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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The early decision cycle was not great for Sidwell and several parents were aggressively rude to the college placement office. And then one parent made an anonymous phone call to a college dean of admissions to undermine a classmate competing against his DC.

No way Sidwell pays college counselors enough to deal with the crazy parents[/quote]

Early decision was not good for Holton either.

These private schools grade so hard, don’t offer AP’s, and just hope their name is enough to get kids in. But publics are offering dual enrollments, magnets, IB diplomas and tons of AP’s. Plus they inflate grades. It is really hard for private schools to keep up, especially now that many kids want big schools like Mich, Wisconsin, USC, UCLA, etc... over Williams and Amherst. I think social media has had a big influence on kids deciding SLAC’s are pretty boring. [/quote]

Yes, we’re not at Sidwell, but are seeing the same thing at our school. I have no doubt my son is at the right school, but college admissions will be a disappointment. [/quote]

Also not at Holton or Sidwell, but seeing the same at our private. I completely agree about private kids wanting public universities or urban schools over small liberal arts schools in tiny towns. I think it has a lot to do with price. Once you drop from from top 10 SLACs and Ivy, is the cost worth it? Save for the masters is the motto around our school. Even the rich families. The sad thing is not only is it affecting admissions for the private school kids, but these small colleges are struggling to keep up filled classes for admissions.

I also don’t think privates are doing enough in STEM and kids are having a tough time getting into MIT, GT, Cal Tech, now more than ever before. Small private high schools and private colleges have a tough time keeping up with publcs in advancement of stem classes, facilities, and research.

I loved my child going to private. That he had to work hard just to achieve a 90.  That he learned how to write well, speak in class, and have a lot of personal growth and opportunity. But I am starting to realize that a 3.7 UW from his private doesn’t mean as much as it did 4 years ago. [/quote]

Is the lack of interest in SLACs driven by the hyper-liberal and social justice warrior attitude associated with these places?  My SLAC alma mater cited a “tense campus climate” as a reason for lower enrollment but I don’t really know what that means![/quote]

I don't have all the stats with me but I would hypothesize that a big change is the growth in popularity of the urban campuses and urban environments. In the 1980s most American cities were pretty nasty places. NYC was crime ridden, same for Philadelphia and Chicago. It definitely affected the desirability of places like Penn or Chicago. The happening urban neighborhoods were much smaller and fewer in numbers. But the cities started to clean up their act in the 1990s and that's when the popularity of urban campuses really started to skyrocket.

Another poster commented on cost factors. It's sort of hard to justify spending nearly 80k a year for a LAC degree, especially one that's not one of the top five. No matter how good it is or how beautiful the campus is. With the Ivies at least you have the amazing name recognition and vastly more impressive campus facilities and resources. And the big state schools offer a lot of the same resources, huge selection of courses and majors, huge libraries, innumerable clubs. A bright student can really thrive off those. So why pick a much smaller and limited LAC? They do have their advantages, but the advantages start to pale as the costs start to mount.

And perhaps the social justice warrior atmosphere hurts the LACs more because they are much smaller schools. I don't think most LAC students are SJW but it's easier for a small handful of angry students to dominate and ruin the campus atmosphere and the classes. At a big school there's plenty of room for both the SJW and the more relaxed students. They can ignore each other easily. And, based on what I've seen, the big state schools pander less to the SJWs because structurally it's more difficult for them to do so. But the small LACs can easily become hostage.

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