal arts

[Anonymous]

Because they offer something for everyone. W&M is the great school for academically curious kids, UVA and VT provide the rah rah environments with VT providing a place for those interested in engineering or the military.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

DP. Nah. DCUM posters make all kinds of claims all the time in almost all of the forums. Always one should add salt to taste. It is rare, but wonderful, if some post has citations to back claims.

I simply disregard any post that throws out numbers/claims, etc with no citations and I marvel at the stupidity of anyone who just believes whatever they read here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because they offer something for everyone. W&M is the great school for academically curious kids, UVA and VT provide the rah rah environments with VT providing a place for those interested in engineering or the military.

Psst… VT and UVA are also great schools for academically curious kids. But then, you know that. Very transparent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because they offer something for everyone. W&M is the great school for academically curious kids, UVA and VT provide the rah rah environments with VT providing a place for those interested in engineering or the military.

Psst… VT and UVA are also great schools for academically curious kids. But then, you know that. Very transparent.

I took that as a knock at W&M as anything. You can definitely get a rah rah environment there too (more of a recent thing but LOTS of students to games and have school spirit). DD is in a sorority and they required everyone part of the rush process to attend the first football game of the season to be eligible.

[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

Not true. Go look up the common data sets for the most enrolled majors in the top ten SLACs and report back.

[Anonymous]

I don’t think too many students outside of the area know about the schools. Locals know the value in these schools which makes them appealing

[Anonymous]

W&M could quickly reduce its acceptance rate by 50% with concerted marketing in Texas and California. It’s a very niche brand in those states today.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:W&M could quickly reduce its acceptance rate by 50% with concerted marketing in Texas and California. It’s a very niche brand in those states today.

And how do they get there, uber from Dulles?

[Anonymous]

PJ from Dallas