SLACs for intellectual, well grounded student

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Completely avoid Southern SLACs (Washington & Lee, Davidson). These schools are focused more on college societies and events than academics.

Generally mid-tier SLACS should be avoided(i.e. Sarah Lawrence). Generally these are filled with mediocre upper-middle class/wealthy kids. But sometimes very good schools are unjustifiably ranked low (i.e. Reed, Oberlin)

Completely ignore commentary on SLACs at DCUM. The standard poster is just pulling crap out of her ass.

Oh, you think Washington & Lee is intellectual or well-grounded?

Relying on any DCUM poster's judgement on an institution's intellectuality or groundedness is laughable. Your original comment was just a useless generalization. And no, I'm not associated with W&L in any way.

[Anonymous]

OP my niece graduated from Carlton in 2019. Sounds just like your DD. Major Cognitive Psychology. Excellent choice.

Wesleyan University is much harder to get into. First-hand experience excellent school, money, and entitlement are beyond comparison to Carlton. It's a great school but given your description no not a good fit. Think people whose kids have never been to Disney because they don't lower themselves to the masses. My DH family LOL two nieces, and two nephews attended. Great education, but fit not so much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Completely avoid Southern SLACs (Washington & Lee, Davidson). These schools are focused more on college societies and events than academics.

Generally mid-tier SLACS should be avoided(i.e. Sarah Lawrence). Generally these are filled with mediocre upper-middle class/wealthy kids. But sometimes very good schools are unjustifiably ranked low (i.e. Reed, Oberlin)

Completely avoid internet morons like this.

It's unfortunate you sent your child to W&L by just looking at the rankings, but its a school for drinking events, not academics.

Yes mine did go to W&L. She is now in the third year of her doctoral program. Had a great experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP my niece graduated from Carlton in 2019. Sounds just like your DD. Major Cognitive Psychology. Excellent choice.

Wesleyan University is much harder to get into. First-hand experience excellent school, money, and entitlement are beyond comparison to Carlton. It's a great school but given your description no not a good fit. Think people whose kids have never been to Disney because they don't lower themselves to the masses. My DH family LOL two nieces, and two nephews attended. Great education, but fit not so much.

Thank you. Helpful on both fronts.

[Anonymous]

Both Carleton and Wesleyan are very difficult to get into, it is splitting hairs to say one is more competitive than the other. It’s like saying that Carleton is often higher ranked in USNWR, again that is splitting hairs.

[Anonymous]

Wesleyan is far less isolated and has more diversity and a great music and arts scene. It depends what’s important to your kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Completely avoid Southern SLACs (Washington & Lee, Davidson). These schools are focused more on college societies and events than academics.

Generally mid-tier SLACS should be avoided(i.e. Sarah Lawrence). Generally these are filled with mediocre upper-middle class/wealthy kids. But sometimes very good schools are unjustifiably ranked low (i.e. Reed, Oberlin)

Completely avoid internet morons like this.

It's unfortunate you sent your child to W&L by just looking at the rankings, but its a school for drinking events, not academics.

Yes mine did go to W&L. She is now in the third year of her doctoral program. Had a great experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP my niece graduated from Carlton in 2019. Sounds just like your DD. Major Cognitive Psychology. Excellent choice.

Wesleyan University is much harder to get into. First-hand experience excellent school, money, and entitlement are beyond comparison to Carlton. It's a great school but given your description no not a good fit. Think people whose kids have never been to Disney because they don't lower themselves to the masses. My DH family LOL two nieces, and two nephews attended. Great education, but fit not so much.

Great school.


I always admired the school and folks I knew that attended were always quite bright.

Went on a tour with my DS.

My son called the students Slytherins. He wanted to leave the tour at the break. Students were bright but I sensed their accomplishments were not as great as their arrogance.

Again - great reputation. Graduates will be respected but I walked away thinking they were a bunch of little sh$ts.

Take it for what it’s worth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP my niece graduated from Carlton in 2019. Sounds just like your DD. Major Cognitive Psychology. Excellent choice.

Wesleyan University is much harder to get into. First-hand experience excellent school, money, and entitlement are beyond comparison to Carlton. It's a great school but given your description no not a good fit. Think people whose kids have never been to Disney because they don't lower themselves to the masses. My DH family LOL two nieces, and two nephews attended. Great education, but fit not so much.

Great school.


I always admired the school and folks I knew that attended were always quite bright.

Went on a tour with my DS.

My son called the students Slytherins. He wanted to leave the tour at the break. Students were bright but I sensed their accomplishments were not as great as their arrogance.

Again - great reputation. Graduates will be respected but I walked away thinking they were a bunch of little sh$ts.

Take it for what it’s worth.

Is this forum a place where we can make gigantic and profane judgements of people with very little interaction and justification?

If so, would anyone like to guess what my contribution is?

[Anonymous]

And I’m the PP and one of our best visits was to W&L. DD met a very gracious, lovely young student in line at the dining hall - just a great interaction and experience. Did a great job representing the school.

Again just an internet anecdote. Take it for what it’s worth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP my niece graduated from Carlton in 2019. Sounds just like your DD. Major Cognitive Psychology. Excellent choice.

Wesleyan University is much harder to get into. First-hand experience excellent school, money, and entitlement are beyond comparison to Carlton. It's a great school but given your description no not a good fit. Think people whose kids have never been to Disney because they don't lower themselves to the masses. My DH family LOL two nieces, and two nephews attended. Great education, but fit not so much.

Great school.


I always admired the school and folks I knew that attended were always quite bright.

Went on a tour with my DS.

My son called the students Slytherins. He wanted to leave the tour at the break. Students were bright but I sensed their accomplishments were not as great as their arrogance.

Again - great reputation. Graduates will be respected but I walked away thinking they were a bunch of little sh$ts.

Take it for what it’s worth.

Is this forum a place where we can make gigantic and profane judgements of people with very little interaction and justification?

If so, would anyone like to guess what my contribution is?

I’m gonna go with yes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP my niece graduated from Carlton in 2019. Sounds just like your DD. Major Cognitive Psychology. Excellent choice.

Wesleyan University is much harder to get into. First-hand experience excellent school, money, and entitlement are beyond comparison to Carlton. It's a great school but given your description no not a good fit. Think people whose kids have never been to Disney because they don't lower themselves to the masses. My DH family LOL two nieces, and two nephews attended. Great education, but fit not so much.

Great school.


I always admired the school and folks I knew that attended were always quite bright.

Went on a tour with my DS.

My son called the students Slytherins. He wanted to leave the tour at the break. Students were bright but I sensed their accomplishments were not as great as their arrogance.

Again - great reputation. Graduates will be respected but I walked away thinking they were a bunch of little sh$ts.

Take it for what it’s worth.

I love this comparison! No idea if it is true . However, a great thread would be - insert the SLACs that best represent each of the Hogwarts houses! I’ll go first ...

Gryffindor - Middlebury and Davidson
Slytherin - Amhert and Wesleyan (based on pp- haha)
Hufflepuff - Carleton and Bates
Ravenclaw - Williams and Swat

[Anonymous]

Take a look at Rhodes College - it is in Memphis, but not “southern” like some others. Looking to the west coast, consider Whitman in Washington and Willamette in Oregon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And I’m the PP and one of our best visits was to W&L. DD met a very gracious, lovely young student in line at the dining hall - just a great interaction and experience. Did a great job representing the school.

Again just an internet anecdote. Take it for what it’s worth.

I’m OP and not much. W&L is not on the table. Nor are an Southern SLACs. My kid has significant ongoing exposure to the South and is not interested in going that way. Despite my encouragement she consider Davidson. And is looking for no Greek, not a huge party culture. So, I’m sure W&L is great for some kids. But, nit this kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^^ sorry, SL is Sarah Lawrence, came off because of concerns about the financial health of the school

Ideas:

- University of Rochester. <I don’t think size is a big deal at a good private research university; her classes will mostly be small. She can get as close to the professors as she wants; they aren’t (mostly) going to bite.

- Leiden University’s international relations program in the The Hague.

- Middlebury.

- Wesleyan. (Look at what the alumni do after college.)

Also: I’d try not to take SJW or creepy fraternity horror stories too seriously. There were stories like that about most of the schools we went to while we were in college, and, for most of us, the events or trends involved were something we learned about from the articles, not because they affected us.