Thoughts on Conn College?

[Anonymous]

I would run the NPC on Conn College and some other SLACs your kid is interested in. My DS was considering it because he was looking at some smaller schools with decent music programs. Conn would be a reach for his stats.

Conn came back the most expensive by far, about $73K per year. The other ones he looked at were Oberlin, St. Olaf and Furman. The other ones seem to give some auto merit because they were much lower--in the $50-$60K range. Some people may not feel like those are comparable schools, because of admission rate (Oberlin's rate is actually slightly lower than Conn, St. Olaf and Furman just over 50%) but all these schools are in the 40's-50's of the USNWR LAC rankings. And though I don't always agree with the rankings, at least LAC rankings start with mostly "similar schools" vs. trying to compare Cal Tech with a giant state school the way the way the University Rankings do.

The estimated cost was too much, and DS isn't applying there, plus the music programs are better at the other schools.

I would just recommend considering other SLACs outside of the Northeast, if DC is willing to travel.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"Are some of the WASPs better at placing grads in super elite fields like finance or consulting, sure."

Amherst and Williams appear to be notable in this regard, Swarthmore and Pomona, less so:

Top Feeders to Wall Street https://share.google/ouPQuAy85pLZ4IIbU

Ugh. I guess I have only myself to blame for mentioning finance careers. This is my point exactly. Most “regular” people have not heard of any SLAC. My spouse is a WASP alum and my oldest just started at one of the US News “13s” and no one in my family knows a lick about either. They do know and respect the flagship that I went to. Thats just the way it is for most. People on here love their passionate debates about the relative merits of Williams v. Bowdoin, or why a certain peer school in VT is trash, but these distinctions are trivial at best in the grand scheme. If you know you want a career in finance, and you have the chops for Amherst or Williams, by all means apply. But the name recognition argument is BS. If you’ve heard of Williams, you’ve heard of Grinnell, Haverford, etc. Sounds more like you wanting to be able to brag to your community that your kid either got into an “elite” school or got a 35k discount because they are so smart. Just say that.