Cons of these colleges please

  1. Long, cold winters: potentially every school on the list, esp. Carleton
  2. Rural isolation: Most of the LACs, esp. Hamilton
  3. Limited course and program offerings: all the LACs to some extent (depending on what you want)
  4. Limited need-base aid for OOS students: all the state schools
  5. Extremely competitive admission standards: Brown ... Swarthmore, Carleton, Tufts
  6. High sticker prices: all of them, but especially the private schools (and the public schools for OOS students)
  7. Doctrinaire lefty-liberal political correctness: Oberlin (and to some extent many of the others)
  8. Towel-snapping careerist frat-boy culture: F&M, maybe
  9. Sketchy surrounding neighborhoods: Clark
  10. Limited name recognition: Almost all of them, depending on where you live and your social/career circles
  11. Especially intense, demanding academics: Swarthmore, Carleton (but potentially many of the others, depending on courses and program)
  12. Loosey goosey "open curriculum" : Brown, Hamilton ... Rochester (could be a positive if that's what you want)
  13. Dominance by one or a couple of especially strong programs: Kenyon for English, Tufts for IR (again, could be positive if you want these majors)
  14. High concentrations (~50%) of very affluent full-pay students: All the expensive private schools (could be positive, negative, or indifferent depending on how comfortable you are around "rich kids").
  15. Limited/crappy D1 sports and so-called "school spirit": Virtually all of them, maybe excepting F&M (again, could be a positive if you don't WANT all that)