LACs: Too homogenous?

College Search & Selection
1

I’m an international student, and love the concept of a LAC (small class sizes, lots of advisers, etc). However, I’m worried by the fact that there are very few non white and non American students.

I’ve heard that these colleges are filled with upper-class, preppy kids, and that you’re expected to be a certain way (dress a certain way, like certain music, have a certain set of ideas etc), and if you don’t “fit in”, you’ll have a hard time finding friends.

Is this true? Is it true of all LACs, or is less true of places like Oberlin and Vassar? International students, are y’all applying to larger universities just to be safe?

2

College websites and the colleges’ reported data for the Common Data Set explicitly state the racial breakdown, the percentage of int’l students, and the percentage of students receiving financial aid, so no need to speculate.

3

And no, all LACs are not full of preppy upper-class kids. Look at the midwestern LACs in particular - Grinnell, Oberlin and Macalester. Pomona and Carleton have a prep contingent but aren’t preppy. Reed is the opposite of preppy. Macalester and Grinnell are 12-14% internationals, last time I looked. Common Data Set will give you the data you are seeking. There are also east coast LACs that aren’t particularly preppy - Swarthmore and Hampshire for example.

4

I went to Oxford College of Emory, a two year LAC part of Emory University. While there I dated a guy from China, had a large number of friends who were not wealthy or white, and met plenty of other international students. One of Oxford’ s most popular events was Holi, a Hindu celebration.

No one cared how others dressed, or what music they liked. While the campus swung predominately liberal, quite a few people did not adhere to that. Indeed I remember getting into a fierce debate in a sociology class about a particular belief that I disagreed with. The professor did not care that I disagreed, only that my belief was well supported.

5

Mount Holyoke has like a ridiculous number of international students-- like 500-600, with a student body only 4 times that size. Internationals usually amount to 10% of most schools that offer financial aid to them.

‘(dress a certain way, like certain music, have a certain set of ideas etc)’

Okay, at least at my school, nobody cares how you dress, but for instance at my friend’s school, Middlebury, it is a norm to dress ‘well’. Schools like Vassar and Oberlin are more similar to mine, where you would not have to dress to please others.

Like certain music? From experience, you can keep your music taste private, and the people who criticize your music will clearly be pretentious hipsters who have never studied music or play an instrument (those who have, on the other hand, willingly listen to the Lizzie McGuire soundtrack with you).

Have a certain set of ideas: Well, most LACs tend to have a very liberal student body. The key is to find an open-minded student body. When I visited Scripps and Pitzer, I found the students very much to my liking in that they were willing to change their views after debating on contentious issues. My friends at Mount Holyoke, on the other hand, have become scarily liberal, almost indoctrinating others into accepting their views, and cursing at those who don’t (there are cases at MHC where not-so-liberal students received death threats). Now I don’t know if this is the pervasive attitude on the campus, and it’s probably not? I can’t say. I don’t go there. While you would probably always be able to find a group of friends at most schools, it is not difficult to be alienated by most of the community if you try to defend the use of the n-word by a white person or something similarly stupid, especially at schools with smaller student bodies.

I come from a very liberal background, so I faced no culture shock or difficulty in finding friends, but that is not the case for all internationals. Wherever you go, just go with an open mind.

6

LACs (like the US states…) are too different to fit into one label. There are definitely LACs that are small & homogenous; there are definitely ones that are very preppy- and ones that are very crunchy granola- and everything in between. There is a lot of info on line to help you sort out the personalities of the various schools

I think it is safe to say, though, that the vast majority of academically competitive LACs would see tolerance and inclusiveness as core values. @GMTplus7’s tip on the Common Data Set is a great place to start. [url =<a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-liberal-arts-colleges/economic-diversity-among-top-ranked-schools”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-liberal-arts-colleges/economic-diversity-among-top-ranked-schools</a>] Here is a list of the most economically diverse LACs.

7

collegemom3717 said it succinctly. May I add that the USA has it all. For a contrary example, S1 went to NYU Stern’s junior day. Noticed that only 5 percent of attendees were caucasian males. The LACs are not quite that extreme, but you can find diversity among the LACs.

8

Re: #5

Here is the economic diversity (% of students on Pell grants) for all schools that USNWR considers to be LACs, rather than what it ranks as the top 25 such schools: http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-liberal-arts-colleges/economic-diversity .

College entries on http://www.collegedata.com show subsets of the Common Data Set, including the bits of information that the OP seems to be interested in.

9

The subject of your post could refer to stereotypical spoiled rich kids, or simply to a collegiate variant of noblesse oblige. It’s the latter ethos that is not uncommon at LACs, particularly a few of the northeastern ones. But at that, whether you find this objectionally stratifying or not, the more prevalent ethos – at least at a well chosen LAC – will be related to intellectual pursuits that supersede superficial differences.

10

I found the economic diversity ranking interesting. Some of the LACs mentioned upthread are among the least economically diverse. Oberlin, in particular, surprised me.

11

More than half the student body at Harvey Mudd is something other than “White, non-Hispanic” according to the latest Common Data Set. About 13% of the student body is international. Trust me that how you dress is not high on the average Mudder’s list, they are too busy to give it a lot of thought.

12

Lack of diversity seems to be characteristic not of LACs per se, but of many selective, private, expensive colleges.Schools with Pell Grant recipients in the low 10%-15% range do include W&L, Whitman, Oberlin, and Swarthmore … but also CalTech, Notre Dame, Tufts, and Princeton. The lowest number in the USNWR lists is for a research university (WUSTL, at only 6%).

13

Check out this link: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/09/upshot/top-colleges-that-enroll-rich-middle-class-and-poor.html?abt=0002&abg=1&_r=0 and the graph about halfway through the article.

14

I can only plug for Swarthmore. It’s really diverse here and lots of social class interaction in my opinion. To my understanding, Oberlin is not that racially diverse :stuck_out_tongue:

15

You can check the Common Data Set for each school, it lists the numbers of students in each different racial and ethnic group.

16

I think it’s ironic that a post on the desirability of diversity is filled with stereotypes.

17

Thanks for all the replies! I think I’ll be applying to LACs that are a little more diverse.

@merc81: I was mostly referring to spoilt rich kids; I’ve never seen high schoolers who embrace the oblesse oblige concept where I’m from, so I don’t know what that’s like.
@whenhen: you’ve convinced me; I’ll be applying to Emory :slight_smile:

18

^ whenhen was referring to Oxford College of Emory, which is basically a 2-year feeder program to Emory University, and which has a separate application from Emory University: http://www.emory.edu/home/admission/index.html. So be sure where you are applying.