What's the appeal for Amherst?

[Anonymous]

Cost of attendance per Amherst Website: $82,846 – $85,296

[Anonymous]

Add socializing, car and other costs, easily adds up to 100k.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why does anyone start a thread like this? The OP obviously isn’t interested in anyone’s answers to the question, so why pose the question in the first place?

The preference for one college or another is largely subjective with a few objective facts that are relevant. So, if it almost entirely comes to subjective preference, there’s really nothing to talk about here.

OP is bitter that their child didn’t get in and is looking to start a pile-on so they will feel better about it. It’s rather childish.

Din't try to dissmiss OP's opinion because yours is different. I'm not OP, my child was accepted and I felt the same.

DP. Cool, tell us what school your kid is going to so we can shit all over that one too. No matter how good you may think it is, someone else thinks it sucks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't think there is a tremendous appeal. Has always been for near-miss kids. They all want to be at Harvard or Brown. That's the chip on the shoulder that you are observing.

That wasn’t my son’s experience at all. He was one of the highest ranked (#8) debaters in the US, perfect grades, near-perfect SAT, etc. Two dozen kids per year from his hs go to Ivies and he was at the top of that cohort. And was only interested in LACs. Chose among Amherst, Williams, Swarthmore. Had a great experience at Amherst, with many classmates who very deliberately chose a top LAC over a research university (Ivies included) where you sat in a 400-student lecture hall for intro bio or Econ.
He later went to a top-2 law school, graduating top of class, law review editor etc. There are many, many students of that caliber at AWS-level LACs. Not everyone has the Ivy fetish.

[Anonymous]

We’re looking very seriously at open curriculum schools. DC has three serious academic interests and would like the freedom to explore them all, and doesn’t want to be lost in enormous lecture classes or taught by TAs. The consortium possibilities also appeal. Need to figure out if their club sport is at all good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think there is a tremendous appeal. Has always been for near-miss kids. They all want to be at Harvard or Brown. That's the chip on the shoulder that you are observing.

That wasn’t my son’s experience at all. He was one of the highest ranked (#8) debaters in the US, perfect grades, near-perfect SAT, etc. Two dozen kids per year from his hs go to Ivies and he was at the top of that cohort. And was only interested in LACs. Chose among Amherst, Williams, Swarthmore. Had a great experience at Amherst, with many classmates who very deliberately chose a top LAC over a research university (Ivies included) where you sat in a 400-student lecture hall for intro bio or Econ.
He later went to a top-2 law school, graduating top of class, law review editor etc. There are many, many students of that caliber at AWS-level LACs. Not everyone has the Ivy fetish.

My DC is like your son, chose a SLAC over a T10 national research university as the LAC had all they hoped for. They also want to study law after graduation. What did your son major in college? Did he work between college and law school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think there is a tremendous appeal. Has always been for near-miss kids. They all want to be at Harvard or Brown. That's the chip on the shoulder that you are observing.

That wasn’t my son’s experience at all. He was one of the highest ranked (#8) debaters in the US, perfect grades, near-perfect SAT, etc. Two dozen kids per year from his hs go to Ivies and he was at the top of that cohort. And was only interested in LACs. Chose among Amherst, Williams, Swarthmore. Had a great experience at Amherst, with many classmates who very deliberately chose a top LAC over a research university (Ivies included) where you sat in a 400-student lecture hall for intro bio or Econ.
He later went to a top-2 law school, graduating top of class, law review editor etc. There are many, many students of that caliber at AWS-level LACs. Not everyone has the Ivy fetish.

My DC is like your son, chose a SLAC over a T10 national research university as the LAC had all they hoped for. They also want to study law after graduation. What did your son major in college? Did he work between college and law school?

+1 Same for my son.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We were seriously interested in liberal arts colleges. I found their faculty in CS and STEM to be second rate (look at how many CS faculty they have).
I know research is not its main focus.. then what’s the difference from good private high schools?

You were seriously interested in LACs and you found Amherst lacking?

Bullshit.

ps I count 8 CS faculty. How many should a liberal arts college with less than 1,800 students have?

Out of 8 CS faculty, two of them are on leave. Amherst certainly can teach introductory CS classes, but what else can they teach? CS is quite broad, but Amherst simply doesn’t have enough faculty to teach advanced CS courses. You might be able to learn more from free online CS classes.
Amherst can be great for majors like English, Philosophy, maybe math.. they say you can take courses at uMass, then why do you pay high tuition if you are going to take classes at state school

Why would someone go to a SLAC for CS? Sounds like a poor fit.

Why not?

If the SLAC offers CS as a major, go for it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Tiny, mediocre campus in a lackluster town. No academic highlights (like Williams tutorial, Swarthmore Honors, etc). Racial and socioeconomic diversity on paper, but every group sticks with themselves. Snobby, condescending students who think they're big shots.

This is exactly what my DS didn't like about Williams - that and the campus is even more remote than Amherst.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tiny, mediocre campus in a lackluster town. No academic highlights (like Williams tutorial, Swarthmore Honors, etc). Racial and socioeconomic diversity on paper, but every group sticks with themselves. Snobby, condescending students who think they're big shots.

This is exactly what my DS didn't like about Williams - that and the campus is even more remote than Amherst.

Any reason to think the every group sticks to themselves phenomenon is unique to these schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tiny, mediocre campus in a lackluster town. No academic highlights (like Williams tutorial, Swarthmore Honors, etc). Racial and socioeconomic diversity on paper, but every group sticks with themselves. Snobby, condescending students who think they're big shots.

This is exactly what my DS didn't like about Williams - that and the campus is even more remote than Amherst.

Any reason to think the every group sticks to themselves phenomenon is unique to these schools?

Exactly.

And for the predominantly white colleges that have students coming from predominantly white high schools, let the kids REACH out to the URMs.

[Anonymous]

More like Amworst, am I right? Ha!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Add socializing, car and other costs, easily adds up to 100k.

At least Amtrak runs through the area. Around holidays the trains are filled with college kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tiny, mediocre campus in a lackluster town. No academic highlights (like Williams tutorial, Swarthmore Honors, etc). Racial and socioeconomic diversity on paper, but every group sticks with themselves. Snobby, condescending students who think they're big shots.

This is exactly what my DS didn't like about Williams - that and the campus is even more remote than Amherst.

Any reason to think the every group sticks to themselves phenomenon is unique to these schools?

Self segregation is common, but what may set NESCAC apart is that the schools are so small that a high concentration of wealthy kids really sticks out. There are, I am sure, snobby rich kids at big state schools but other kids are less likely to notice them.

[Anonymous]

Has always been for near-miss kids.

Imagine thinking your kid or any kid “missed” because they went to Amherst instead of Harvard. 🙄