<p>And on the East Coast, not many people care about the UCs. 
But there are lots of Californians and Texans in East Coast schools, both at universities and LACs.</p>
<p>As for why Stanford gets 20k applicants while Swarthmore gets about 6K, each Stanford’s class is 1,700, larger than the whole of Swarthmore’s student body (1500). One could argue that Stanford ought to get more applicants!</p>
<p>Great point, marite! The top LACs are far more impressive than all these UC-Whatevers.</p>
<p>^^^^^^</p>
<p>I agree Pizzagirl, who GAS? Here in Georgia, they say, Amherst, huh, what, duh? Mention UGA Honors and people almost **** themselves. Did D care? Not one bit!</p>
<p>“As for why Stanford gets 20k applicants while Swarthmore gets about 6K, each Stanford’s class is 1,700, larger than the whole of Swarthmore’s student body (1500). One could argue that Stanford ought to get more applicants!”</p>
<p>Uhhh no. The size of Stanford’s class is irrelevant.</p>
<p>More people want to go to Stanford than any LAC.</p>
<p>dstark – If Harvard is that popular, how come only 27,000 or so students apply there? Berkeley, UCLA, they pull in twice as many applications! So, obviously, students think they are better than Harvard. Right? And MIT. MIT only gets 15,000 applications. What’s up with that? Is MIT so clearly worse than Dartmouth?</p>
<p>GA2012 - Here in the deep South, the football reputation of colleges and universities tends to trump almost anything else. But in most other parts of the country, Amherst is at the pinnacle of American higher education. Those who aren’t aware of that aren’t typical in positions to impact a young person’s future.</p>
<p>JHS, never mentioned anything about better.</p>
<p>Your posts are well written.</p>
<p>I think more students would rather go to UCLA than Harvard.</p>
<p>dstark, your logic eludes me. . .</p>
<p>That’s ok, morandi. Only a few people understand and those are the ones that matter. ;)</p>
<p>The size of the applicant pool is highly correlated to the size of the student body. Large state schools such as UCSD or UMich get far more applicants than Harvard or Stanford. More people wanting to go to UCLA rather than Stanford? Or more people thinking they can get into UCLA rather than Stanford? Or more people thinking they can get in-state tuition? </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Yup. That’s precisely the point to make in response to the OP. On any given day, there are more people traipsing through Walmart than through Tiffany’s.</p>
<p>Marite, …ok.</p>
<p>Popularity is the only legitimate metric of quality…ooh…ooh…gotta run. I hear that Britney Spears is adding dates to her tour. Gotta be first in line. ;)</p>
<p>dstark, i guess it’s always good to know your audience. . .;-)</p>
<p>Never mentioned quality.</p>
<p>Why be so insecure that you care what other people think or do? The masses also shop at Walmart and think that Olive Garden is fine cuisine. Doesn’t make it so.</p>
<p>It says loads about someone that they need to take a poll of what everyone else thinks. Like I said before, it’s like the kind of person who feels compelled to wear designer labels plastered all over because they want to make sure others approve. While those with true style can wear lesser known labels and be quietly satisfied that they are wearing fine clothing. </p>
<p>The average person thinks Rolex is the “best” watch. Watch connoiseurs know better. Same thing with education.</p>
<p>There are universities that separate their undergraduate programs from the graduate mission by referring to undergrads as being enrolled in the College, The University of Chicago and Harvard are two examples. These schools explicitly have their students enrolled in the university run LAC.</p>
<p>Out here in the NW, many kids pass-up universities, public and private for LACs throughout the nation. S1 & S2 have friends who readily turned down such schools as UC Berkeley, U Washington, and UCLA for Williams, Bowdion, Reed, Bryn Mawr, etc. The kids recognize the quality of these schools even if the typical football fan does not.</p>
<p>Hmmmmm . . . . It’s easy to admit that more students want to go to Stanford than to Amherst.</p>
<p>I’m thinking about Michael Bay and Ingmar Bergman or Francois Truffaut. Now, if you added up all the people who have ever paid to see a movie by Bergman or Truffaut, or Bergman AND Truffaut, you probably don’t get to the number of people who bought tickets to (or DVDs of) the sixth-most popular Michael Bay film, whatever it is. There is no way of defining popularity that doesn’t make Michael Bay vastly more popular than Bergman or Truffaut. But . . . you want a job with Steven Spielberg, whose recommendation would you rather have? Whose films do you want to talk to him about?</p>
<p>By the way, many (maybe even most) of the faculty at the major research university where I work send their kids to LACs: Amherst, Haverford, Swarthmore, Wesleyan come to mind. A few to Ivys: Dartmouth, Harvard, Yale. A few to our own major research university. But very few to peer major research schools or other universities for that matter. I think there’s an acknowledgement that the quality of the UNDERGRADUATE education at a small LAC is especially unique and excellent.</p>
<p>JHS, the numbers don’t lie.</p>
<p>Who is Michael Bay?</p>
<p>JHS, that’s just Small Change in the currency of popularity. ;)</p>