Are liberal arts colleges perceived as second tier?

<p>Well, I order Deans Beans online and grind it myself. I believe that home-brewing is the way to go. Anecdotal of course, but I think my coffee is more creative and independent tasting because of that.</p>

<p>I prefer the smaller cafes with 15 seats max; much more personal attention from the barrister.</p>

<p>Well, my place may be a bit too far off the elite coffee path for y’all but we have stimulating conversations while the java is brewing. </p>

<p>We discuss the rain we didn’t get yesterday, the rain we won’t get today, and the zero chance of rain we have for the week ahead. </p>

<p>Typical conversation:
Howdy.
Howdy.
Any chance?
Nah. Gonna go North of us.
Tomorrow?
Nope. Gonna go South of us.
Damn.
You gonna be O.K…?
If I can teach’em to eat dirt and suck rocks.
Better get to it, then.
Say hi to your mother for me.</p>

<p>What is this Peet’s stuff you people are talking about? Oh, I suppose I’ve heard of it, and I’m sure it’s not bad. But if it’s all that good, I mean, why am I not seeing it at Whole Foods? I tried searching “Peet’s” on the Dean & Deluca site, and it came back, “Did you mean: beets?” No hits, not one. Heck, Starbucks is even published, er, sold at my local Safeway.</p>

<p>Now, if you want to talk rare coffees, we can have that conversation.</p>

<p>Hidden away in a remote valley (I am not privileged to say where) lies an exclusive bed & breakfast that serves America’s finest coffee. You do not pay money to stay there, it is by invitation only to the future Masters of the Universe. These painfully brilliant and industrious young guests grow and pick the beans, then lovingly roast, grind, and brew their coffee. On leisurely evenings they serve it to each other as they discuss the finer points of Russian novels, graph theory, and the birth of stars.</p>

<p>Few of you have heard of this coffee, I know. None of us will taste it in our lifetimes. It is the exquisite, the rare Deep Springs coffee.</p>

<p>tk, we looked into that. Turns out Deep Springs only offers instruction in one kind of coffee, and not even very in depth on that. So if you happen to want to know a little about Hawaiian Kona, while you’e BS’ing under the stars, sure go to Deep Springs. But what if it turns out you actually prefer Columbian? Sumatra Mandheling? Tanzania Peaberry? Then you’re just SOL*. Not to even mention if turns out you want to do tea instead…</p>

<p>Besides it’s in a second tier location.</p>

<p>*(can I say that?? Not sure which tier SM addressess…)</p>

<p>I think this thread’s gotten a bit off course!</p>

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<p>The above is one of the most beautiful sentences I’ve ever read on CC. Sigh.</p>

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<p>Geez, I thought LACs were not pre-professional, did not know they offered a legal education! ;)</p>

<p>Yea, I think we’ve exhausted the topic of LAC vs. research unis. Too bad, I was going to include Dunkin’ Donuts as the safety school you gotta love (I’m told it serves a mighty good coffee, too, and you don’t need to dip into your retirement funds to treat your kids to some of its offerings)</p>

<p>I am a fan of both Peet’s and Starbucks. I know that Starbucks hasn’t been cool in, like, forever, but I still like it.</p>

<p>However, on a recent trip to San Francisco, I wound up in a store that turns out to have a deserved cult following: Red Blossom Tea Company. Vintage pu-erhs from the 1980s! Charcoal-roasted oolongs! Custom herbal blends! And really knowledgeable, attractive sales staff, who were happy to start at the beginning ("This is tea. You brew it in hot water . . . ") for a newbie.</p>

<p>Yum – that sounds delicious. I threw a tea-themed party once and went all out on buying a delicious Earl Grey cream tea that I bought so much of I use it as potpourri!</p>

<p>I think we, coffee connoisseurs and wannabes, ought to amble over to the cafe.</p>

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<p>Bad coffee: grounds for disagreement.</p>

<p>This coffee, ground this morning, tastes like mud.</p>

<p>Liberal arts colleges are by no means inferior to universities. Many lack the name recognition but for undergraduate teaching they are superior. LACs do not have the recognition because they often but not always lack grad schools, advanced research, and top-notch sports teams. However, grad schools often know more about these schools than the general public. This is why schools like Davidson and Swarthmore are constantly ranked above many large universities in rankings. From my experience it seems like top-notch universities usually beat top-notch LACs but slightly lower LACs always beat slightly lower universities. For example, in South Carolina, Furman is a whole lot better than either USC or Clemson.</p>

<p>One school better than another? Better for whom? The non-existent generic student? Each student’s criteria are different.</p>

<p>Why pull up a three year old thread to regrind the discussion?</p>

<p>This was an exceptionally painful thread to re-read some three years later. An awful lot of good CCers got drawn into creating false dichotomies like, “LACs don’t attract students interested in law, medicine and business” or that universities don’t cultivate the “life of the mind”. The the fangs really came out. Somewhere back at post#302, Marite made the single most salient point of the entire thread – and it was promptly forgotten:</p>

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<p>“It really comes down to size.”</p>

<p>This seems reasonable, but is there actually a survey to support it?</p>

<p>Stale three-year-old thread. Ew. Why am I bumping it then? CC is like crack.</p>