Reply to Top ranked LACs vs top ranked universities

Forum Index » College and University Discussion

Reply to "Top ranked LACs vs top ranked universities"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]So I'm guessing you're a high schooler really concerned about having the best or rating yourself the best.  Just realize that the best for you is different than the best for someone else. And nothing makes you better than another human being.

1) The best students in the country are not limited to National Merit Scholars. If so, they wouldn't have sub-20% acceptance rates at the elite colleges.

2) Faculty choose where they go as much as they colleges choose faculty. Some want to teach.  They may be better at teaching than the best academic researcher.  There are 700+ students in Mankiw's Econ 10a at Harvard. Is introductory microeconomics better with 700 students or 20?

3) Look at where the top LAC professors got their PhDs.  Entry/funding into a graduate program has more to do with who your mentor is than your GREs.  They need to know you well enough to vouch for you to their friends, peers, and mentors. It can be a lot easier at a LAC.

4) You don't take 20 classes every year in your major. You take 8-10 in total.  A slimmer set of course offerings may mean stronger fundamentals rather than too narrow specialization.

5) Only a small number of big companies do major on-campus recruiting. That's the path for 2 year analysts on Wall Street and glorified temp work at consulting firms - and they all go to the elite LACs. The most interesting jobs aren't going to those.

6) Yield is largely driven by the school's admissions strategy.  LACs just aren't/can't play the ED game to goose their USNWR ranking the way the larger schools do.

7) All the elite schools are comparatively wealthy, progressive communities of students and faculty.  It's just harder to dismiss people for who they are in a community of just a few hundred students.

8) Every college is a bubble of hormonal adolescents. Being in a big city does not change that at all. 
[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics