Anonymous wrote:No, I’m not talking Denison or Kenyon or Knox or St. John’s. My kid is interested in schools like Northland College, Green Mountain College, Berry College.

I went to one of those schools! I'm immensely thankful my parents were willing to think a bit outside the box and even encourage me to explore a somewhat non-traditional school.

Anonymous wrote:I have only vaguely heard of Green Mountain College. Looking it up now, I see its highly specialized in environmental studies. It looks charming and like a really thoughtful place to study, if that makes any sense. And OOS tuition is $35k.

The only thing that would give me pause is the 66% acceptance rate. That is high and I have a mental ceiling of about 45% acceptance rate (UMD)and a preference for the 6-26% acceptance rate college choices. Yes, I base a huge amount of credibility in that statistic and don't adhere to the "there are many excellent colleges" cry- out because I don't believe that at all.

Walmart acceptance rate is below Harvard's at <3%. http://time.com/43750/walmart-acceptance-rate-lower-than-harvards/

These schools are mostly self selecting. Their acceptance rate tends to be high for this reason.

Anonymous wrote:I have only vaguely heard of Green Mountain College. Looking it up now, I see its highly specialized in environmental studies. It looks charming and like a really thoughtful place to study, if that makes any sense. And OOS tuition is $35k.

The only thing that would give me pause is the 66% acceptance rate. That is high and I have a mental ceiling of about 45% acceptance rate (UMD)and a preference for the 6-26% acceptance rate college choices. Yes, I base a huge amount of credibility in that statistic and don't adhere to the "there are many excellent colleges" cry- out because I don't believe that at all.

Do you have any understanding of how easy it is to manipulate acceptance rate? All you need is more applications. Using acceptance rate as a metric for quality is massively stupid.

I have only vaguely heard of Green Mountain College. Looking it up now, I see its highly specialized in environmental studies. It looks charming and like a really thoughtful place to study, if that makes any sense. And OOS tuition is $35k.

The only thing that would give me pause is the 66% acceptance rate. That is high and I have a mental ceiling of about 45% acceptance rate (UMD)and a preference for the 6-26% acceptance rate college choices. Yes, I base a huge amount of credibility in that statistic and don't adhere to the "there are many excellent colleges" cry- out because I don't believe that at all.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All the schools you mentioned are Christian. Does your kid have a particular desire to attend a Christian SLAC? Not criticizing that choice, but it’s just a possible explanation.

Northland and Green Mounrain aren’t. These are hardcore liberal environmentalist schools.

My sister went to Green Mountain College. Loved it, especially the snowboarding nearby, the environmentalism, and the gorgeous view

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All the schools you mentioned are Christian. Does your kid have a particular desire to attend a Christian SLAC? Not criticizing that choice, but it’s just a possible explanation.

Northland and Green Mounrain aren’t. These are hardcore liberal environmentalist schools.

One is Unitarian and the other is Methodist. They’re on the liberal side of Christianity, but they’re still Christian.

Sorry, UCC not Unitarian.

Anonymous wrote:No, I’m not talking Denison or Kenyon or Knox or St. John’s. My kid is interested in schools like Northland College, Green Mountain College, Berry College.

Everyone knows Green Mountain College. One of their president used to be Thomas Benson. Sierra Club ranked it #1 greenest college in America during his tenure. Surely the whole country knows this.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All the schools you mentioned are Christian. Does your kid have a particular desire to attend a Christian SLAC? Not criticizing that choice, but it’s just a possible explanation.

Northland and Green Mounrain aren’t. These are hardcore liberal environmentalist schools.

One is Unitarian and the other is Methodist. They’re on the liberal side of Christianity, but they’re still Christian.

The have you heard of it test is pointless OP. We’ve all heard of large state colleges with middling academics but great althletic programs. What percentage of Americans have heard of Pomona, Harvey Mudd, Haverford, Grinnell, Macalaster, Swarthmore, Davidson or Kenyon?

There are a lot of metrics on which to choose a college— size, location, strength in your area of specialty, graduate placement, cost, and very definitely, will my kid thrive there. But have I heard of it is a bad one. Most people have only heard of Ivys/top 25 national universities, big state schools, football/basketball powerhouses, and colleges in their geographic area. That leaves out a lot of excellent colleges.

I would, and did, let my kid go to a college I'd only heard of recently. Obviously, I made sure to learn about it in the admissions process, so it's no longer a college I've never heard of.

Anonymous wrote:All the schools you mentioned are Christian. Does your kid have a particular desire to attend a Christian SLAC? Not criticizing that choice, but it’s just a possible explanation.

Northland and Green Mounrain aren’t. These are hardcore liberal environmentalist schools.

Agreed. Try to attend a talk from one of the Colleges that Change Lives panels (they have them at high schools around here)

They really changed my thinking on this front, though I started out with your leaning.

It is about FIT, if you want to increase the odds that your child will be happy/successful and learn not to base their life on what others think.

All the schools you mentioned are Christian. Does your kid have a particular desire to attend a Christian SLAC? Not criticizing that choice, but it’s just a possible explanation.

Choose the college that’s right for your kids interests and needs, and not the one with the sticker that looks impressive on your car.

Also, I’m from the South, so I have definately heard of Berry.

I had never heard of College of Wooster until we did the Oberlin, Kenyon, Denison and added it on. Turns out we were super impressed, and their PhD placement in DC’s area of interest— both in terms of the number of kids placed and where they go is amazing. I don’t think it is where my kid would go, for other reasons. But I wouldn’t say no to a good academic fit, good personal fit for my kid because it didn’t have the name recognition.

No, I’m not talking Denison or Kenyon or Knox or St. John’s. My kid is interested in schools like Northland College, Green Mountain College, Berry College.