Anonymous wrote: Well, according to the previous link, all of those elite LACs with the exception of Amherst described my non-elite LAC alma mater as a peer. Amherst, of course, chose no college as a "peer."

Amherst is probably one of the top SLACs in the country but still how does it rank 8th out of 1595 colleges and universities without selecting any peer colleges? Just based on the strength of other schools which consider it a peer?

Anonymous wrote: Well, according to the previous link, all of those elite LACs with the exception of Amherst described my non-elite LAC alma mater as a peer. Amherst, of course, chose no college as a "peer."

That site is a bit silly.....didn't Bowdoin list something like 25 peer schools? And Stanford can list JHU as a peer but obviously it isn't.

Well, according to the previous link, all of those elite LACs with the exception of Amherst described my non-elite LAC alma mater as a peer. Amherst, of course, chose no college as a "peer."

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:. LACs don't have broad brand recognition to begin with but nobody is going to mention Davidson in the same breadth as Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore, Pomona, Midd, Bowdoin, etc.

You are a hopeless East Coast snob. In other regions of the country, people haven't heard of these schools either.
(Yes, I know Pomona is a Claremont college in CA.)

Oh, come on. Nobody educated is ignorant of these. I'm not even from this country and I've heard of them.

That wasn't my point. The first poster seems to think that the only "elite" LACs are in the Northeast. That is hogwash. If brand recognition is so important, the Northeast LACs have relatively little recognition because LACs have low brand recognition with the hoi polloi in general.

And, no, I did not go to Davidson.

With the exception of the Claremont Colleges, all of the elite LACs actually are in the NE.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:. LACs don't have broad brand recognition to begin with but nobody is going to mention Davidson in the same breadth as Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore, Pomona, Midd, Bowdoin, etc.

You are a hopeless East Coast snob. In other regions of the country, people haven't heard of these schools either.
(Yes, I know Pomona is a Claremont college in CA.)

Oh, come on. Nobody educated is ignorant of these. I'm not even from this country and I've heard of them.

That wasn't my point. The first poster seems to think that the only "elite" LACs are in the Northeast. That is hogwash. If brand recognition is so important, the Northeast LACs have relatively little recognition because LACs have low brand recognition with the hoi polloi in general.

And, no, I did not go to Davidson.

Why does the tone have to be so competitive (so we each get to rank each other's stature and kids) and judgemental????

There really is no prize at the end, except raising healthy well adjusted people to take our places on the planet you know.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Davidson's latest NATIONAL rankiing is #10 for LAC, and #7 for Best undergraduate teaching .

I think DCUM posters need to stay current .

Sure, but that's just ranking gamesmanship. LACs don't have broad brand recognition to begin with but nobody is going to mention Davidson in the same breadth as Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore, Pomona, Midd, Bowdoin, etc.

On the contrary, I know plenty of people who consider Davidson in the same league.

There was a Chronicle tool for assessing peer schools: https://www.chronicle.com/interactives/peers-network

Bowdoin and Swarthmore both named Davidson a peer.

Lol....OK Davidson grad. How many LACs did you click on to unearth those fascinating data points?

All three schools are excellent...I don't think that is a question. I would be wondering if you think the differential is better spent on medical school since the student is planning to be pre-med. In that case, I would have to give the nod to UVA but I love the SLACs.

I turned down Williams and Amherst for an Ivy, and didn't apply to Davidson, but considered doing so. It doesn't have the East Coast snob appeal of the New England SLACs, but the academics seemed fairly comparable. The Davidson graduates that I've met over the years have been impressive, and I'm sure that their interactions with faculty members were more frequent and meaningful than those of most U. Va. students.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Davidson's latest NATIONAL rankiing is #10 for LAC, and #7 for Best undergraduate teaching .

I think DCUM posters need to stay current .

Sure, but that's just ranking gamesmanship. LACs don't have broad brand recognition to begin with but nobody is going to mention Davidson in the same breadth as Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore, Pomona, Midd, Bowdoin, etc.

On the contrary, I know plenty of people who consider Davidson in the same league.

There was a Chronicle tool for assessing peer schools: https://www.chronicle.com/interactives/peers-network

Bowdoin and Swarthmore both named Davidson a peer.

Ha ha ha! Rich white boy clubs patting each other on the back.

I would choose Uva over the other 2, even at full freight! No brainer.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:W & L is $64,000, not including travel costs BUT you need to add in the fees for fraternity and sorority membership. When we toured we were told almost 90% of the students participate in greek life (and a LOT of drinking). It's such a problem (IMHO) that the expenses for greek life are listed right here on the tuition form of W&L. This has also been a problem for the full freight minority and poor students - they might be at W&L full freight but they can't participate in the greek life, which is very expensive. https://www.wlu.edu/admissions/scholarships-and-aid/cost-of-attendance

Just to clarify, are you saying the full freight minority students can't participate in Greek life because it is so expensive? Or is there some other reason they can't participate?
( I am a minority who participated in Greek life attending an Ivy on financial aid.)

A professor friend told us that the costs of Greek life (see the attachment - as high as $13,900 for men per year) are prohibitively costly for the full-freight minority students. He said W&L tries very hard to get good minority students but they often leave because they can't afford the additional fees for membership in a frat or sorority. He also said the drinking started thursday night and ran through 'til monday. The financial aid students can't afford to participate so feel estranged. I didn't ask at the time the costs of Greek life so was rather astonished to find it is posted by W&L on its website. Perhaps it has been accused of false advertisement because the frat and sorority costs were not disclosed up front and he gave an astonishing percentage of students who participate in Greek life. I don't know, but definitely a first for me. We were so turned off by the experience that DD never applied and went . . . to UVA!

Anonymous wrote:If your alternatives to UVA are Davidson and W&L, why didn't you apply to W&M? It seems like the closest public substitute. Your choice should potentially be made on the desirability of a LAC relative to costs.

+1. W&M is a SLAC experience.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Davidson's latest NATIONAL rankiing is #10 for LAC, and #7 for Best undergraduate teaching .

I think DCUM posters need to stay current .

Sure, but that's just ranking gamesmanship. LACs don't have broad brand recognition to begin with but nobody is going to mention Davidson in the same breadth as Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore, Pomona, Midd, Bowdoin, etc.

On the contrary, I know plenty of people who consider Davidson in the same league.

There was a Chronicle tool for assessing peer schools: https://www.chronicle.com/interactives/peers-network

Bowdoin and Swarthmore both named Davidson a peer.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:. LACs don't have broad brand recognition to begin with but nobody is going to mention Davidson in the same breadth as Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore, Pomona, Midd, Bowdoin, etc.

You are a hopeless East Coast snob. In other regions of the country, people haven't heard of these schools either.
(Yes, I know Pomona is a Claremont college in CA.)

Oh, come on. Nobody educated is ignorant of these. I'm not even from this country and I've heard of them.