Reply to Should LACs no longer be considered the model of excellence?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I think the fact that some 80%+ of graduates at many LACs end up attending graduate school is pretty telling of the intellectual vibe they have. I'm not saying that's necessarily a good thing. But when I think of intellectualism, I think of grad school and academia, and the LACs are over-represented there.

The difference in assignments between top universities/LACs and others is striking- just see the chart in this article: http://daily.swarthmore.edu/2015/10/23/how-hard-is-swarthmore/ Obviously not a perfect metric, but it goes to show the level of expectation and detail these top colleges require.[/quote]

80% isn't grad school per se, it's mostly professional schools.  And undergrads/their families go in with that plan -- college won't render me job-ready for the kind of career I want, so what I'm looking is the school that gets me into a good JD/MD/MBA program which I anticipate being able to afford.  So I need a good GPA and connections/prestigious name.  And maybe good advising to shepherd me through the process. (Will need good test scores too, but that's not about undergrad education).

Interesting thing about the article you cite is that the average writing workload in a semester-long writing-based course is 18.6 pages.  And that's Swarthmore, which is considered one of the most (if not the most) intellectually demanding LAC.  So no, not a big difference in amounts of writing involved.  As I've already said, I don't think that that's necessarily a good metric, but it makes me question the LACs-make-kids-write-more claim.  [/quote]

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