Best LAC's by region

College Search & Selection
1

<p>What do you guys think are the best Liberal Arts Colleges by region? </p>

<p>Here's my list</p>

<p>Northeast:
1. Williams
2. Amherst
--drop---
3. Bowdoin
4. Middlebury </p>

<p>Mid-Atlantic:
1. Swarthmore
--drop--
2. Haverford</p>

<p>South/Southeast
1. Davidson
--big drop--
2. W&L
--huge drop--
3. Rhodes
4. Furman
5. Sewanee</p>

<p>Midwest
1. Carleton
2. Grinnell
3. Kenyon
4. Oberlin
5. Macalester</p>

<p>West
1. Pomona
2. Claremont McKenna
--drop--
3. Reed
--big drop--
4. Colorado College
5. Occidental</p>

<p>Thoughts?</p>

2

<p>about 10,000 people applied to Wesleyan last year. Were they all just trying to avoid writing an extra essay? :/</p>

3

<p>South-</p>

<p>Davidson, William & Mary, Washington & Lee. W&L has changed from the redneck, wealthy, frat boy school over the past 20 yrs. Going coed really had a positive effect.</p>

4

<p>Forgot about Wes. Good call</p>

5

<p>I’m seeing an absence of women’s colleges.</p>

6

<p>Yeah, what about Smith, Wellesley, Bryn Mawr? Last weekend I met someone out of Wellesley working in ibanking.</p>

7

<p>Public LAC in the Northeast would be SUNY Geneseo (member of COPLAC)</p>

8

<p>I’d move Oberlin ahead of Kenyon and Grinnell.</p>

9

<p>^just b/c you attend a certain school and like it doesn’t mean its necessarily the best for another</p>

10

<p>As long as Rhodes is above Sewanee in the south ranking, then I’m happy! ;-)</p>

11

<p>New College of Florida should be listed among southern LACs (and the premier public southern LAC, since it is part of the state university system of Florida, and no other southern public LAC comes close). It’s only been around since 1960 and an independent school since 2001.</p>

<p>Eight Fulbright Scholars out of less than 800 students (about 160 2009 graduates) puts NCF among the top producers of Fulbrights per capita.</p>

<p>Ten percent of NCF graduates go on to law school, 2/3 to professional and graduate school, and ten percent of science majors (AOCs) receive either PhDs or MDs within ten years of graduation.</p>

12

<p>In the West, Whitman should be on the list.</p>

13

<p>Colgate and Hamilton?</p>

14

<p>Vassar College?</p>

15

<p>…CC is so obsessed with rankings.</p>

16

<p>Middlebury also has no supplementary essay.</p>

<p>I would add Smith, Mt. Holyoke, Bryn Mawr, Barnard, Wellesley, and Scripps to the list. The top women’s colleges offer an equal level of academics. Also Vassar, though coed, because it’s about the same level as Wesleyan. For the Midwest, I’d put Oberlin up with Carleton and Grinnell, add a drop before Kenyon and Macalester. Agreed on the addition of Whitman to the West.</p>

<p>I’m not convinced that public LACs necessarily deserve a place just because they are public; the best public LAC in a region is not necessarily among the top LACs, period.</p>

17

<p>Middlebury had a supplemental essay last year.</p>

18

<p>^ I wouldn’t know. It doesn’t this year, anyway, unless the current CA Supplement is wrong.</p>

19

<p>Last year my S received an email from Wesleyan inviting him to apply. Do many top LACs do that?</p>

20

<p>“…CC is so obsessed with rankings.”</p>

<p>Of course, you’re obviously a complete failure if you don’t go to Ivy/Little Ivy/Caltech/MIT and would be better off going to a community college and getting a McJob. Want fries with that?</p>