Anonymous
Post 09/03/2025 16:42     Subject: LAC prestige analysis and reputation?
Anonymous wrote:I have worked in London, Singapore, Paris and Tokyo. The Best LACs for global prestige are:

Best:
Williams
Amherst

Next best:
Wellesley
Vassar

Swarthmore
Haverford
Smith

Pomona
Bowdoin
Carleton
Grinnell

No one in the UK knows these schools. This is pure fantasy.
Anonymous
Post 09/03/2025 16:41     Subject: LAC prestige analysis and reputation?
Anonymous wrote:I have worked in London, Singapore, Paris and Tokyo. The Best LACs for global prestige are:

Best:
Williams
Amherst

Next best:
Wellesley
Vassar

Swarthmore
Haverford
Smith

Pomona
Bowdoin
Carleton
Grinnell





Complete bs.
Anonymous
Post 09/03/2025 16:40     Subject: Re:LAC prestige analysis and reputation
Anonymous wrote:Be careful, OP. Williams and Swarthmore, which have only one round of ED (and well over 1/3 athletes, who are admitted ED) is a tougher ED admit than the non-SCEA Ivies. Pomona (and CMC and Harvey Mudd) are on the rise. Everyone wants to go to Pomona, but good luck getting in.

How is Pomona “on the rise?” It’s been the hardest acceptance rate of the top LACs for almost a decade now.
Anonymous
Post 09/03/2025 16:39     Subject: LAC prestige analysis and reputation?
I have worked in London, Singapore, Paris and Tokyo. The Best LACs for global prestige are:

Best:
Williams
Amherst

Next best:
Wellesley
Vassar

Swarthmore
Haverford
Smith

Pomona
Bowdoin
Carleton
Grinnell




Anonymous
Post 09/03/2025 16:35     Subject: LAC prestige analysis and reputation?
Anonymous wrote:My spouse and I are also Ivy undergrad as well as med school. Our kid is really excited about LAC's. Intellectually, we completely get it and we are committed to supporting whatever he wants to do.

Emotionally, however, I have this fear that I am going to be patrolling DCUM for decades defending any slight to LAC's, explaining that there are folks who turn Ivies down to go to LAC's, etc. It's embarrassing to admit this, but it's real. Maybe the shame will fade one day. Or maybe the kid will change their mind.

You will not care. No one respectable is gushing about their kids college decades after they graduate. Just enjoy the school, and live on. Some of the amenities at my child’s LAC are miles better than what I got at Columbia.
Anonymous
Post 09/03/2025 16:26     Subject: LAC prestige analysis and reputation?
Anonymous wrote:WWASP (Williams, Wellesley, Amherst, Swarthmore, Pomona) are equal to schools ranked 11-25. So some ivys but not HYP. Looking at parchment data and also the WSJ rankings from 2021 indicate this. The other LACs like Haverford, CMC, Vassar etc are at the BC, Georgia Tech, NYU level.


Nonsense. The student profiles at the top 25 schools and the top 15 or so SLACs are identical. None of them are better than any of the others even if some wish it were so. The foolishness which exists around the Ivy+, WASP. NESCAC, etc. is just over the top and absurd blithering by desperate wannabe social climbers.
Anonymous
Post 09/03/2025 16:22     Subject: LAC prestige analysis and reputation?
Anonymous wrote:Total troll. When I went to law school in the 1990s I recall looking at the room and trying to gauge who’d be on the law review at the end of the year based on where they went to college. I came from a T20 undergrad university and assumed the other T20 kids and selective SLAC kids would cruise through our first year. It ended up almost the complete inverse. College selectivity had no bearing on law school results, and many kids who had gone to state schools in backwoods towns crushed it. It was humbling. If you are smart, you’ll rise up in a law school environment. OP if you had really gone to the schools you are suggesting you attended, you’d know this already.


+100. 1990’s T-14 law grad
Anonymous
Post 09/03/2025 16:21     Subject: LAC prestige analysis and reputation?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:My spouse and I are also Ivy undergrad as well as med school. Our kid is really excited about LAC's. Intellectually, we completely get it and we are committed to supporting whatever he wants to do.

Emotionally, however, I have this fear that I am going to be patrolling DCUM for decades defending any slight to LAC's, explaining that there are folks who turn Ivies down to go to LAC's, etc. It's embarrassing to admit this, but it's real. Maybe the shame will fade one day. Or maybe the kid will change their mind.


Please do not project your deficiencies on to the wider group. Those who know know, those who don't really aren't of consequence.


I think the issue is that the poster is of consequence, and is worried that their child will not be if they go to a LAC. They are not the first to wrestle with it.


"of consequence"? If that is really their reasoning, they aren't of consequence, they are flat out dim. On a weight adjusted basis top SLACs send more kids to top careers than any group outside of the Ivies and they do better than some of the Ivies in many areas. Placement for IB, PE, top consulting, Law School, Med School, etc. You pick it and you will find the top SLACs among the top schools for any of them.
Anonymous
Post 09/03/2025 16:05     Subject: LAC prestige analysis and reputation?
So weird. I went to HYP in 90s and never heard of an Ivy League grad who wasn’t up on what great schools some of top SLACs are. I Hire on Wall Street now and would think of a Williams degree as on par or exceeding many ivies, including Brown. That’s even before factoring in the fact the student actually got a significantly better undergrad education given the focus of these schools. The Ivy League is a sports league.


Anonymous
Post 09/03/2025 16:04     Subject: LAC prestige analysis and reputation?
WWASP (Williams, Wellesley, Amherst, Swarthmore, Pomona) are equal to schools ranked 11-25. So some ivys but not HYP. Looking at parchment data and also the WSJ rankings from 2021 indicate this. The other LACs like Haverford, CMC, Vassar etc are at the BC, Georgia Tech, NYU level.
Anonymous
Post 09/03/2025 15:53     Subject: LAC prestige analysis and reputation?
Total troll. When I went to law school in the 1990s I recall looking at the room and trying to gauge who’d be on the law review at the end of the year based on where they went to college. I came from a T20 undergrad university and assumed the other T20 kids and selective SLAC kids would cruise through our first year. It ended up almost the complete inverse. College selectivity had no bearing on law school results, and many kids who had gone to state schools in backwoods towns crushed it. It was humbling. If you are smart, you’ll rise up in a law school environment. OP if you had really gone to the schools you are suggesting you attended, you’d know this already.
Anonymous
Post 09/03/2025 15:01     Subject: LAC prestige analysis and reputation?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:My husband & I both went to ivies for college and law school. So have most of our friends. Our DD is at Brown and our DS is considering a LAC which is new for our family.

Which of the following LACs have the most global and national prestige?

Williams: seems like the best one overall in terms of rep

Williams, Amherst, Wesleyan: "little three"

Williams, Amherst: I see them referred to as Ivy lite?

Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore, Pomona: often grouped together as WASP?

Bowdoin, Middlebury: For my non-Ivy/Stanford friends, these seem like the net two highest in terms of prestige

Wesleyan: is this as prestigious as it used to be?

Carleton, Haverford: next most intellectually rigorous in terms of rep, but we prefer northeast to midwest



Finally someone on DCUM focusing on things that are really important.




Bravo!
Anonymous
Post 09/03/2025 14:53     Subject: LAC prestige analysis and reputation?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:My husband & I both went to ivies for college and law school. So have most of our friends. Our DD is at Brown and our DS is considering a LAC which is new for our family.

Which of the following LACs have the most global and national prestige?

Williams: seems like the best one overall in terms of rep

Williams, Amherst, Wesleyan: "little three"

Williams, Amherst: I see them referred to as Ivy lite?

Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore, Pomona: often grouped together as WASP?

Bowdoin, Middlebury: For my non-Ivy/Stanford friends, these seem like the net two highest in terms of prestige

Wesleyan: is this as prestigious as it used to be?

Carleton, Haverford: next most intellectually rigorous in terms of rep, but we prefer northeast to midwest





Can you please share the ives and law schools you attended so a "prestige analysis" can be conducted?


This level of insufferable suggests Harvard.
Anonymous
Post 09/03/2025 14:38     Subject: LAC prestige analysis and reputation?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:My spouse and I are also Ivy undergrad as well as med school. Our kid is really excited about LAC's. Intellectually, we completely get it and we are committed to supporting whatever he wants to do.

Emotionally, however, I have this fear that I am going to be patrolling DCUM for decades defending any slight to LAC's, explaining that there are folks who turn Ivies down to go to LAC's, etc. It's embarrassing to admit this, but it's real. Maybe the shame will fade one day. Or maybe the kid will change their mind.


Please do not project your deficiencies on to the wider group. Those who know know, those who don't really aren't of consequence.


I think the issue is that the poster is of consequence, and is worried that their child will not be if they go to a LAC. They are not the first to wrestle with it.
Anonymous
Post 09/03/2025 14:12     Subject: Re:LAC prestige analysis and reputation
Anonymous wrote:Be careful, OP. Williams and Swarthmore, which have only one round of ED (and well over 1/3 athletes, who are admitted ED) is a tougher ED admit than the non-SCEA Ivies. Pomona (and CMC and Harvey Mudd) are on the rise. Everyone wants to go to Pomona, but good luck getting in.

Sorry. Meant Williams and Amherst. Swat has 2 rounds (1/3 admits are first gen and almost as many athletes, though, so ED is a problem there too)