Turning down Ivies for a liberal arts college?
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Anonymous
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Recently, I talked to a coworker whose daughter is attending Pomona College in California this fall after turning down offers at Yale, Stanford, and Brown. Apparently this isn't uncommon, and there are a number of students picking top LACs over Ivies/comparable universities every year. I didn't want to badger further about why she had done that, so I'm interested from those with similar experiences- why would someone turn down a prestigious university over a liberal arts college?
I don't know much about Pomona, and my little research indicates that it is a reputable school, but it only has 1600 students and an admissions rate double that of Stanford. |
Anonymous
| Merit aid could be a factor for some schools - most of the top lacs don't have it but some do. Could be fit/comfort. I know a number of kids who turned down Cornell for a non Ivy because they liked the other school better. I know a kid who chose Penn over Amherst and transferred a year later. |
Anonymous
| Your research skills are lacking. Pomona, year in year out, is a top ranked liberal arts college. It has a small but beautiful campus and a sterling reputation. Having said that, one should never turn down Stanford. Why would anyone do that? |
Anonymous
Hatred of UMC suburbia and/or the cult of entrepreneurship? |
Anonymous
| I think a small school is really important to some people. It was to me and to my husband. |
Anonymous
Whoops, hit submit too soon. It also could be that she received aid at Pomona and wasn't offered it at the better schools. My husband got into Duke and Penn but chose an SLAC barely in the top 50 instead because he got a full ride. I imagine if his parents had busybody friends, they would be confused also. |
Anonymous
Oooo. Good one pp. the part about the busy body friends?.... clever! 
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Anonymous
| Small classes, no as teaching, high quality education, better fir, personal attention. |
Anonymous
| No *TAs* teaching. |
Anonymous
| I applied early decision to a liberal arts college and loved it. A close friend (and academic peer) was much less happy at her Ivy. |
Anonymous
I don't think the ivies are big on TAs, certainly not the case at Dartmouth where I went. Several of them don't have enough grad students to have TAs, or the grad students are in professional schools like law, business or med. |
Anonymous
Pomona is a top LAC and most likely does not give merit aid. My guess is the student and parents opted for a small school. |
Anonymous
It depends on the Ivy. The ones with larger graduate schools outside of the professional schools certainly have the TA issue. The smaller schools like Dartmouth or Princeton are more like small/medium liberal arts schools where students see professors from day one. |
Anonymous
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My DS is a senior at Beloit. His best friend there transferred from Yale. He felt that Yale was too impersonal and his professors not accessible. He's much happier at Beloit where the students in general have close relationships with their professors, class size is small and better research opportunities for undergrads. Yes, Beloit gave him merit aid when he transferred but it was the equivalent of the financial aid he received at Yale.
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Anonymous
Ha! If you ask my DH ( who went to Berkeley) he would say no one should go to Stanford! It is the one school he doesn't want our kids to go to. Luckily I don't think this is going to be a problem and no he hasn't told them this to their face! Just hoping that they don't want to go there ( and it is slim that they would get in anyway) |