Anonymous
07/29/2025 14:03
Subject: For whom is a SLAC/LAC?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Who attends a small liberal arts college or liberal arts college these days? Is it a back-up school if student can't get into state public flagship? Does each state have a well known liberal arts college, or are LACs mostly in the northeast region of US, along east coast US and east-midwest US?
https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/120/1284381.page
People who don't want to go to a football school, and who instead value small class sizes and accessible faculty members.
Ugh, this trope again? Schools with football can also have excellent academics, small-medium class sizes, and accessible faculty members. Imagine!
It's not a trope. While big football schools can and do have some of that, you can also spend 5 years and never actually meet a professor if you want to avoid small classes. That is a plus for alot of kids who are perfectly happy ot sign up for big lectures where no attendance is taken so you don't actually have to go. On the other hand, that is the entirely to of the SLAC experience and something you seek because you cannot avoid it and become anonymous. That is what it is all about.
Anonymous
07/29/2025 13:52
Subject: Re:For whom is a SLAC/LAC?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:In MD, the other state universities other than UMCP aren't great so a LAC it is.
Which LACs? Washington college, Goucher, where are the LACs in MD? In VA?
Loyola
Loyola is not a liberal arts college.
It has a required liberal arts core, focus on undergraduate teaching, small size, most students living on campus. If it walks like a duck…
Anonymous
07/29/2025 10:40
Subject: For whom is a SLAC/LAC?
My 4.0/35 ACT kid has no interest in a big school. Applying only to LACs.
Anonymous
07/29/2025 10:35
Subject: For whom is a SLAC/LAC?
It is for my kid, who is committed to a high-academic SLAC. She'll have the opportunity to continue her sport, learn in an incredible environment directly from the professor and not some TA (and do the sort of research that would go to doctoral or grad students at a flagship). She'd be lost socially at a flagship.
Anonymous
07/29/2025 10:29
Subject: For whom is a SLAC/LAC?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:LACs and SLACs can be appealing for lots of students. However... outside of Williams, Amherst, and maybe Pomona and Swarthmore, every non-recruited athlete straight male is thinking - is there a place for me here? And often the answer is no.
These are tiny schools. And the vibe is generally very rejective of straight non-athlete males. And for 17 year old boys that is a very big deal. LACS/SLACS aren't getting these guys anymore. It's a problem.
Utter nonsense.
NP. I don't think it is nonsense. I'm looking at my kid's WASP class list and a huge percentage (seems like at least 70%) of the boys, in particular, are athletes. SO MANY. Not sure how my NARP boy will feel socially, but my guess is he'll find his nice, nerdy little tribe. We'll see.
It is flat out false, either you are making things up or you can't count. Let me help out.
All four SWAT schools have a higher male/female proportion than UNC which is 40/60
Three of them are better than UVA which is 43/57 (Amherst is about the same)
Two of them are better than UMich which is 47/53
Overall the top SLACS have better M/F ratios than most schools (because those ratios hold further down the list as well).
As to the second part.
The athletes are in the same proportion as the school (little thing called Title IX) for the most part so they don't skew the proportions at all and overall you can use 33% to get a rough sense of the number of athletes.
So we know that the schools aren't skewed in gender ratios, they are better than large state schools
So we know that the athletes aren't overrepresented in terms of males because Title IX prevents it which means:
Two thirds of the kids are NARPs making almost one third of the school population NARP boys. Are you trying to imply that a huge population of NARPs are gay and thus your little NARP child will feel out of place?
That assertion isn't nonsense, it is beyond nonsense.
Anonymous
07/29/2025 10:28
Subject: For whom is a SLAC/LAC?
Anonymous wrote:LACs are not backup schools for state schools and state schools are not backup schools for LACs. They are on opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of colleges—students often have a preference towards one type.
LACs attract students looking for more intimate settings with smaller class sizes and more opportunities to get to know professors.
LAC students are much more likely to be seeking a broader education and state school students may be more interested in specialization. Moreover, state school students are much more concerned about career focused education than LAC students (which is why state schools will have popular majors such as nursing, education, and engineering while LACs will have popular majors such as mathematics, english, economics, and biology.
They also tend to value smaller communities and are more comfortable somewhere where they see lots of familiar faces. This contrasts the large state school where you see tens of thousands of different people.
Overall, they can be great colleges for a student seeking a tight knit, intellectual atmosphere.
Oh my goodness, what a load. Do you work in public relations, by chance?
Anonymous
07/29/2025 10:22
Subject: For whom is a SLAC/LAC?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Who attends a small liberal arts college or liberal arts college these days? Is it a back-up school if student can't get into state public flagship? Does each state have a well known liberal arts college, or are LACs mostly in the northeast region of US, along east coast US and east-midwest US?
https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/120/1284381.page
Troll post. I’m gonna sit this one out.
Ha, same. High school kids are booooored in summer, trolling the adults for fun
Anonymous
07/29/2025 10:16
Subject: For whom is a SLAC/LAC?
Anonymous wrote:
NP. I don't think it is nonsense. I'm looking at my kid's WASP class list and a huge percentage (seems like at least 70%) of the boys, in particular, are athletes. SO MANY. Not sure how my NARP boy will feel socially, but my guess is he'll find his nice, nerdy little tribe. We'll see.
I have one at WASP. I am aware of at least four of his friends who are on various teams. Not only are they sporty and social, but I am really impressed by how smart they are and how they handle the crazy workload of telraining and games and academics.
My kid is not an athlete and has had no issues making friends at all, from the nerdy to the sporty. I honestly wonder if many of those posting here even have current knowledge or whether they are simply harking back to an older time when the athlete/non-athlete divide may have been more prevalent.
Anonymous
07/29/2025 09:05
Subject: For whom is a SLAC/LAC?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:LACs and SLACs can be appealing for lots of students. However... outside of Williams, Amherst, and maybe Pomona and Swarthmore, every non-recruited athlete straight male is thinking - is there a place for me here? And often the answer is no.
These are tiny schools. And the vibe is generally very rejective of straight non-athlete males. And for 17 year old boys that is a very big deal. LACS/SLACS aren't getting these guys anymore. It's a problem.
Utter nonsense.
NP. I don't think it is nonsense. I'm looking at my kid's WASP class list and a huge percentage (seems like at least 70%) of the boys, in particular, are athletes. SO MANY. Not sure how my NARP boy will feel socially, but my guess is he'll find his nice, nerdy little tribe. We'll see.
My DD was WASP-bound until the accepted students day. She felt a weird bro vibe from the many of the men, and a friendly but cliquey atmosphere in general. She felt it was the opposite of the egghead atmosphere she expected.
She's headed to a larger school. I was disappointed, as I've always held SLACs to be the ideal for undergraduate education, but it was her choice.
I will say the lax bros and football meatheads at these schools seems inordinately large, but that gets magnified in a setting like “accepted students day” where they are all high fiving and giving each other man hugs. Trust me, there is a home for everyone at these SLACs, and they are great places to learn
I'm the poster above with the NARP boy, and that's my instinct. Tbh he was focused on the opportunity to sit in on classes that day, which he loved, really didn't pay much attention to the social piece. And who knows how many of those kids ended up committing. We're keeping an open mind.
Anonymous
07/29/2025 08:54
Subject: For whom is a SLAC/LAC?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:LACs and SLACs can be appealing for lots of students. However... outside of Williams, Amherst, and maybe Pomona and Swarthmore, every non-recruited athlete straight male is thinking - is there a place for me here? And often the answer is no.
These are tiny schools. And the vibe is generally very rejective of straight non-athlete males. And for 17 year old boys that is a very big deal. LACS/SLACS aren't getting these guys anymore. It's a problem.
Utter nonsense.
NP. I don't think it is nonsense. I'm looking at my kid's WASP class list and a huge percentage (seems like at least 70%) of the boys, in particular, are athletes. SO MANY. Not sure how my NARP boy will feel socially, but my guess is he'll find his nice, nerdy little tribe. We'll see.
My DD was WASP-bound until the accepted students day. She felt a weird bro vibe from the many of the men, and a friendly but cliquey atmosphere in general. She felt it was the opposite of the egghead atmosphere she expected.
She's headed to a larger school. I was disappointed, as I've always held SLACs to be the ideal for undergraduate education, but it was her choice.
I will say the lax bros and football meatheads at these schools seems inordinately large, but that gets magnified in a setting like “accepted students day” where they are all high fiving and giving each other man hugs. Trust me, there is a home for everyone at these SLACs, and they are great places to learn
Anonymous
07/29/2025 08:31
Subject: For whom is a SLAC/LAC?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:LACs and SLACs can be appealing for lots of students. However... outside of Williams, Amherst, and maybe Pomona and Swarthmore, every non-recruited athlete straight male is thinking - is there a place for me here? And often the answer is no.
These are tiny schools. And the vibe is generally very rejective of straight non-athlete males. And for 17 year old boys that is a very big deal. LACS/SLACS aren't getting these guys anymore. It's a problem.
You somehow got it completely flipped. Williams and Amherst are filled with athletes. Way more likely to find normal guys who aren’t obsessed with their teams at Pomona and Swarthmore.
Yeah, but their athletes (with possible exception of football), are all smart and accomplished outside of athletics
Anonymous
07/29/2025 08:28
Subject: For whom is a SLAC/LAC?
Anonymous wrote:Who attends a small liberal arts college or liberal arts college these days? Is it a back-up school if student can't get into state public flagship? Does each state have a well known liberal arts college, or are LACs mostly in the northeast region of US, along east coast US and east-midwest US?
https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/120/1284381.page
OP sounds more interested in a fight and smearing LACs than asking a real question
Anonymous
07/29/2025 08:20
Subject: For whom is a SLAC/LAC?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:LACs and SLACs can be appealing for lots of students. However... outside of Williams, Amherst, and maybe Pomona and Swarthmore, every non-recruited athlete straight male is thinking - is there a place for me here? And often the answer is no.
These are tiny schools. And the vibe is generally very rejective of straight non-athlete males. And for 17 year old boys that is a very big deal. LACS/SLACS aren't getting these guys anymore. It's a problem.
Utter nonsense.
NP. I don't think it is nonsense. I'm looking at my kid's WASP class list and a huge percentage (seems like at least 70%) of the boys, in particular, are athletes. SO MANY. Not sure how my NARP boy will feel socially, but my guess is he'll find his nice, nerdy little tribe. We'll see.
My DD was WASP-bound until the accepted students day. She felt a weird bro vibe from the many of the men, and a friendly but cliquey atmosphere in general. She felt it was the opposite of the egghead atmosphere she expected.
She's headed to a larger school. I was disappointed, as I've always held SLACs to be the ideal for undergraduate education, but it was her choice.
Anonymous
07/29/2025 08:12
Subject: Re:For whom is a SLAC/LAC?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:In MD, the other state universities other than UMCP aren't great so a LAC it is.
Which LACs? Washington college, Goucher, where are the LACs in MD? In VA?
Loyola
Loyola is not a liberal arts college.
Anonymous
07/29/2025 08:07
Subject: For whom is a SLAC/LAC?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:LACs and SLACs can be appealing for lots of students. However... outside of Williams, Amherst, and maybe Pomona and Swarthmore, every non-recruited athlete straight male is thinking - is there a place for me here? And often the answer is no.
These are tiny schools. And the vibe is generally very rejective of straight non-athlete males. And for 17 year old boys that is a very big deal. LACS/SLACS aren't getting these guys anymore. It's a problem.
Utter nonsense.
NP. I don't think it is nonsense. I'm looking at my kid's WASP class list and a huge percentage (seems like at least 70%) of the boys, in particular, are athletes. SO MANY. Not sure how my NARP boy will feel socially, but my guess is he'll find his nice, nerdy little tribe. We'll see.