where would top SLACs fall in an overall college ranking list?

[Anonymous]

Sounds like you are chasing prestige and trying to find a one-size-fits-all super ranking to help your student make their choice.

Please don't do that.

Every student has different needs and priorities they uniquely value.

Rankings are pretty useless except as a very broad strokes of generalized quality. I wouldn't suggest dropping significant money on college with rankings as your main basis for your decision.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One data point - 30ish years ago I was waitlisted then ultimately did not get into Williams and Amherst but got into multiple Ivies. I would have definitely attended Williams over the Ivies, unclear about Amherst.

Williams competes with all Ivies but HYP, and might even occasionally win one of those battles, but that is not often.

Based on parchment survey student selects williams over harvard about 24% of the time a bit more for yale at 27% and a bit more for princeton at 33%. If you want a slac, and you know you would drown at a place like princeton,...

But all things being equal, you don't pick slac over any ivy+

one comment u hear often on this site “DC chose x SLAC over x ivy”

one comment u never hear on this site “DC chose c ivy over x SLAC”

why? because people who go to ivies were never really considering attending a SLAC, but the reverse is always true

[Anonymous]

leTs aRGuE aBoUT LaCS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:hear all this banter about WASP schools being comparable to ivies, but are they really? where should Williams, Amherst, and Pomona fall on an overall list - somewhere in the mid 20s after Georgetown, UVA, USC, Lehigh, etc?

The very tippy top LACs are comparable to HYPSM. Same caliber of students, just a different environment. I recall a classmate of mine at HYPSM who didn't get into Williams.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like you are chasing prestige and trying to find a one-size-fits-all super ranking to help your student make their choice.

yeah chasing prestige so rare on this site - every 1500+ Sidwell-type kid applying to multiple ivies that with zero similarities other than “prestige” and T10 ranking - give me a break

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:asking as DH is saying these LA schools are equal prestige and education to at least the lower T20s and I disagree - think they should be lower. Yes great intimate educational experience, but can’t compare to a Vandy Rice Or WashU - should be lower imo -

You have it backwards. The top 10 SLACs are considerably better than any of the schools that you listed.

[Anonymous]

Who cares? Even the lac rankings are stupid.

[Anonymous]

If you're into the best lacs- aka Williams, Pomona, Bowdoin, Swarthmore- it's just up to the student to determine what environment is right for them. Some choose Brown over Williams, but I've also seen students struggle between Pomona and Yale. It really depends on what the student wants out of their college experience. Overall, it doesn't really matter since these are the top of the top and they will end up fine whether at a top lac or an ivy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you're into the best lacs- aka Williams, Pomona, Bowdoin, Swarthmore- it's just up to the student to determine what environment is right for them. Some choose Brown over Williams, but I've also seen students struggle between Pomona and Yale. It really depends on what the student wants out of their college experience. Overall, it doesn't really matter since these are the top of the top and they will end up fine whether at a top lac or an ivy.

Bowdoin is not in the same league. Nice try.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:leTs aRGuE aBoUT LaCS

Lol thank you for this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Two highly respected publications--the Wall Street Journal and the Times Higher Education--used to rank LACs and National Universities together. The 2022 rankings were the last published joint rankings to the best of my knowledge.

The methodology used 15 factors to arrive at an outcomes based ranking. Based on this methodology, the top two LACs were #22 Amherst College and #23 Williams College, followed by #25 Pomona College, #29 Swarthmore College, #30 Wellesley College, and #35 Carleton College.

Haverford was ranked at #36, followed by #38 Bowdoin College, #39 Smith College, and #40 Middlebury College.

Based on my knowledge and experience, I agree with a poster who above who wrote:

"A[n] SLAC is more comparable to a top notch boarding school...."

FWIW Ours attended a Top 10 National University after 4 yard at a super elite boarding school. Our entire family--student & parents--would have been thrilled if the student spent 4 years at Middlebury College rather than at a Top 10 National University, however the education would have been a different and lesser academic experience than experienced at the Top 10 National University due to the breadth/variety, depth, and greater number of faculty & students in each of the three majors undertaken. Additionally, the academic facilities were far superior at the Top 10 National University than at any of the top ranked LACs.

Utter nonsense

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:asking as DH is saying these LA schools are equal prestige and education to at least the lower T20s and I disagree - think they should be lower. Yes great intimate educational experience, but can’t compare to a Vandy Rice Or WashU - should be lower imo -

I think the thread consensus is that you are definitely wrong.
Hubby is probably wrong.
You both underestimate top SLACs.
WASP hovers around non-HYP Ivies (but all above Cornell). Definitely all above Chicago.

You guys are nuts.

This is like asking where you would rank butter pecan as an ice cream flavor.

But if you were going to do it based on what people choose when given a choice, SLACs are not comparable to non HYP ivy.
It's probably not quite as desirable as Vanderbilt/Rice/Emory.
It's probably more desirable than NYU/USC/Northeastern.

For some people Williams is the perfect college because it is a SLAC but most people would take Vanderbilt over Williams
For others Annapolic is the perfect school
But the ivy draw is real and it is hard to ignore. Even Cornell/Brown/Dartmouth are generally more desirable than SLACs

Thought process of zero. Thx for adding nothing of value.

[Anonymous]

If you really want to attend a SLAC, you wouldn't ask this question.

[Anonymous]

I attended a SLAC, chose it over Ivies.

I had brilliant classmates who went on to take very prestigious roles.

My college has graduated former US presidents/ Supreme Court justices, not sure how many of the "popular" top 20-30 universities can say that.

[Anonymous]

This site placed Swarthmore 11th, W&L 18th, Hamilton 21st, Claremont McKenna 22nd, Amherst 25th, Wellesley 27th, Harvey Mudd 29th and Pomona 30th when compared among colleges and universities nationally:

College & University Rankings in 2025 https://share.google/1F9f82Zz4eWGQxROP

However, due to a flaw in the site's methods, a few prominent LACs (e.g., Williams) do not appear in the ranking.