Reply to What Schools Do You Consider “Prestigious?”

Forum Index » College and University Discussion

Reply to "What Schools Do You Consider “Prestigious?”"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I think you get a pass for Wiliams and Amherst. But otherwise SLACs aren't really taken seriously [/quote]

What do you think makes the education one receives at a SLAC different from an Ivy League school which I presume you think people take seriously? Like is an Econ degree at Swarthmore bs while it’s serious business at Brown? [/quote]

30 or 40 years ago I might have understood what you mean. The leaders and people making hiring decisions back then that went to Harvard may not have heard of most LACs but with the major changes in college admissions since the late 80s, nearly everyone who attended an elite school is well aware of the other top schools. People at Stanford know Pomona is a great school and people at Harvard and Yale know Swarthmore and Amherst well.
[/quote]

30 years ago when the high school population was at a generational low it was pretty easy for a solid student to get into a LAC while ivies were more competitive and only the top of the class got in (but they could get in without a hook, just excellent grades and scores). Now in order to get into an Ivy you need all that plus hooks and same goes for top 5/10 SLACs. When you go down the SLAC list the need to have a hook declines but the basic academic credentials basically hangs in there, with more tolerance of imperfections. So there is less disparity in terms of the academic caliber of the students than there used to be. [/quote]

I don't think you know actually what you are talking about TBH. It sounds pretty good though![/quote]

Well I got into HYP almost exactly 30 years ago, and know where my high school friends landed, and the background of my college classmates, and I just lived through my DD’s application cycle with all her friends, and I’ve studied all the CDS data… so actually I think I have a pretty good grip on this.  [/quote]

Did she end up picking your alma mater with the hook? 
I like the credentialism too. Does specifically getting into HYP help your argument?
Your mention of the CDS data is good but the other anecdotal evidence is what gets people in trouble spreading info on forums.[/quote]

Didn’t apply to Alma mater. I don’t know what your objection is. I personally lived through the process of applying to elite schools both 30 years ago and today. No one doubts it was much easier to get in anywhere 30 years ago. My contention that there is less differentiation among students at top schools is uncontroversial because we know there are many more highly qualified applicants now and they all have to land somewhere.  If you simply looked at SAT scores, LACs 30 years ago were materially lower than HYP. Like hundreds of points, not 50 points. My unhooked high school peers got into Ivies and similar left and right. I remember one guy who wasn’t even a top student being depressed he only got into Brown. A/B students with 1300s got into Wellesley and Williams and Carleton. It was a different era. You can write anything off as anecdotal but when you have tons of firsthand knowledge of who got in and what their profile was, it’s meaningful. Now we have kids with straight As and near perfect test scores getting rejected left and right from all Ivies and top 20 schools, often landing at schools like Wesleyan or Wisconsin. [/quote]

My high school AP American History class (in 1992, say about 30 kids) in a public NYC high school that was not Stuy or Bronx Science or BK Tech had FIVE Harvard admits and two of them turned it down in favor of Stanford.

That’s one class, not the whole senior class cohort.

[/quote]

Lol. But it’s anecdotal! I got into Y and P merely because I had straight As and a 1500. Maybe my essays and recs were good. Nowadays I would be lucky if I got into Michigan [/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