Who is WASP (Williams, Amherst, Swat, Pomona) for?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Safety schools for Ivy students. I don't understand the purpose of the liberal arts colleges, other than this purpose-ivy league rejects, who need a separate system to show off how intelligent they are, while signaling an embarrassing, crippling self-esteem issue.

tremendous post - no one chooses Williams over an ivy, even cornell. The pretentiousness at Williams is overwhelming- big big chip on everyone’s shoulder about how it’s just as good as ivy. DC made it halfway thru tour, and we left. Wound up at Vandy and luving life -

But many many people do chose top LACs over ivies? Definitely more representative by percentage of pop than Vandy lmao.

Many, many? That isn’t even possible given how few kids actually attend the four lacs under discussion.

Many for their populations, sure. Do you need a certain quota for it to be significant enough for you or what? It just seems really weird to pose that top LACs are ivy reject schools to then bring up and boost an alternative ivy reject school. DP.

let me put it a different way - no one on earth has every uttered the following phrase “I turned down Williams for *** ivy” - and do you know why? because kids who actually choose to attend ivies never see Williams as an alternative, and never struggled with that decision. Same can’t be said for 90%+ Williams undergrads. Every athlete - which makes up between 35%-40% of the population at Williams - would have attended an ivy if they were good enough and recruited by and offered a spot by an ivy coach - that’s just a fact

But it’s literally not a fact.

I know right?
It depends on the ivy.
I don't think there are a lot of kids at WASP that wouldn't prefer to go to Yale or Princeton. But I can see some of them picking WASP over Cornell. Cornell is a huge school.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Safety schools for Ivy students. I don't understand the purpose of the liberal arts colleges, other than this purpose-ivy league rejects, who need a separate system to show off how intelligent they are, while signaling an embarrassing, crippling self-esteem issue.

tremendous post - no one chooses Williams over an ivy, even cornell. The pretentiousness at Williams is overwhelming- big big chip on everyone’s shoulder about how it’s just as good as ivy. DC made it halfway thru tour, and we left. Wound up at Vandy and luving life -

But many many people do chose top LACs over ivies? Definitely more representative by percentage of pop than Vandy lmao.

Many, many? That isn’t even possible given how few kids actually attend the four lacs under discussion.

Many for their populations, sure. Do you need a certain quota for it to be significant enough for you or what? It just seems really weird to pose that top LACs are ivy reject schools to then bring up and boost an alternative ivy reject school. DP.

let me put it a different way - no one on earth has every uttered the following phrase “I turned down Williams for *** ivy” - and do you know why? because kids who actually choose to attend ivies never see Williams as an alternative, and never struggled with that decision. Same can’t be said for 90%+ Williams undergrads. Every athlete - which makes up between 35%-40% of the population at Williams - would have attended an ivy if they were good enough and recruited by and offered a spot by an ivy coach - that’s just a fact

But it’s literally not a fact.

I know right?
It depends on the ivy.
I don't think there are a lot of kids at WASP that wouldn't prefer to go to Yale or Princeton. But I can see some of them picking WASP over Cornell. Cornell is a huge school.

Some kids visit one of these schools and just fall in love - as with my kid, who graduated with a 4.0, high rigor, 1580 SAT, from a very prestigious private school. She had three Ivy legacies between her two parents and assumed she would pick one of those to apply early to, until she visited Williams and suddenly didn't want to spend her four years of undergrad anywhere else. While it's true that many kids chase the "brand name" of Ivy+, and I totally get why they do, others decidedly do not and I think it's kind of silly to assume everyone has the exact same priorities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:this is the weirdest thread ever. someone on here hates the most competitive, single digit admit SLACs and is rage-baiting these responses, it's bizarre.

Agreed. I'll never understand why some people here hold such crazy strong opinions about any particular college or kind of college (LAC, public, Ivy, etc.). Williams, Vandy, Cornell, Cal, etc.? They're all supremely fantastic schools.

I have found all the nastiness to be a cautionary tale about setting too high a value on prestige. When your decisions are motivated strongly by how others perceive you, it’s easy to become stuck in an endless loop of creating distinctions — often between things that are more similar than they are different.

Every school mentioned in this thread is fantastic. A kid would be mind-blowingly fortunate to attend any of them. They can also go literally anywhere from all of them. How great is that?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Safety schools for Ivy students. I don't understand the purpose of the liberal arts colleges, other than this purpose-ivy league rejects, who need a separate system to show off how intelligent they are, while signaling an embarrassing, crippling self-esteem issue.

tremendous post - no one chooses Williams over an ivy, even cornell. The pretentiousness at Williams is overwhelming- big big chip on everyone’s shoulder about how it’s just as good as ivy. DC made it halfway thru tour, and we left. Wound up at Vandy and luving life -

But many many people do chose top LACs over ivies? Definitely more representative by percentage of pop than Vandy lmao.

Many, many? That isn’t even possible given how few kids actually attend the four lacs under discussion.

Many for their populations, sure. Do you need a certain quota for it to be significant enough for you or what? It just seems really weird to pose that top LACs are ivy reject schools to then bring up and boost an alternative ivy reject school. DP.

let me put it a different way - no one on earth has every uttered the following phrase “I turned down Williams for *** ivy” - and do you know why? because kids who actually choose to attend ivies never see Williams as an alternative, and never struggled with that decision. Same can’t be said for 90%+ Williams undergrads. Every athlete - which makes up between 35%-40% of the population at Williams - would have attended an ivy if they were good enough and recruited by and offered a spot by an ivy coach - that’s just a fact

Nope.

[Anonymous]

Good for the brightest students who want the best college education and also need aid. Mine chose one of them over a T10 university and couldn’t be happier. 68% of that class received some aid. WASP is much more generous than you think.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Good for the brightest students who want the best college education and also need aid. Mine chose one of them over a T10 university and couldn’t be happier. 68% of that class received some aid. WASP is much more generous than you think.

Yep. For us, Williams was less than half the cost of Yale. The other WASP schools were also significantly cheaper.

Also, I know that this forum doesn't always focus on the actual education one receives in college, but the breadth and depth of what one learns at a top LAC is as good as it gets in undergrad.

[Anonymous]

Ivy rejects.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Safety schools for Ivy students. I don't understand the purpose of the liberal arts colleges, other than this purpose-ivy league rejects, who need a separate system to show off how intelligent they are, while signaling an embarrassing, crippling self-esteem issue.

tremendous post - no one chooses Williams over an ivy, even cornell. The pretentiousness at Williams is overwhelming- big big chip on everyone’s shoulder about how it’s just as good as ivy. DC made it halfway thru tour, and we left. Wound up at Vandy and luving life -

But many many people do chose top LACs over ivies? Definitely more representative by percentage of pop than Vandy lmao.

Many, many? That isn’t even possible given how few kids actually attend the four lacs under discussion.

Many for their populations, sure. Do you need a certain quota for it to be significant enough for you or what? It just seems really weird to pose that top LACs are ivy reject schools to then bring up and boost an alternative ivy reject school. DP.

let me put it a different way - no one on earth has every uttered the following phrase “I turned down Williams for *** ivy” - and do you know why? because kids who actually choose to attend ivies never see Williams as an alternative, and never struggled with that decision. Same can’t be said for 90%+ Williams undergrads. Every athlete - which makes up between 35%-40% of the population at Williams - would have attended an ivy if they were good enough and recruited by and offered a spot by an ivy coach - that’s just a fact

But it’s literally not a fact.

I know right?
It depends on the ivy.
I don't think there are a lot of kids at WASP that wouldn't prefer to go to Yale or Princeton. But I can see some of them picking WASP over Cornell. Cornell is a huge school.

This is my kid. He isn’t applying to Cornell or Columbia, but is applying to all the other Ivies, Williams and Amherst. Also applying to some slightly less competitive schools in the 5,000 to 10,000 student range. Thinks Williams might be too small for him, but was very impressed with the option to take tutorials.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:this is the weirdest thread ever. someone on here hates the most competitive, single digit admit SLACs and is rage-baiting these responses, it's bizarre.

+1

Or is just stirring the pot to get off. Boring

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Safety schools for Ivy students. I don't understand the purpose of the liberal arts colleges, other than this purpose-ivy league rejects, who need a separate system to show off how intelligent they are, while signaling an embarrassing, crippling self-esteem issue.

tremendous post - no one chooses Williams over an ivy, even cornell. The pretentiousness at Williams is overwhelming- big big chip on everyone’s shoulder about how it’s just as good as ivy. DC made it halfway thru tour, and we left. Wound up at Vandy and luving life -

But many many people do chose top LACs over ivies? Definitely more representative by percentage of pop than Vandy lmao.

Many, many? That isn’t even possible given how few kids actually attend the four lacs under discussion.

Many for their populations, sure. Do you need a certain quota for it to be significant enough for you or what? It just seems really weird to pose that top LACs are ivy reject schools to then bring up and boost an alternative ivy reject school. DP.

let me put it a different way - no one on earth has every uttered the following phrase “I turned down Williams for *** ivy” - and do you know why? because kids who actually choose to attend ivies never see Williams as an alternative, and never struggled with that decision. Same can’t be said for 90%+ Williams undergrads. Every athlete - which makes up between 35%-40% of the population at Williams - would have attended an ivy if they were good enough and recruited by and offered a spot by an ivy coach - that’s just a fact

But it’s literally not a fact.

I know right?
It depends on the ivy.
I don't think there are a lot of kids at WASP that wouldn't prefer to go to Yale or Princeton. But I can see some of them picking WASP over Cornell. Cornell is a huge school.

This is my kid. He isn’t applying to Cornell or Columbia, but is applying to all the other Ivies, Williams and Amherst. Also applying to some slightly less competitive schools in the 5,000 to 10,000 student range. Thinks Williams might be too small for him, but was very impressed with the option to take tutorials.

Tutorials are not that much of a benefit, especially if in stem, where specialized coursework in fields outside your own are just…fluff courses.

[Anonymous]

I literally know a kid at Williams right now who chose it over HYP. Maybe you can’t imagine doing that? Which is fine, good on ya, whatever. But the whole “that’s just a fact” thing isn’t…factual.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Safety schools for Ivy students. I don't understand the purpose of the liberal arts colleges, other than this purpose-ivy league rejects, who need a separate system to show off how intelligent they are, while signaling an embarrassing, crippling self-esteem issue.

tremendous post - no one chooses Williams over an ivy, even cornell. The pretentiousness at Williams is overwhelming- big big chip on everyone’s shoulder about how it’s just as good as ivy. DC made it halfway thru tour, and we left. Wound up at Vandy and luving life -

But many many people do chose top LACs over ivies? Definitely more representative by percentage of pop than Vandy lmao.

Many, many? That isn’t even possible given how few kids actually attend the four lacs under discussion.

Many for their populations, sure. Do you need a certain quota for it to be significant enough for you or what? It just seems really weird to pose that top LACs are ivy reject schools to then bring up and boost an alternative ivy reject school. DP.

let me put it a different way - no one on earth has every uttered the following phrase “I turned down Williams for *** ivy” - and do you know why? because kids who actually choose to attend ivies never see Williams as an alternative, and never struggled with that decision. Same can’t be said for 90%+ Williams undergrads. Every athlete - which makes up between 35%-40% of the population at Williams - would have attended an ivy if they were good enough and recruited by and offered a spot by an ivy coach - that’s just a fact

But it’s literally not a fact.

I know right?
It depends on the ivy.
I don't think there are a lot of kids at WASP that wouldn't prefer to go to Yale or Princeton. But I can see some of them picking WASP over Cornell. Cornell is a huge school.

Not everyone is obsessed with Harvard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ivy rejects.

No cure for the stupid which ails you.

[Anonymous]

Back in the 90s I chose Swarthmore over Princeton and Brown. I liked the size and the undergrad focus and the campus and the politics and the Quaker vibe. And I probably sort of enjoyed saying no to Ivies in a perverse way. I am not sure what I would choose if I had to do it over again. In any case I went to an Ivy for grad school so got that credential eventually fwiw.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I literally know a kid at Williams right now who chose it over HYP. Maybe you can’t imagine doing that? Which is fine, good on ya, whatever. But the whole “that’s just a fact” thing isn’t…factual.

+1

I know a kid who chose Williams over Stanford and another who chose Middlebury over MIT.