<p>Alright, following the trend of name recognition, what is everybody's opinion for LACs. This is my incomplete idea:
Tier 1: Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore
Tier 2: Carleton, Bowdoin, Wellesly, Middlebury, Wesleyan
Tier 3: Davidson, Bates, Colby, Haverford
Tier 4: Kenyon, Grinnell, Gettysburg</p>
<p>I know that this is very incomplete! Please add and offer your own opinions!</p>
<p>Where does Holy Cross fit in there?</p>
<p>What about Vassar?</p>
<p>I think in terms of pure name recognition (regardless of whether you would attend the place or not) Tier I: Amherst, Swarthmore, Wesleyan, Colgate, Reed, most of the Seven Sisters and maybe Williams and Haverford, (the latter two, depending whether the person you're talking to has heard of either Amherst or Swarthmore, in the first place. In general, I would say that if they've heard of one eastern LAC, they've probably heard of all of them -- if not, then pay them for your Happy Meal and move on.</p>
<p>Amherst and Williams and maybe Swarthmore</p>
<p>Otherwise, the others have about the same name recognition, ie zero.</p>
<p>Yeah, I would definitely say if you know tier 2, you basically know all of them. If you don't, then you know Amherst and Williams. Which is too bad, 'cause I'm definitely an LAC fan.</p>
<p>Colgate, Davidson,and Holy Cross are well known not only for academics but also as the only top LAC's that play Div.1 sports.</p>
<p>Um, what about Bucknell and Lafeyette, par72?</p>
<p>i live within a 6 hour drive of all the new england LACs, in a very competitive and upperclass SES area, where 98% of hs grads go to 4yr college. and i read A LOT. everything and anything i can get a hand on. </p>
<p>when i first started the process, the only LACs that I knew were great schools were Amherst, Swarthmore, Middlebury, Wesleyan, Vassar.</p>
<p>I didnt even hear of ANY of the midwestern schools until i started perusing these boards (oberlin? kenyon???? grinnell??? carelton??) etc. as well as some of the less common NE schools (holy cross is that a seminary?? connecticut college is a community college? colgate was in march madness several years back but it cant be good if it has that name....etc etc etc)</p>
<p>even though the LACs are often superior to large universities, they will always be overshadowed in terms of national prestige, because of the nature of the LAC itself.</p>
<p>Out here in the midwest, most people haven't heard of any LACs, including the top schools. Of course, some people have heard of them -- but there are lots of educated professional people who really only know the ivies, the big 10 and other universities with football teams. Seriously - it's not that important.</p>
<p>where does pomona fit into these tiers?</p>
<p>Pomona plays the same role that its sister school, Stanford plays and that Rice plays in Texas, which is basically, the only private school of any heft for hundreds of miles around, within a region dominated by comprehensive state systems; it is a supreme irony that more easterners have heard of Pomona than have native Californians.</p>
<p>so where does pomona fit into these tiers?</p>
<p>I'd add vassar to tier 1 along with bard and Sarah Lawrence to tier 2 in terms of recognition. Other than that pretty accurate list from what I've seen.</p>
<p>"so where does pomona fit into these tiers?"</p>
<p>Tier 2 - only because, by the time you explain what a Claremont College is, the avg person's eyes have already begun to glaze over.</p>
<p>As far as Midwest kids interested in an LAC, many have heard of the big names in the east, but opt for one of the high quality schools located in our region. For instance, no mention yet of Kalamazoo College--an excellent LAC in Michigan.</p>
<p>^ peace i just got into kalamazoo yesterday,yaya</p>
<p>Really? Congrats! S. is still waiting to hear. Have you visited yet? Are you In/OOS? Not that it matters as far as tuition is concerned. Know any current or former students? If so, what have they said about it?</p>
<p>LACs in general have little name recognition among the general public; this point seems to come up on CC pretty regularly. So does the point that you can get an excellent education at many small schools, including those well outside the officially recognized USNWR top ten. When my son attended Williams in the late 1990s and early 2000s, lots of people beyond the small circle of high school friends and teachers had not heard of Williams. In those days Amherst was slightly better known--because still number 1:)--so we all reached a point of tellinb people Williams was in northwestern Massachusetts, and soemtimes adding, "It's the one that isn't Amherst". A frivolous repsonse maybe, but it really didn't matter: Both were and are gerat schools, and when it mattered, people had heard of them. (A couple of year ago the mother of one of my younger child's classmates told me that one of the boys in our children's graduating class had gotten an early write acceptance at Skidmore when in fact it was Swarthmore.)</p>
<p>I will admit that when my son applied for jobs the year he graduated (not at college recruiting sessions but in our local city after graduation) the people who interviewed him had not all heard of his college, but he got a job taht met his needs, and the next year he started studying at exactly the graduate school program he wanted, which he got into and got funding from precisely because the graduate program knew Williams and my son's professors. </p>
<p>And that is the greater point: graduate and professional programs and increasing numbers of employers know the good small schools (and by that I am going well beyond the classic AWS triumvirate). Professors at most LACS are products of the nation's top and/or most prominent graduate programs; a newly minted, teaching-oriented political scientist or historian or math Ph.D. from a great graduate program will be delighted beyond words to get a tenure-track position at Kenyon or Whitman or Coiby, let alone Wesleyan or Bowdoin or Davidson or (gasp with awe) Amherst or Williams. Employers in many fields have attended or have colleagues (or children) who a have attended these schools. The world at large may not know them, but the world that will matter at college graduation time probably does.</p>
<p>There is also a critical regional variable here that probably comes into play in the pragmatic world of post college employment, especially outside the academic track. Earlham, Kenyon, and Carleton could be unknown to some on either coast but clearly distinguished for a variety of different things among midwesterners. Whitman's caliber is known in the northwest but vague or unknown in the northeast; but if you are job-seeking in Portland it may well outrank Williams....Of course, if the employers themselves went to LACs they will have a whole different level of recognition and curiosity. The problem with rankings is that they are linear and what is being "measured" isn't, so the whole phenomenon is misleading.</p>