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First of, outside of Amherst, Williams, and Swarthmore, LAC's virtually have zero brand name recognition. ...</p>
<p>LAC's are very good schools, but again, unless you go to the aforementioned three, you're not gonna get a lot of respect. But if you feel that an LAC is a good fit, then go for it.
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<p>I am fairly certain that Wellesley has a pretty darn decent brand name.</p>
<p>Here's an amazing run: five of the Nobel prize winners in the last six years graduated from Williams, Amherst , or Swarthmore.</p>
<p>2001 Economics: Joseph Stiglitz, Amherst '64</p>
<p>2003 Economics: Robert Engle, Williams '64</p>
<p>2004 Economics: Edward Prescott, Swarthmore '62</p>
<p>2006 Economics: Edmund Phelps, Amherst '55
2006 Physics: John Mather, Swarthmore '68</p>
<p>This was the fourth Nobel Prize awarded to an Amherst grad and the fifth awarded to a Swarthmore grad. Kind of amazing when you consider how few graduates there are from both schools.</p>
<p>The others are:</p>
<p>Chemistry 1972, Christian Anfinsen, Swarthmore '37
Medicine 1975, David Baltimore, Swarthmore '60
Medicine 1975, Howard Temin, Swarthmore '55</p>
<p>Medicine 1989, Harold Varmus, Amherst '61
Physics 1990, Henry Kendall, Amherst '50</p>
<p>I.D.,</p>
<p>Do you know what I find even more amazing?! :)
How about the fact that a college that is outside of most people radar on CC, and with a current alumni population of only 13,000 and a college that only expanded its enrollment from 700 to 1150 in the 1980's has 4 Nobel Prize winners too...</p>
<p>Of course, I'm referring to Haverford. :)</p>
<p>-Joseph Taylor '63 1993 Prize in Physics
-Phillip Baker '08 1959 Prize for Peace (for engineering the League of Nations)
-Henry Cadbury '03 1947 Prize for Peace (on behalf of AFSC founded by Rufus Jones '85)
-Theodore Richards '85 1914 Prize for Chemistry</p>
<p>Add three from Oberlin, too. Somebody should put together a complete list of LAC grad Nobel winners.</p>
<p>Certainly more people have heard of Penn State or UMaryland than Williams or Bowdoin, but still doesn't change the fact that the latter two have a much more accomplished student body. All this talk of how LACs don't have any practical degrees ignores the fact that many (if not most) of the top universities (Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Dartmouth, Brown, Columbia, Duke, Stanford, JHU, UChicago, Northwestern, Tufts, etc.) don't have undergrad business either.</p>