Why not Liberal Art College?
KSG
He Feng wrote:
> I've been a regular visitor of this newsgroup. There have been many
> discussions about the top national universities (or so they are called
> in the USNews Ranking), but there are relatively few questions regarding
> the top liberal art colleges. Why?
> I checked out a few small colleges (Swarthmore for one), and they are
> great schools. At any rate these schools deserve as much attention as
> the Ivies.
>
You're probably right, but we tend to talk about schools that people are
applying to. My guess is that the number of people that apply to "National
Universities" is greater than those that apply to LA schools. Hence we
tend to talk about them more. I personally don't know a single person in my
high school graduating class (of about 350 people) that applied to a liberal
arts school. So if I was a high schooler posting here I would have never
even thought about asking about Swarthmore or Amherst.
--
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KSG
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KSG
Marshall R. Fuss wrote:
> KSG <kga...@cs.ucsd.edu> wrote:
>
> > I personally don't know a single person in my
> >high school graduating class (of about 350 people) that applied to a liberal
> >arts school. So if I was a high schooler posting here I would have never
> >even thought about asking about Swarthmore or Amherst.
>
> Yes, the quality of college advising at most U.S. high schools is
> scandalous.
Don't get me started on this... I was told to not even attend a four year college
by my counselor. He thought I probably couldn't get in (get in any four year I
guess??)... I did have the second highest SAT score in the school and top 10% in
the class. I went and told my Calc teacher this and she went to the counselor
and asked how could he come to that decision about me; to which he finally
admitted that he hadn't even looked at my file... The sad thing is that he still
works there (as of last year at least) and my incident happened in 1990.
I'm sure there are good counselors, but when my sister went through the same high
school I told her to avoid this counselor at all costs (or simply ignore any
advice he gives you).
Oh, and I have other stories as well...
He Feng
discussions about the top national universities (or so they are called
in the USNews Ranking), but there are relatively few questions regarding
the top liberal art colleges. Why?
I checked out a few small colleges (Swarthmore for one), and they are
great schools. At any rate these schools deserve as much attention as
the Ivies.
He Feng
Marshall R. Fuss
> I personally don't know a single person in my
>high school graduating class (of about 350 people) that applied to a liberal
>arts school. So if I was a high schooler posting here I would have never
>even thought about asking about Swarthmore or Amherst.
Yes, the quality of college advising at most U.S. high schools is
scandalous.
Marshall Fuss
Jeremy Thorp Fox
: Don't get me started on this... I was told to not even attend a four year college
: by my counselor. He thought I probably couldn't get in (get in any four year I
: guess??)... I did have the second highest SAT score in the school and top 10% in
: the class. I went and told my Calc teacher this and she went to the counselor
: and asked how could he come to that decision about me; to which he finally
: admitted that he hadn't even looked at my file... The sad thing is that he still
: works there (as of last year at least) and my incident happened in 1990.
How does was become a high school counselor? Is the job considered more or
less prestegious than being a regular high school teacher?
--
------------------------
Jeremy T. Fox
Economics Grad Student
jer...@leland.stanford.edu
Mark Wen Chien Teng
Why, then, don't people apply to LA colleges?
- Mark Teng.
Raanmed
From: "Mark Wen Chien Teng" <mark...@pacific.net.sg>:
>
>That still doesn't answer the question!
>
>Why, then, don't people apply to LA colleges?
>
>- Mark Teng.
>
>
>
Well, there aren't that many freshmen spots. Think about it: while America
pretty much invented the LA college, and it remains the most common form of
private institution, there are probably only about 50 that are considered
selective and most are under 3,000 students each. Contrast this to the
typical research university which is many times bigger, has more freshmen
seats and it may explain why they attract fewer applicants.
--Ron
Patrick J McDonough
: That still doesn't answer the question!
: Why, then, don't people apply to LA colleges?
People do, and do so in droves when their merits are pointed out.
Virtually all of the competitive students in my high school applied to at
least one (usually more) Liberal Arts College.
Having gone to high school near Boston, where many of the best LAC's are
within 3-5 hour drives, may have influenced this effect. Also, we had,
for the most part, 4 good high school counselors out of 5 there.
Information from the 4 who had their act together filtered over to the
group beneath the 5th counselor.
LAC's I applied to: Middlebury,Williams,Davidson
LAC's attended by classmates: Colby(4),Bates(2),Wellesley, Smith,
Haverford, Bowdoin,Union,
--
|----------Patrick J. McDonough(mcd...@wfu.edu)------------|
|-Academic Computing Specialist for Anthropology/Education--|
|--------------http://www.wfu.edu/~mcdonpj------------------|
mrfuss
Mark Wen Chien Teng wrote in message
<6vt11o$qfu$1...@newton2.pacific.net.sg>...
>That still doesn't answer the question!
>
>Why, then, don't people apply to LA colleges?
I thought one major cause was implied from your responses: they are not well
known to the average American, and the counselors who should be informing
students about them do not do so, either from laziness or ignorance.
I think a second factor is the increasing professional orientation of high
school students and their parents. They want a diploma that guarantees a
high-paying job upon graduation. At a rough guess I would say at least 75%
of the high school inquiries to this NG that mention majors ask about
engineering and computer science (which of course also reflects the bias of
heavy computer users). Even people who consider themselves relatively well
informed about colleges do not usually associate liberal arts colleges with
such fields. I was quite surprised to read here about the strength of the
computer science programs at some of the leading LA schools.
Marshall Fuss