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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Is it just me or does it seem like this school's stock has been rising lately?[/quote]

I'd agree. Ages ago in the late 1980s nobody from the Cathedral schools applied.  I hadn't even heard of Davidson back then.[/quote]

That must have changed fairly soon after you graduated then. I actually know 4 people who graduated from the Cathedral schools in the 1990s who went to Davidson (& I didn't even go to NCS or Davidson!).[/quote]

Agreed. Was looking at colleges in the early 1990s and plenty of people were interested in Davidson. In those days it had acceptance rates around 35-40%, I believe. Which was considered competitive by LAC standards. It was known as a very good LAC and popular with upper middle class kids looking for a low key, relaxed atmosphere with better weather than the Maine LACs.

All the top 25 or so LACs are [b]just as well known today as they were 25 years ago[/b]. It's a self-selective pool, heavily dominated by upper middle class kids from suburban publics and private schools. [/quote]

I have to disagree with this. 25 years ago, most LACs were bastions for, as you mentioned, white upper middle class/upper class kids from U.S. private schools. They were not known for diversity, and their international percent was basically 0. Today, some of the most diverse colleges in the U.S. (https://www.niche.com/colleges/search/most-diverse-colleges/) are LACs, with 3 making the top 6! Some of the top LACs have at least 23% low-income Pell Grant students, as well as many low-income international/undocumented students who can't get Pell Grants. Williams has a whopping 90 countries represented among current students. At most top LACs, some 50-60% of students get financial aid. Not to mention the huge shifts downward in acceptance rate and upward in app numbers. The Common App and the prominence of rankings played a large role in the decreasing acceptance rates, but there's no doubt that LACs today are more well-known and targeted by a more diverse group of students than they were in the past. [/quote]

I'm sure the LACs are a bit more diverse today (on the whole, let's not confuse some exceptions like Oberlin with the rest) but in my day in the 1990s they did have international students - some if not many, and already a decent enough minority population). I don't doubt there's been a lot of outreach by the LACs to different types of students but they remain heavily dominated by the upper middle classes (you can still be upper middle class and get financial aid). The 50-60% receiving financial aid seems comparable to my day in the 1990s. [/quote]

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