What LACs have less stressful

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For what its worth,
check out US News Ranking for LACs
While Vassar is #16 its only because it is tied for that position with 4 other schools - so you could think of it as either #12 or #16, depending how you count.
Definitely top 20 which makes it pretty competitive.

There are 15 schools on the list ahead of that grouping. So Davidson, Hamilton, Harvey Mudd, Smith, and Vassar collectively take up spots 16-20.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Colgate for anyone not pre-med

Absolutely not. Colgate is really intense in every way. Yes there are students who seem to party a lot but they are probably still studying a lot.
I don't know anyone who felt they didn't work really hard there and while professors were great, they were also very demanding.
Not a lot of grade inflation either (which is OK but might be different from comparable schools).

Totally agree. Especially in stem, Econ, math etc. And no grade inflation unlike most of the ivies where everyone gets an A.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Colby, bates, Conn, Gettysburg, Lafayette, skidmore, Marist, Vassar, muhlenberg, Chatham, Dickinson, F&M, Allegheny

More than half of these don’t have rigorous academics.

Which ones in your opinion? I disagree.

I count 13 colleges with more than half being rigorous.

Rigorous: Colby, Bates, Lafayette, Skidmore, Vassar, Dickinson, F&M

Grew up in NY. It was where the idiot kids with money went. What changed?

Pretty much everything about how colleges accept students and what students are actually looking for in a college. Welcome to 2024. fF you are just starting this process with your kids, forget everything you used to think you knew about colleges. Start from scratch.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Colby, bates, Conn, Gettysburg, Lafayette, skidmore, Marist, Vassar, muhlenberg, Chatham, Dickinson, F&M, Allegheny

More than half of these don’t have rigorous academics.

Which ones in your opinion? I disagree.

I count 13 colleges with more than half being rigorous.

Rigorous: Colby, Bates, Lafayette, Skidmore, Vassar, Dickinson, F&M

Grew up in NY. It was where the idiot kids with money went. What changed?

Pretty much everything about how colleges accept students and what students are actually looking for in a college. Welcome to 2024. fF you are just starting this process with your kids, forget everything you used to think you knew about colleges. Start from scratch.

+1. You have to unlearn the old assumptions.

Northeast definitely more intense than everywhere else, though. Hard to escape that.

[Anonymous]

Trinity

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hamilton seems chill

Uhh, no. Those kids work really hard plus it is quite a tough admit. T15 lac for sure

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hamilton seems chill

Uhh, no. Those kids work really hard plus it is quite a tough admit. T15 lac for sure

Yeah. Chill compared to what? MIT? I guess. This notion by people who don’t really know anything about SLACs that there are only four places where academics are taken seriously is so tired. If by chill you mean Hamilton is a place where kids don’t have to apply to participate in exclusive clubs, that’s probably fair. Not true at Colgate, FWIW.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Hamilton seems chill

Uhh, no. Those kids work really hard plus it is quite a tough admit. T15 lac for sure

Yeah. Chill compared to what? MIT? I guess. This notion by people who don’t really know anything about SLACs that there are only four places where academics are taken seriously is so tired. If by chill you mean Hamilton is a place where kids don’t have to apply to participate in exclusive clubs, that’s probably fair. Not true at Colgate, FWIW.

The WASP LACs are a massive step above however. DS goes to Swarthmore and DD goes to Colby. The differences between the amount of time they spend on work is overwhelming.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Hamilton seems chill

Uhh, no. Those kids work really hard plus it is quite a tough admit. T15 lac for sure

Yeah. Chill compared to what? MIT? I guess. This notion by people who don’t really know anything about SLACs that there are only four places where academics are taken seriously is so tired. If by chill you mean Hamilton is a place where kids don’t have to apply to participate in exclusive clubs, that’s probably fair. Not true at Colgate, FWIW.

The WASP LACs are a massive step above however. DS goes to Swarthmore and DD goes to Colby. The differences between the amount of time they spend on work is overwhelming.

I will acknowledge that Swat is different. It came off my DC’s list because of the student vibe we got when we visited. Culture is different than work, though, and I suspect even you would agree that there are many gradations of intensity between Swat and Colby.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are people not saying the t5 lacs? I see them as non-competitive Ivy-like schools, so it would fit since they’re pretty mellow

My DD is at Swarthmore. It is not mellow.

If Swat is mellow, UChicago must the bar.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Hamilton seems chill

Uhh, no. Those kids work really hard plus it is quite a tough admit. T15 lac for sure

Yeah. Chill compared to what? MIT? I guess. This notion by people who don’t really know anything about SLACs that there are only four places where academics are taken seriously is so tired. If by chill you mean Hamilton is a place where kids don’t have to apply to participate in exclusive clubs, that’s probably fair. Not true at Colgate, FWIW.

The WASP LACs are a massive step above however. DS goes to Swarthmore and DD goes to Colby. The differences between the amount of time they spend on work is overwhelming.

How many have you attended? Why do you think you know this?

I don't know this. We visited a lot of them, and they seem a lot alike, especially academically. There is no reason to rank or tier these schools. They are all small with lots of 1:1 teaching by great professors. None of them lack rigor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For what its worth,
check out US News Ranking for LACs
While Vassar is #16 its only because it is tied for that position with 4 other schools - so you could think of it as either #12 or #16, depending how you count.
Definitely top 20 which makes it pretty competitive.

There are 15 schools on the list ahead of that grouping. So Davidson, Hamilton, Harvey Mudd, Smith, and Vassar collectively take up spots 16-20.

And, if your kid isn’t interested in a military academy, these schools rank even higher.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:So far this thread has mentioned a bunch of LACs that are stressful and then other LACs that aren't even in the Northeast.

Why do you disagree with the post listing Bates, Skidmore, Mt Holyoke, and Conn College?

Bates doesn’t fit with the other 3. It’s academically rigorous.

The quintessential dcum response: don’t judge MY preferred LAC, but I’ll judge yours 🙄

What are you even talking about? Bates is rigorous, is that really being questioned right now? Naming a top lac and saying it'll be a "mellow" experience is ignorant.

Maybe I just like learning but I don’t think being more mellow necessarily means it lacks rigor. You don’t need a cut throat environment to learn at even a high level.

Bates is not a mellow place to go to college.

Bates isn't mellow. Here's why. It's insanely cold. It's in a rundown, dangerous little city. And it has almost no endowment. It keeps dropping in rankings.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Thanks for the inputs. So just want to summarize the consensus which of the following LACs are considered to have a more rigorous academic and possibly competitive vibe Versus a bit of a chiller academic vibe. Leaving out schools either not interested in or too hard to get into ( probably looking outside top 20) they are all really good schools so not trying to slight or over promote any schools. This is very helpful as a component of finding a good “fit”. not looking at hard sciences ,engineering or computer science. Not sure how hard to get into to these schools are either with the uncertainty of college applications but have to start somewhere. Will also check out St Joes and Fairfield

More rigorous academic vibe

Lafayette, Franklin and Marshall, Dickinson, Skidmore

Slightly Less rigorous or chiller academic vibe

Marist, Hobart and William Smith, St Lawrence , Ithaca , Muhlenberg, Gettysburg, Salve Regina?


Where would you put the academic vibe for Union, Connecticut College and Trinity College in this?

Having looked at all of these, I would put Conn College ahead of Skidmore for academics. Trinity’s a very good school as well but it has super fratty vibes. Those two are in the high end of “more rigorous academic vibes” The students we met at Union were disappointing. They didn’t seem motivated or bright.

Thanks!

Where would you put the academic vibe for Union, Connecticut College and Trinity College in this?
Correction
Having looked at all of these, I would put Conn College ahead of Skidmore for academics. Trinity’s a very good school as well but it has super fratty vibes. Those two are in the high end of “more rigorous academic vibes” The students we met at Union were disappointing. They didn’t seem motivated or bright.

Important to note that while Conn is in a neighborhood that's kinda sketchy, Trinity is in a neighborhood that's flat-out scary bad.

I agree, but Triniry actually is a beautiful campus-- and they take care of their buildings and campus.

Conn is dumpy. Looks like nothing has been updated in years. It's a downer. We spent a day there this fall and DC took it off his list. Trinity isn't his top choice, but it's definitely high on his list.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:So far this thread has mentioned a bunch of LACs that are stressful and then other LACs that aren't even in the Northeast.

Why do you disagree with the post listing Bates, Skidmore, Mt Holyoke, and Conn College?

Bates doesn’t fit with the other 3. It’s academically rigorous.

The quintessential dcum response: don’t judge MY preferred LAC, but I’ll judge yours 🙄

What are you even talking about? Bates is rigorous, is that really being questioned right now? Naming a top lac and saying it'll be a "mellow" experience is ignorant.

I’m not insulting Bates- I’m calling out you for insulting Skidmore, Mt Holyoke etc.

I have no connection with Bates, but it is lauded for academics more than the others. If every school is rigorous, no school is rigorous.

My kid looked at Bates, Skidmore and Conn College (along with predictable others)- I’d say none of these 3 seemed markedly different from the others in terms of academic offerings or vibe, and I would bet that there is a similar enough academic cohort. It’s just ridiculous to insult 3 colleges and laude another not appreciably different.

We also considered all four (including Mount Holyoke). Conn seemed sleepy, but all four are basically interchangeable academically.

TBH, if there is one with more rigorous academics than the others, it's Mount Holyoke.