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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I've never really paid attention to SLACs for my kid because of two concerns, but I wonder if they are justified.

1. My current junior is very undecided in terms of major or career path, and so it seems like a larger university would have more options once her direction becomes clearer.  I'm certain she won't be interested in engineering, so there's no need for an engineering school.  But generally speaking, it seems like larger schools would have a broader and deeper set of majors.

2. I'm wondering about the process of getting a job at graduation.  I'm not questioning the quality of the schools.  But large schools have tons of employers coming to campus for on-campus interviews.  And it may even matter in terms of internships and that kind of thing, given that a large school with more infrastructure for career services would be beneficial.  (I have an older kid (current sophomore) at a lower ivy and she has had a ton of summer internship interviews -- and I get the impressing that many of those firms have a list of schools they draw from.)

If your kid is at a SLAC, have you found the above to be challenging, or am I overthinking things?  [/quote]

I think your first point is a valid one.  My DS knew from day one he would be going to law school.  So it really was just about finding a major that interested him and getting good grades.  For someone who is not at all sure what career path to go down, certainly more majors and areas of study makes sense.

The second point on its face may seem valid as well.  But there is a lot of nuance here.  First, many (the majority) of families at top SLACs come from a fair amount of money/connections.  My son got a job after law school as a paralegal from a family friend's law firm (he could have had dozen or so other offers from other friends).  It was also amazing to be able to tap into my son's friends' family network.  My son played on the lacrosse team in college and his friends families were providing opportunities to him that were mind boggling.  Also, at a SLAC, the professors seem to take an active interest in helping their students land plum after college jobs.  There was on econ prof who seems to always get his econ students internships which lead to jobs at top finance firms.  Finally, the career center at the SLACs go out of their way to make sure their grads are gainfully employed with offers preferably before graduation.  I know all career centers do.  But when you have a graduating senior class of 400 or so, the attention one gets is much more intense/focused.

Anyway, my 2 cents.  All in all things worked out for my son.  But all that said, there were certainly times I wondered whether going the SLAC v large university was the right choice.[/quote]

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