Anonymous
07/14/2025 22:31
Subject: Finding LACs with intellectual vibe for balanced list
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Open curriculum is great for the kids who are scared of math and even better for the quantitatively-skilled students who struggle to write a paragraph. All in all, it’s a terrible idea.
I went to Brown, which has the most open of the open curricula schools. I (and all my friends) took both writing and math classes. We got a better education than the finance bros doing the bare minimum at other schools, regardless of distribution requirements.
Brown has no different open requirements than Amherst, so not really “most open.”
Brown requires two writing courses, Amherst one.
Anonymous
07/14/2025 22:18
Subject: Finding LACs with intellectual vibe for balanced list
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Open curriculum is great for the kids who are scared of math and even better for the quantitatively-skilled students who struggle to write a paragraph. All in all, it’s a terrible idea.
I went to Brown, which has the most open of the open curricula schools. I (and all my friends) took both writing and math classes. We got a better education than the finance bros doing the bare minimum at other schools, regardless of distribution requirements.
Brown has no different open requirements than Amherst, so not really “most open.”
Anonymous
07/14/2025 22:16
Subject: Finding LACs with intellectual vibe for balanced list
Anonymous wrote:Open curriculum is great for the kids who are scared of math and even better for the quantitatively-skilled students who struggle to write a paragraph. All in all, it’s a terrible idea.
I went to Brown, which has the most open of the open curricula schools. I (and all my friends) took both writing and math classes. We got a better education than the finance bros doing the bare minimum at other schools, regardless of distribution requirements.
Anonymous
07/14/2025 22:06
Subject: Finding LACs with intellectual vibe for balanced list
Anonymous wrote:Open curriculum is great for the kids who are scared of math and even better for the quantitatively-skilled students who struggle to write a paragraph. All in all, it’s a terrible idea.
Tell me you hate SLACs without telling me you hate SLACs. I believe all of the so called open curriculum schools discussed above have seminar requirements that can be satisfied in a number other of different topic areas that have a long writing requirement. Same for a quantitative analysis requirement that need not be satisfied by CALC 101 or the like. But please, remind us why the Kelley School of Business at IU is the educational ideal because it has a prescribed curriculum and degrees from Amherst or Wesleyan are wastes of time.
Anonymous
07/14/2025 21:17
Subject: Finding LACs with intellectual vibe for balanced list
Open curriculum is great for the kids who are scared of math and even better for the quantitatively-skilled students who struggle to write a paragraph. All in all, it’s a terrible idea.
Anonymous
07/14/2025 21:11
Subject: Finding LACs with intellectual vibe for balanced list
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Everything you’ve described has been my kid’s experience of Wesleyan, which as others have noted also has an open curriculum.
Kid is looking for rigor, i.e a thesis. At Wesleyan, thesis and honors students have to do gen eds.
This does indeed separate Wesleyan from the few top LACs with truly open curricula.
Amherst is the only one of the LACs to have a “truly open” curriculum. Hamilton has writing requirements. Vassar requires foreign language. Most require something.
At Wes, yes, if you want to graduate with honors, you have to take three classes in each of three broad distribution areas. My kid is double majoring and covers two of the areas with classes for those majors. So he has to take three classes over four years in the final area. And he will do a thesis, which he’s really excited about.
Anyway, OP, your kid might take a look at Wes. As I said in my earlier post, it’s very much what you described your kid to be looking for.
Anonymous
07/14/2025 18:44
Subject: Re:Finding LACs with intellectual vibe for balanced list
Claremont Mckenna (moderately grade deflated), Reed (heavy grade deflated), and Williams (moderately grade deflated) where the best matches for DS, who wanted a rigorous environment for economics/math.
Anonymous
07/14/2025 18:43
Subject: Finding LACs with intellectual vibe for balanced list
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Everything you’ve described has been my kid’s experience of Wesleyan, which as others have noted also has an open curriculum.
Kid is looking for rigor, i.e a thesis. At Wesleyan, thesis and honors students have to do gen eds.
This does indeed separate Wesleyan from the few top LACs with truly open curricula.
Anonymous
07/14/2025 18:40
Subject: Finding LACs with intellectual vibe for balanced list
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Our twins were looking for schools in this same general pocket (though leaning a bit more towards medium sized schools), with Yale as their SCEA (not admitted), and then several other schools that have been mentioned in this thread already as other schools they liked a lot. They approached the search independently, with one going for science (non-premed bio), one for humanities (history). Priorities were a top tier of undergraduate teaching, a warm and friendly student body, and strong relationships with professors. At the end of the day they were both deciding between Carleton and W&M (OOS), and they'll be heading to W&M in the fall and are really excited about it.
(OP, you also asked about more likely schools; we were all pleasantly surprised by St. Olaf when we visited; their admit rate is 48%. W&M has an OOS rate of ~28% and in-state of 34% or something similar, so it's also on the more likely end compared with most of the schools mentioned so far.
Good thoughts and results.
There are many great choices, you need to explore. We can list schools but your kid will be best served by figuring out where they want to be and what type of environment suits them beyond what you mentioned which does feel pretty "LAC" in general. What range of acceptances are you looking for? There are great schools with rates above 50% in the SLAC world. The format is really conducive to learning and kids can really thrive in many programs.
OP, here. I completely agree with the sentiment that DC needs to narrow based on preferences and that will help. They have expressed what appeals to them. What I do not believe I did a particularly good job articulating was that one (of many) criteria is a studious/intellectual vibe (“pursuit of engagement in ideas”). It seems more accessible to parse by aspects like geographic preference, arts, rural/urban, % Greek life, division I sports, etc. But we are having a harder time determining a culture of engagement with ideas in the abstract without a visit — and there are only so many resources (of time and money) to make visits. So, I guess I was trying to see how other families may have sussed this out when they approached it with an open mind setting aside prestige and rankings. Maybe this is just something omnipresent at LACs? (Spouse and I were OOS at a state flagship).
I appreciate all the suggestions of specific schools and maybe this clarification will help with where we are with process?
Some east coast schools which might fit:
Skidmore- great town artsy, becoming more selective
Franklin and Marshall- well thought of and selective but reachable
Union- has some engineering, selective but also a good target for the right kid
Hobart William Smith- easier admit, people that I know who have attended really like it. Starting to place more emphasis on sports
St Lawrence- remote, beautiful, loyal alumni and pretty easy admit
Lafayette- people who attend seem to really like it. Has some engineering
Bucknell- good school, excellent outcomes, greek life and sports
Juniata- rural PA, very good outcomes relative to selectivity, pretty easy admit
Conn College- easiest NESCAC, wealthy career oriented kids
Ithaca College- a bit larger, pretty easy admit. Some very strong programs and again people that I personally know love their time there.
That is just a quick start. I only touched NY and PA with the exception of Conn College and there are many more schools in both states.
Anonymous
07/14/2025 16:59
Subject: Finding LACs with intellectual vibe for balanced list
Anonymous wrote:After a few visits, DC is narrowing preferences to LACs/mid-sized schools and likes an studious vibe with a friendly, collaborative, and unassuming culture where the students and faculty love to learn and are engaged in the classroom. Prestige does not matter to DC or us, though T20 seems to be shorthand to find studious vibe and challenge. Can anyone share how they assessed LACs/mid-sized schools for the studious vibe (other than selectivity/T10) as they went about building a balanced list with a variety of acceptance rates? Thanks so much!
Most of the suggestions have acceptance rates below 30%. Might have some difficulty finding a "true" safety (80%+ acceptance rate or 60% acceptance/75th percentile in stats) with all the attributes desired.
Anonymous
07/14/2025 16:47
Subject: Re:Finding LACs with intellectual vibe for balanced list
St. John’s is another one with a good intellectual vibe. But again, the most rigorous and intellectual is going to be Reed, hands down.
Anonymous
07/14/2025 16:45
Subject: Finding LACs with intellectual vibe for balanced list
Anonymous wrote:Everything you’ve described has been my kid’s experience of Wesleyan, which as others have noted also has an open curriculum.
Kid is looking for rigor, i.e a thesis. At Wesleyan, thesis and honors students have to do gen eds.
Anonymous
07/14/2025 15:09
Subject: Finding LACs with intellectual vibe for balanced list
Everything you’ve described has been my kid’s experience of Wesleyan, which as others have noted also has an open curriculum.
Anonymous
07/14/2025 15:07
Subject: Finding LACs with intellectual vibe for balanced list
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Our twins were looking for schools in this same general pocket (though leaning a bit more towards medium sized schools), with Yale as their SCEA (not admitted), and then several other schools that have been mentioned in this thread already as other schools they liked a lot. They approached the search independently, with one going for science (non-premed bio), one for humanities (history). Priorities were a top tier of undergraduate teaching, a warm and friendly student body, and strong relationships with professors. At the end of the day they were both deciding between Carleton and W&M (OOS), and they'll be heading to W&M in the fall and are really excited about it.
(OP, you also asked about more likely schools; we were all pleasantly surprised by St. Olaf when we visited; their admit rate is 48%. W&M has an OOS rate of ~28% and in-state of 34% or something similar, so it's also on the more likely end compared with most of the schools mentioned so far.
Good thoughts and results.
There are many great choices, you need to explore. We can list schools but your kid will be best served by figuring out where they want to be and what type of environment suits them beyond what you mentioned which does feel pretty "LAC" in general. What range of acceptances are you looking for? There are great schools with rates above 50% in the SLAC world. The format is really conducive to learning and kids can really thrive in many programs.
OP, here. I completely agree with the sentiment that DC needs to narrow based on preferences and that will help. They have expressed what appeals to them. What I do not believe I did a particularly good job articulating was that one (of many) criteria is a studious/intellectual vibe (“pursuit of engagement in ideas”). It seems more accessible to parse by aspects like geographic preference, arts, rural/urban, % Greek life, division I sports, etc. But we are having a harder time determining a culture of engagement with ideas in the abstract without a visit — and there are only so many resources (of time and money) to make visits. So, I guess I was trying to see how other families may have sussed this out when they approached it with an open mind setting aside prestige and rankings. Maybe this is just something omnipresent at LACs? (Spouse and I were OOS at a state flagship).
I appreciate all the suggestions of specific schools and maybe this clarification will help with where we are with process?
Anonymous
07/14/2025 14:45
Subject: Finding LACs with intellectual vibe for balanced list
Anonymous wrote:Our twins were looking for schools in this same general pocket (though leaning a bit more towards medium sized schools), with Yale as their SCEA (not admitted), and then several other schools that have been mentioned in this thread already as other schools they liked a lot. They approached the search independently, with one going for science (non-premed bio), one for humanities (history). Priorities were a top tier of undergraduate teaching, a warm and friendly student body, and strong relationships with professors. At the end of the day they were both deciding between Carleton and W&M (OOS), and they'll be heading to W&M in the fall and are really excited about it.
(OP, you also asked about more likely schools; we were all pleasantly surprised by St. Olaf when we visited; their admit rate is 48%. W&M has an OOS rate of ~28% and in-state of 34% or something similar, so it's also on the more likely end compared with most of the schools mentioned so far).
Good thoughts and results.
There are many great choices, you need to explore. We can list schools but your kid will be best served by figuring out where they want to be and what type of environment suits them beyond what you mentioned which does feel pretty "LAC" in general. What range of acceptances are you looking for? There are great schools with rates above 50% in the SLAC world. The format is really conducive to learning and kids can really thrive in many programs.