@LoveTheBard: Right, but that’s you. Surely you can understand how another member of a minority group/religion may feel differently about this issue, no?
D20’s school has about 700-750 students per class, and they go everywhere from Ivy League to community college.
That being said, the school recently released where the top 10% are headed (so about 70 kids).
One is going to Reed. There is usually one at WashU. One is aiming for a career on Broadway.
Every Ivy will have one of our grads except Cornell.
Quite a few are going to larger universities such as Georgetown, Vanderbilt, Tulane, SMU, Notre Dame, etc. (UCLA has a surprising number IMO since we aren’t near the west coast).
We are near a couple of those Colleges That Change Lives, and several are going there. There is a perception as to why travel hundreds of miles to attend an LAC when we’ve got nationally recognized ones in our backyard.
And, there seem to be a lot going to our state’s flagship university as well as flagships of every surrounding state and a few two states over, which brings me to my thoughts on the “why”: Because the school is so large, few kids really want to attend a college significantly smaller than their high school. What they are doing is enrolling in the Honors Colleges at in-state and nearby publics. I guess they want a LAC-type personalized education while having the benefits of a large university such as sports and Greek life.
My daughter has zero interest in attending a school approximately the size of her high school (or smaller!). I mentioned Earlham to her for the Japanese program – then I looked it up at it has 981 students, which is smaller than her high school. She’s also profoundly uninterested in a rural or small town school.
A friend who went to Reed found it to be too small almost immediately. Her high school class was about 800, the school is a powerhouse in sports (although I’m not sure she cared), tons of clubs, languages offered, music options, arts. Even though Reed is in a city, it was just too small and I’m sure doesn’t offer everything her high school did.
I really wanted my daughter to go to the Coast Guard Academy. Too small for her. She was recruited by almost all the LACs in Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and she’d quickly tell them ‘No thank you.’ I think the school she’s attending is pretty tame, but at least there is a beach, a few restaurants, and a mall.
We went to an “8 of the best colleges” college fair that included schools like Grinnell and Kenyon. Our S19 was not interested in LACs for many of the reasons already listed on this thread, but I wanted to go. After their presentations, he was super impressed and totally understands why a student would choose an LAC. We are visiting a few this summer and some in the fall. His high school class has 700 kids and very few go to LACs. I think that’s to his advantage…and, when I look at Naviance, the kids who HAVE applied to LACs have done very well with acceptances.
My D really wanted (and is at) a LAC, but she was wary of the smallness of some of them. She thought those with less than 2,000 students would be too small.
LACs were particularly emphasized because of their small size. Our instate flagship is nearly 30,000 students. D graduated from a class of 105. It was a new school and the first year it was just freshman and sophomore and they added a class each year, so first year under 200 total, second year around 300 and senior year just under 400. Her middle school total enrollment grades 6-8 was around 200. The numbers at the Universities scared the bejeezus out of her lol. Her college enrolls around 2500 which is the perfect size of her.
“Surely you can understand how another member of a minority group/religion may feel differently about this issue, no?”
@PurpleTitan, YOU didn’t seem to get this. You jumped to the conclusion that because I didn’t agree with you, I must have no experience being a minority. In fact, I’d actually lived the experience you were talking about. So yeah, people may feel differently.
@Hanna: Yes, I made an assumption, but that’s because you stated “50 is plenty for fellowship during college”.
That statement doesn’t show a lot of awareness that there may be people who think differently from you.
Just counted and over 30 of the 100 students from D17’s senior class are attending LACs. This is a private school on the west coast. The list includes 4 of the 5 Claremont colleges(8), Amherst, Williams, Swat(2), Haverford, Middlebury(2), Wellesley, Barnard(2), MtHolyoke(2), Carleton(2), St.Olaf(2) and quite a few more. I think because many of their classes have been seminar-style, the smaller class sizes generally found at LACs is a big selling point with these students.
I think it has a lot to do with the parent’s education level, socioeconomic status, country where parent’s were born and what schools are “hot” according to one’s peers. All of those factors play into choosing an LAC imo.
0f the 40 US universities or LAC’s that are need blind and meet 100% of demonstrated need, 40% are LAC’s; of the 40 largest endowments per student, 60% are LAC’s; of the 40 schools with the highest avg. ACT scores, 30% are LAC"s - there are incredible schools across both segments.
@PurpleTitan - Yes, I can understand how others might feel differently than I – either about their minority status and/or their preferences with respect to their educational and social experiences. I certainly can’t speak for @Hanna, but I seem to recall that it YOU that assumed that neither she nor I had any experience with being a member of a minority group simply because we both voiced an opinion that differed from yours.
In the 1970s I attended our state’s flagship. I cannot remember meeting anyone in the classroom that led to as much as a cup of coffee. Everyone I hung out with were guys who lived on the same floor as our 8-story dorm. I might have had the same experience on the second floor at an LAC. Plus, with more smaller classes other than freshman English, I would at least known the names of the students in my classes. I recall huge classes even in my junior and senior years.
D13 went to NCSU and loved the large anonymous classes and he breadth of courses offered. D17’s private high school had under 500 students, with a graduating class of 110, and she was far short of knowing every student, even the seniors. (She did attend for just 2 years). She had no interest in a big public and will be going to Reed.
So it depends on the student. Do you want a big Greek scene? Big NCAA sports? Huge undergrad course selection? Or smaller classes and professors who know your name?
Here in NC, nearly everyone in our neighborhood sends their kids to public school, and almost all of these go to a public uni. I assume the parents wonder behind our backs why we are sending D17 to the other coast. Maybe because she found a good fit at a LAC. And we like that, at least for the top 50, (maybe top 100) LACs, the amount of money the college devotes to each student (FTI) can be multiple times more what is spent at the increasingly underfunded publics.
@PetulaClark, you are correct in that # of universities in the endowment per student rankings as you go from 40-100 is shockingly small - http://www.reachhighscholars.org/college_endowments.html. Agree that an LAC is a better investment than paying OOS at many public universities when they are $50k+/year.
I think everyone should apply to hendrix and muhlenebrg.
and a lot of students should look at lafayette and denison (a little different appeal perhaps)
but that is just my opinion. (and nobody listens to me 
)
Sorry folks, skipped most posts. LAC’s would hopefully be off the radar of most students who have better public U’s to choose from. I simply see zero reasons to consider them. But, I come from the Midwest where we have quality public schools and don’t need to consider those to get a top education. I do not care if i offend the grads of LAC’s here- I feel lucky to come from a state which has better public options. So glad I didn’t need coddling at a limited offerings school.
Sorry, mis-posted a comment that belonged in another thread.
“coddling at a limited offerings school”, yes, count me offended.
Not offended, but I don’t think it’s fair to paint all LACs with such a broad brush. I don’t think all big publics are overwhelming and impersonal. Every school is a good fit for some kids but not others.