<p>Outside US, which has a better reputation? Getting jobs possible with either degree? I know in terms of rankng, Swat is much higher but..</p>
<p>Outside of the US? where exactly, I mean, which country? Neither of them has a great reputation outside of the US, in my opinion. Most LACs are not popular in countries other than the US. Even Amherst and Williams are NOT that reputable outside of the US. Maybe except in Canada.</p>
<p>If you are concern about school prestige, then it’s better for you to go to a university of Swarthmore’s calibre such as JHU, Rice, Berkeley, UVa, Cornell, Michigan, Northwestern or Duke.</p>
<p>I would thing swat. but seriously, no one outside of America has heard of most of the liberal arts schools.</p>
<p>do you mean international reputation?Absolutely Swart.
Swart is like super hot in China.lol~</p>
<p>I like both schools, but I think they are different places.</p>
<p>Colgate is more pre-professional and embraces the “work hard/play hard” model. I know bright students who have gone, and its has a reputation for a pretty challenging workload (a reputation propagated by my HS GC).</p>
<p>Swarthmore is much more liberal artsy, with a very high percentage of students going on to pursue PhD’s.</p>
<p>I would say if you want to be groomed for a job after graduation and be around other students who are professionally ambitious, go for Colgate.</p>
<p>Outside the United States (meaning everything besides Canada) the overall “reputation” of American colleges is fairly high to extremely high. The university system in Europe for example is very different from our own and the overall college experience is about 180 degrees from ours. Its a great experience for Americans to attend Sorbonne, Oxford or Cambridge, but they all come home to say our overall system is very different and probably more “student” friendly, and a lot less restrictive on socio-economic levels. Many countries have very difficult admissions standards which favors the upper classes.</p>
<p>The question of whether a particular American college is well known is another matter. I would suggest that most American colleges are not well known, if known at all overseas, with the exception of some very famous schools (Ivy League) and some famous sports schools (USC, UCLA, Michigan, Ohio State etc.) If you are thinking about working for a major European or Asian corporation, or an American corporation with offices overseas, that can be resolved in their personnel offices, most of whom will ask to verify your education and they will do their own research on the school. </p>
<p>You may also want to look into the cultural differences in some countries where they may have a “preference” for their own citizens and their own elite colleges, or conversely ask at Colgate and Swarthmore how many of their graduates are working overseas and where they are working.</p>
<p>In Hong Kong, we used to have “colleges” giving out “diploma” vs “universities” giving out “degrees”. About a decade ago, “colleges” started to get upgraded to “universities” one by one and every one of them is now “university”. </p>
<p>The graduate/professional schools contribute a lot to international reputation and a lot more internationals come here as graduate students. LACs just don’t have them.</p>
<p>Virtually no one knows LACs in Hong Kong and if they see that you went to XYZ “college”, they may think you were not smart enough to get into any “university”.</p>
<p>Do you mean it is better to go to Colgate UNIVERSITY instead of Swarthmore COLLEGE hongkong wise?</p>
<p>As an international (Singapore), currently enrolled in an LAC (Pomona), I’ll give my 2 cents worth.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Where are you from? Surprisingly, many people in China seem to be in the know when it comes to LACs. I’m not sure if this has to do with the surge in demand for an American education or anything. </p></li>
<li><p>Having said that, it is sadly true that most outside the US have never heard of an LAC. My dad’s friends knew all the LACs I was applying to mainly because they have sons and daughters educated in the US. That aside, LACs are not only not regarded highly, they are unknown. The situation is gradually changing in some countries outside the US as people recognize the teaching excellence of these colleges, but LACs still have a very long way to go in establishing a credible reputation for themselves.</p></li>
<li><p>Thus, if you intend to look for a job outside the USA with a bachelor’s degree from an LAC, that could be tough. You will be better served going to a reputable university like an Ivy or Stanford or a Berkeley. If you like smaller universities/ universities with more undergraduate attention, places like Chicago, Brown, Dartmouth, or Vanderbilt should be considered. Do remember, however, that many investment banks and American MNCs in your country will likely have employers who have heard of high-ranked LACs. So you won’t be entirely out of contention for a job. It depends a lot of your employers as well.</p></li>
<li><p>I would suggest you “ask around” the corporate workplace (through your dad and friends) and get a sense of how reputable Swat/Colgate is. This should give you an idea of what some of us are talking about. Even within national universities, some good ones are unknown by most internationals. So ask around and get an idea.</p></li>
<li><p>You can actually choose to attend either Swat or Colgate, and then attend grad school, like Harvard/Yale Law or pursue grad studies in one of the top 5 universities. This way, you can get the excellent undergrad education at both of these schools together with the prestige of the grad school. The obvious downsides to this are cost and time.</p></li>
<li><p>If you want an opinion between Swarthmore and Colgate, international wise, I would strongly recommend Swat over Colgate. I refused to apply to Colgate simply because it is the brand of toothpaste that most people in my country use, and I can’t stomach the idea of going to a college that most of my folks think make toothpaste for degrees. Swat comes across as an excellent, elite, rigorous school and if you get substantial financial aid, you should still consider going there. Colgate is an excellent school as well, but not in the league of Swat.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Er, the word “university” may lend an air of credibility to the name, but will do very little if employers have not heard of the college/university as a whole, regardless of it’s semantic name.</p>
<p>I agree with Sam Lee. I also think that Colgate University and Swarthmore College are quite different with respect to campus culture and, therefore, the entire undergraduate educational experience. Schools such as Harvard and NYU are much better known overseas, if a typicalization must be made.</p>
<p>I am an international needing aid.. and LACs give better aid than huge popular universities.. so schools like JHU, NYU are out of the question…</p>
<p>Wouldn’t it be better to ask the question, which of these schools will give me the education I want and need?</p>
<p>nope, an education means nothing without prestige. You do not get a good job because of how great your Spanish Literature class was, but because you went to a prestigious school. Colgate and Swarthmore are defiantly prestigious though.</p>
<p>The good LACs, generally speaking, provide an education equal to or better than a good university. The issue here is not quality, but prestige. Considering that, top LACs do very, very strongly when it comes to top tier university graduate and professional school placement. Grad school prestige and quality should be the focus. Undergraduates should look for the best education. For example, someone who goes to Swat or Colgate undergrad and gets an MBA from HBS or Wharton or U of C b-school is just as qualified as an HYPMSC etc. undergrad who got an MBA from the same grad school.</p>
<p>The OP is talking about recruitment prospects outside the US (and maybe Canada). LACs are pretty unknown over there, be it Asia, Australia, Middle East and whatnot. It is, however, definitely my hope that this changes.</p>
<p>btw, I liked the typo by abanks ‘defiantly prestigious’ or was it a typo? ;)</p>
<p>hey, thanks for pointing that out, I meant “definitely” obviously.</p>