LACs are overrated.

[Anonymous]

Somebody is plugging the stereotype that there is no financial aid at small liberal arts colleges and you have to be a mega rich private school grad to go. I went to one of the three schools mentioned above and received lots of financial aid and went to public school.
I didn’t seek out a Wall street career, but I am doing fine with my PhD, so all hope is not lost for PhD recipients. 😀

My DC is applying to schools now and I advised him to seek out a medium
size college/university (3000-8000).

[Anonymous]

<<Keep hyping. They are not worth $80,000 per year in this age.>>

If it is not your money, why do you care?

[Anonymous]

What school should my kid choose? He wants to do computer science and is quite good in studies?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Somebody is plugging the stereotype that there is no financial aid at small liberal arts colleges and you have to be a mega rich private school grad to go. I went to one of the three schools mentioned above and received lots of financial aid and went to public school.
I didn’t seek out a Wall street career, but I am doing fine with my PhD, so all hope is not lost for PhD recipients. 😀

My DC is applying to schools now and I advised him to seek out a medium
size college/university (3000-8000).

Your rational arguments won’t have any effect on loony OP. Appreciate the effort though, and best of luck on your PhD. My daughter is heading to Swarthmore next year and very excited.

[Anonymous]

And Duke/NW are behind Wash U based on your metrics? Umm . . . Ok.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Somebody is plugging the stereotype that there is no financial aid at small liberal arts colleges and you have to be a mega rich private school grad to go. I went to one of the three schools mentioned above and received lots of financial aid and went to public school.
I didn’t seek out a Wall street career, but I am doing fine with my PhD, so all hope is not lost for PhD recipients. 😀

My DC is applying to schools now and I advised him to seek out a medium
size college/university (3000-8000).

Your rational arguments won’t have any effect on loony OP. Appreciate the effort though, and best of luck on your PhD. My daughter is heading to Swarthmore next year and very excited.

Swarthmore was relentless in sending mail to all the kids in our school district, second only to uChicago. Their marketing/admissions department is extremely off-putting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What school should my kid choose? He wants to do computer science and is quite good in studies?

Either a state school or a well-financed research university would be your best bet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Somebody is plugging the stereotype that there is no financial aid at small liberal arts colleges and you have to be a mega rich private school grad to go. I went to one of the three schools mentioned above and received lots of financial aid and went to public school.
I didn’t seek out a Wall street career, but I am doing fine with my PhD, so all hope is not lost for PhD recipients. 😀

My DC is applying to schools now and I advised him to seek out a medium
size college/university (3000-8000).

Your rational arguments won’t have any effect on loony OP. Appreciate the effort though, and best of luck on your PhD. My daughter is heading to Swarthmore next year and very excited.

Awesome! I loved it there.
And BTW received a ton of financial aid when I went to Swarthmore. My parents were working class immigrants, I had a Pell and major grants from Swarthmore, and left college with virtually no debt. I went on to earn a PhD, and I credit Swarthmore for a lot of that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Somebody is plugging the stereotype that there is no financial aid at small liberal arts colleges and you have to be a mega rich private school grad to go. I went to one of the three schools mentioned above and received lots of financial aid and went to public school.
I didn’t seek out a Wall street career, but I am doing fine with my PhD, so all hope is not lost for PhD recipients. 😀

My DC is applying to schools now and I advised him to seek out a medium
size college/university (3000-8000).

Your rational arguments won’t have any effect on loony OP. Appreciate the effort though, and best of luck on your PhD. My daughter is heading to Swarthmore next year and very excited.

Swarthmore was relentless in sending mail to all the kids in our school district, second only to uChicago. Their marketing/admissions department is extremely off-putting.

+100
Gotta raise that yield!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They sit in that odd in-between where they're lesser-known by the general populace, but are incredibly overhyped by those in the know.

No one cares about your Williams or Amherst or Swarthmore, and they're slowly but surely becoming increasingly irrelevant in today's higher ed landscape.

Not really, graduates of the three schools you mentioned will have the same grad school and employment opportunities of an HYPS grad

Keep hyping. They are not worth $80,000 per year in this age.

Of all the schools that charge that much per year, I'd argue that LACs are the only ones worth the price tag.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Somebody is plugging the stereotype that there is no financial aid at small liberal arts colleges and you have to be a mega rich private school grad to go. I went to one of the three schools mentioned above and received lots of financial aid and went to public school.
I didn’t seek out a Wall street career, but I am doing fine with my PhD, so all hope is not lost for PhD recipients. 😀

My DC is applying to schools now and I advised him to seek out a medium
size college/university (3000-8000).

Your rational arguments won’t have any effect on loony OP. Appreciate the effort though, and best of luck on your PhD. My daughter is heading to Swarthmore next year and very excited.

Swarthmore was relentless in sending mail to all the kids in our school district, second only to uChicago. Their marketing/admissions department is extremely off-putting.

+100
Gotta raise that yield!

That’s not what yield means.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They sit in that odd in-between where they're lesser-known by the general populace, but are incredibly overhyped by those in the know.

No one cares about your Williams or Amherst or Swarthmore, and they're slowly but surely becoming increasingly irrelevant in today's higher ed landscape.

Not really, graduates of the three schools you mentioned will have the same grad school and employment opportunities of an HYPS grad

Keep hyping. They are not worth $80,000 per year in this age.

Of all the schools that charge that much per year, I'd argue that LACs are the only ones worth the price tag.

That's laughably untrue. If anything, technical schools (the MITs, Georgia Techs, Caltechs of the world) would be able to justify the price tag. The LAC boosters truly live in a world of their own.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Huh? I think those schools are very impressive and I’m from lower-class middle America.

But whatever! I graduated from a cheap school with no debt and I have no regrets. Either way a kid who graduated with low debt will be in excellent shape, so if parents can pay their way, a liberal arts college is a great option.

Me too for undergrad and I got a free grad education at a fancy school in Connecticut. Cheap schools can get you places. That said my husband went to a LAC and wants our kids to go to them. Not looking forward to the price. Sort of hoping that one can't get in and the other gets a scholarship.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What school should my kid choose? He wants to do computer science and is quite good in studies?

Depending on your finances, perhaps consider a very selective Honors College program at a [relatively] more affordable research 1 public university. You get the full experience of the large school, yet smaller school LAC type attention, focus, and classes, without the hefty price tag. And if your kid goes to grad school, money saved on ugrad is a benefit!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Huh? I think those schools are very impressive and I’m from lower-class middle America.

But whatever! I graduated from a cheap school with no debt and I have no regrets. Either way a kid who graduated with low debt will be in excellent shape, so if parents can pay their way, a liberal arts college is a great option.

Me too for undergrad and I got a free grad education at a fancy school in Connecticut. Cheap schools can get you places. That said my husband went to a LAC and wants our kids to go to them. Not looking forward to the price. Sort of hoping that one can't get in and the other gets a scholarship.

Lots of LACs outside that top tier give big merit discounts.

I don't think any school is worth a full pay $80K price tag. I have two kids. One only applied to big state schools because that's the environment he wanted, he's really independent, and for what he's studying the option to do a BS + accelerated MS in his field was really appealing. The other wants to do science research and get a PhD and will mainly focus on LACs. They both did/will likely apply to both in-state public schools plus private and OOS publics schools that give merit aid and will have to make choices within our budget. It's great that there are different options for different goals and personalities.