<p>What? Maybe if you’re inside an episode of “Gossip Girl” or “Glee.” In real life? I’m skeptical.</p>
<p>I’m with pizzagirl: Concluding that someone cares about what kind of handbag YOU carry based on the kind of handbag she carries is a gigantic logical leap. Concluding anything about someone based on the type of handbag she carries, car she drives or shoes she wears is dangerous business. I’m pretty oblivious to this sort of thing myself. People in my office have commented on the luxury footwear sported by a young woman who joined the staff recently. I thought, “Oh, so that’s why the soles of those pumps are red!” So what? She’s a good colleague. We get along well, we collaborate and we socialize across a wide generation and lifestyle gap. If she cares that I rarely wear expensive shoes, it’s not apparent to me. </p>
<p>People naturally want to give impressions of different schools and different types of schools. That’s fine. But I think it’s prudent to be careful when presenting those impressions. I read a lot about schools when my D was doing her search, and helped her create a reasonable list of contenders. I tried very hard not to influence her with comments such as, “I hear everyone’s preppy here” or “People say a liberal won’t be comfortable there,” etc. I knew, in any case, that what “people say” is of very little interest to my D and that she would insist upon drawing her own conclusions after doing her own research and spending time on a campus.</p>
<p>Going to a LAC is, in a sense, a luxury experience anyway so it makes little sense to lambaste students at any university for carrying designer handbags. Status display takes many forms. Really rich trust-fund kids at high-end LACs wear Goodwill clothes in an aggressive rejection of tacky middle-class consumerism.</p>
<p>The whole concept of spending four year of one’s life getting a liberal arts education, instead of training for, say, HVAC certification, implies a set of privileged choices.</p>
<p>Then I thought of my BIL, the HVAC guy, who could easily write a check for the full amount of my D’s LAC education as well as his own son’s (so far, he has not offered …).</p>
<p>Haystack–for an above average to top student, the LAC have quite a bit of merit money to award, with a few exceptions. Same goes for NJSue, they may or may not have gone to a LAC for UG to get into med school but again, for better students, quite often LAC end up being LESS expensive than state schools.</p>
<p>I’d like to clarify that I am not anti-LAC, having gone to one myself and having a D who will probably end up at one. But they are not a cheap choice for a lot of people. The more prestigious LACS offer only financial aid (or very little merit aid), so for people with full-COA EFC (such as Haystack and myself), they are indeed the priciest option. There are a lot of LACS that practice tuition discounting in that half the students don’t pay the rack rate. I question, however, whether many of them offer the same academic resources as the average state flagship. I don’t think they do. </p>
<p>As with all of these choices and issues, it is hard to speak in generalities. Depends on the student and the family.</p>
<p>I’m with pizzagirl and marie. Real life isn’t Gossip Girl. If someone is able to afford nice shoes or purses, so what? I like a couple of brands of watches that are quite costly, but it’s what I enjoy and I believe in the quality. No one in my work or social circles seems to feel that they are inferior to me! If you don’t think a lot of the girls at Haverford and Williams aren’t wearing Lily, think again. It’s fashion and trends. Some of it gets pricey. Everyone makes choices. I will agree that Minnesota is not the hotbed of designer trends, but ask some of my friends what brands they prefer in cross country skis, parkas and boots? They have definite opinions and brand names (as well as quality) are important. I get tired of all the pigeon-holing.</p>
<p>Merit money…yes they do. Merit money often tops out at $20,000. Say S receives the most generous merit offer tha Luther College offers…$18,000. Tuition/fees/room/board is $41,000. That leaves $23,000. State flagship is $15,000. The numbers get worse when you start looking at the more expensive (and honestly, better) LACs like Mac.</p>
<p>I am a big fan of LA education and I take USNWR rankings with a large grain of salt. However, many LACs can only attract better students by “buying” them with merit aid. My D, who is a very good but not absolutely stellar student by national standards, could get large merit awards at many such schools. I wouldn’t want her to attend them, however, because she’d get an inferior education to what she would receive at our state flagship, Rutgers, for a comparable price (she would get a small Scarlet Scholarship there and it would cost us approx. 20K per year). Now, for some kids with good-but-not-great stats who just could not thrive at a giant impersonal school, a middling LAC with a lot of merit might be just the ticket. But you pay a price in lesser opportunity and a less competitive peer group. State flagships have plenty of really bright kids among the 40,000 or so enrolled.</p>
<p>Haystack–to compare apples to apples, if you get $20K at Luther in merit aid, your costs are at $21K, University of Iowa estimated costs for '11-'12 are $$21,120…the top 20 kids at UI can get up to $13,000 in merit aid, the next 350 “top students” can get up to $3000, the other 30,000 students there just isn’t much there…that is the difference between a LAC merit money and a state school. Neither type of school is good/bad, just different but to make a blanket statement that LAC are a “luxury” and “cost more” is just wrong.</p>
<p>There are lots of LACs in suburbs that are easily accessible to cities - Sarah Lawrence, Wellesley, Swarthmore and Haverford spring to mind immediately. Vassar has an isolated campus in a small city.</p>
<p>Carleton is an “isolated” school but it sure makes a lot of “lists” on this board. Carleton also knows it is isolated and thus has regular bus service to Minneapolis, St. Paul, Rochester, Mall of America, etc.</p>