The Guide to WASP

[Anonymous]

How many Americans could answer the following questions?

Which of the following fancy-named schools is in the Ivy League?
(a) Amherst
(b) Swarthmore
(d) Dartmouth
(e) Skidmore

Which of the following schools is a public school?
(a) University of Chicago
(b) Rutgers
(c) University of Pennsylvania
(d) California Institute of Technology

How many Johns does it take to make a Hopkins University?
(a) 1
(b) More than 1

My longwinded, rhetorical point is that name recognition isn't as important as people make it out to be outside of a dozen or so elite universities and football schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A lot of smart kids realize that the elite SLAC’s provide a better undergrad experience because that’s what they specialize in! Save Harvard and the Ivy’s for grad school and they are only too happy to take the WASP crowd!!!

Statistically that’s just not how it works, even if the elite SLACs are more undergraduate-focused than all the Ivies besides Dartmouth and Princeton.

I turned down both Amherst and Williams for an Ivy and it was both a tough call and an easy decision. Most in a similar position would still make the same choice.

[Anonymous]

^^^Most people in the DMV are name whores, I agree!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of smart kids realize that the elite SLAC’s provide a better undergrad experience because that’s what they specialize in! Save Harvard and the Ivy’s for grad school and they are only too happy to take the WASP crowd!!!

Statistically that’s just not how it works, even if the elite SLACs are more undergraduate-focused than all the Ivies besides Dartmouth and Princeton.

I turned down both Amherst and Williams for an Ivy and it was both a tough call and an easy decision. Most in a similar position would still make the same choice.

I'm not sure what your point is relative to the prior poster. I don't think anyone doubts that, given a choice, a majority of kids pick the top Ivy over the top LAC. But PP never claimed otherwise. PP opined that "a lot of" kids prefer undergrad-focused LACs over Ivies for undergrad. That's true, isn't it?

I suspect there are two camps of WASP applicants: (1) The self-selecting ones who, as PP mentioned, really appreciate the LAC experience and intentionally seek it out; and (2) the ones who likely prefer bigger, name-brand universities but nevertheless add WASP schools as a kind of backup to the T10-ish schools they're really aiming for. The second category probably outnumbers the former. But some actually prefer the WASP schools to the siren call of mainstream prestige.

I write that without judgment. As an 18-year-old, I probably would have fallen in the latter camp. As a world-weary adult, however, I appreciate my DC's adoption of the former.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of smart kids realize that the elite SLAC’s provide a better undergrad experience because that’s what they specialize in! Save Harvard and the Ivy’s for grad school and they are only too happy to take the WASP crowd!!!

Statistically that’s just not how it works, even if the elite SLACs are more undergraduate-focused than all the Ivies besides Dartmouth and Princeton.

I turned down both Amherst and Williams for an Ivy and it was both a tough call and an easy decision. Most in a similar position would still make the same choice.

It you’re being honest than you’d admit you would turn down EVERY other college that’s not Ivy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of smart kids realize that the elite SLAC’s provide a better undergrad experience because that’s what they specialize in! Save Harvard and the Ivy’s for grad school and they are only too happy to take the WASP crowd!!!

Statistically that’s just not how it works, even if the elite SLACs are more undergraduate-focused than all the Ivies besides Dartmouth and Princeton.

I turned down both Amherst and Williams for an Ivy and it was both a tough call and an easy decision. Most in a similar position would still make the same choice.

I'm not sure what your point is relative to the prior poster. I don't think anyone doubts that, given a choice, a majority of kids pick the top Ivy over the top LAC. But PP never claimed otherwise. PP opined that "a lot of" kids prefer undergrad-focused LACs over Ivies for undergrad. That's true, isn't it?

I suspect there are two camps of WASP applicants: (1) The self-selecting ones who, as PP mentioned, really appreciate the LAC experience and intentionally seek it out; and (2) the ones who likely prefer bigger, name-brand universities but nevertheless add WASP schools as a kind of backup to the T10-ish schools they're really aiming for. The second category probably outnumbers the former. But some actually prefer the WASP schools to the siren call of mainstream prestige.

I write that without judgment. As an 18-year-old, I probably would have fallen in the latter camp. As a world-weary adult, however, I appreciate my DC's adoption of the former.

Minor difference, but "some" probably would better convey the reality of the situation than "a lot."

I'd be happy to be 18 again, get a chance at a do over, and see what Williams would have been like. It's not the type of second chance one gets, except perhaps vicariously.

[Anonymous]

Assuming they applied and accepted at both an Ivy and a LAC or other NU, they would likely go to the Ivy mainly because of “prestige”

[Anonymous]

My DC never even thought of applying to Ivies even though one had the stats and a likely letter. They were able to think for themselves, do their own research and decide what they really wanted from a college experience. We supported their decision. One ended up at a SLAC and the other at top 15 NU and never looked back.

[Anonymous]

The majority of Americans do NOT have a college degree per 2021 US Census data and unlikely to be familiar with colleges that aren't big in football. It's unlikely they've heard of Dartmouth or care. Large employers and graduate schools OTOH have certainly heard of the Ivies but then again they are also very familiar with other strong schools and SLACs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. My post was not meant to be that serious. I was just looking to start a fun conversation about these schools.

This is fun?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If it might be relevant for your student:

Williams and Amherst: stopped requiring that students have the COVID vaccine a year ago.

Swarthmore and Pomona: still require students to have the COVID vaccine, at the moment, here in March 2024. Swat also requires a booster.

What a weirdo!

[Anonymous]

I turned down Columbia for Swarthmore and ended up at Yale for my PhD. People do, in fact, turn down Ivies for SLACs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
It’s AWS

The original AWS lineup deserves respect! But these days people might confuse it with Amazon Web Services.

Adding the P solves that problem. (But it kind of creates another problem because "WASP" also can be misinterpreted.)

I thought it was a post about "Waspy" colleges and I was like oh god, this again? It took me until halfway through the post to realize it was an acronym based on the college names.

[Anonymous]

Current president of Brown is a Swat grad

[Anonymous]

It's WAPS