Reply to Why apply to an Oberlin/Kenyon/Grinnell

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]when there are similar schools on the East Coast? Not trying to be snarky; genuinely wondering what these schools have that a Bates/Bowdoin/Colby/Hamilton does not. [/quote]

They are all safer than Bates.

They are all easier admits than Bowdoin.

They all offer merit scholarships that are not offered at Hamilton.

Better weather.

Better environments for ultra liberals and LGBTQ+.[/quote]

They are safer than NE SLACs only because of their location.  If Oberlin/Kenyon/Grinnell could pick up and move to NE, their competitors would be Harvard/Yale/Princeton.  Alternatively, if Harvard/Yale/Princeton could pick up and move to Ohio or Iowa, they wouldn't be what they are. [/quote]

Maybe a bit of an overstatement but the key point is the inconvenient location relative to the vast majority of potential customers is the reason admission is not as hyper-competitive versus some New England peers.  Imagine two restaurants of identical quality, but one is 20 minutes outside the city.  The one that is outside the city will be much easier to get a table at.  Doesn't mean it's worse.  It could even be better.  Because there is such a supply/demand imbalance for the New England LACs, they have to reject, more or less arbitrarily, tons of highly qualified applicants, just for lack of space.  So the reality is the fact that their acceptance rates are much lower doesn't translate into a significantly higher quality student body, versus other LACs which are not quite as overwhelmed with applicants. The most reliable indicator of student quality is test score data, not acceptance rates.

While the midwestern LACs are competitively disadvantaged by their remoteness from the east coast population centers, this is somewhat offset by their proximity to the midwestern population centers as well as their use of merit aid to lure top east coast students westward. It's also a marginally shorter and maybe more convenient flight from the west coast.  For example, it can be quite difficult to get to Maine from California.  So these schools end up attracting a surprisingly large number of kids from the west coast, which doesn't have enough good LACs to satisfy demand.[/quote]

True. Chicago is a huge population center, and Omaha, the Twin Cities, Detroit, Kansas City, Cleveland, etc. are also sizable. And as you say, a lot of wealthy kids from the West Coast, Hawaii, and the Mountain West end up at Midwestern schools. DC met several kids from LA, the Bay Area, Seattle, Denver, and Hawaii at Grinnell. On my last trip to Hawaii, some of the locals I spoke to were planning to send their kids to "excellent liberal arts colleges" in the Midwest. I asked how their kids would feel about exchanging Hawaii's climate for that of the Midwest, and they said their kids wanted a complete change of scenery and a new experience and felt they could get a more comprehensive education "off island." One of DC's friends is back in Hawaii, surfing and swimming, but says he wouldn't change his Midwest experience for anything. [/quote]

California is the third largest state for Kenyon students, behind NY and Ohio. I think around 10% of the student body.
[/quote]

That doesn't surprise me. I worked in coastal California for a couple of years, and I loved visiting the Midwest, where there was WATER. I loved the rivers, lakes, ponds, and greenery. I even loved the rain! By comparison, California was bone-dry, dusty, and brown. [/quote]

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