<p>Mass College of Liberal ARts costs the same for a NYS resident as do the SUNY colleges (such as Potsdam, Oneonta, New Paltz etc). With the exception of SUNY Geneseo, which is the elite of the SUNY colleges, does anyone know how Mass. C of LA compares to the SUNY colleges? I am referencing class size, reputation, atmosphere, success in grad school admission, research possibilities, etc.
Thanks.</p>
<p>I don’t know anything about the school but did check it out on students review dot com. You may want to read the posts and see what you think.</p>
<p>You’re asking a big question, since there are about 20 SUNYs that offer 4 year degrees, and they all have different strengths and weaknesses. </p>
<p>MCLA is a decent school. It has been growing in reputation the past 10 years because of major grants and the name change. It’s not selective. It has cross enrollment with Williams. It’s located in a very small, arts-friendly city. There are a lot of teachers who attend MCLA for their graduate degrees.</p>
<p>I can’t answer your question about reputation, since there are so many SUNYs, and it all depends on what major you are interested in.</p>
<p>You can go to [Free</a> College Search | Scholarships | College Admissions Requirements](<a href=“http://www.collegeboard.com%5DFree”>http://www.collegeboard.com), look up some pertinent statistics on the school in terms of admissions and the academic makeup of the student body and draw your own conclusions. </p>
<p>Mass College of Liberal Arts, 78% admitted,
* 7% had h.s. GPA of 3.75 and higher
* 7% had h.s. GPA between 3.5 and 3.74
* 15% had h.s. GPA between 3.25 and 3.49
* 18% had h.s. GPA between 3.0 and 3.24
* 38% had h.s. GPA between 2.5 and 2.99
* 15% had h.s. GPA between 2.0 and 2.49</p>
<h1>SAT Critical Reading: 450 - 570 SAT Math: 430 - 550</h1>
<p>SUNY New Paltz, 34% admitted
* 9% had h.s. GPA of 3.75 and higher
* 36% had h.s. GPA between 3.5 and 3.74
* 21% had h.s. GPA between 3.25 and 3.49
* 23% had h.s. GPA between 3.0 and 3.24
* 9% had h.s. GPA between 2.5 and 2.99
* 2% had h.s. GPA between 2.0 and 2.49</p>
<h1>SAT Critical Reading: 520 - 610 SAT Math: 520 - 610</h1>
<p>SUNY Oneonta, 39% admitted
* 11% had h.s. GPA of 3.75 and higher
* 18% had h.s. GPA between 3.5 and 3.74
* 42% had h.s. GPA between 3.25 and 3.49
* 27% had h.s. GPA between 3.0 and 3.24
* 2% had h.s. GPA between 2.5 and 2.99</p>
<h1>SAT Critical Reading: 520 - 590 SAT Math: 540 - 620</h1>
<p>SUNY Potsdam, 67% admitted
* 19% had h.s. GPA of 3.75 and higher
* 14% had h.s. GPA between 3.5 and 3.74
* 13% had h.s. GPA between 3.25 and 3.49
* 21% had h.s. GPA between 3.0 and 3.24
* 27% had h.s. GPA between 2.5 and 2.99
* 6% had h.s. GPA between 2.0 and 2.49
SAT Critical Reading: 470 - 570 SAT Math: 470 - 580</p>
<p>The SUNYs are diverse, as noted above, but one thing that does distinguish MCLA from all off them is its small size. For [Fall</a> 2009](<a href=“http://www.mcla.edu/About_MCLA/ataglance/]Fall”>http://www.mcla.edu/About_MCLA/ataglance/), MCLA had only 1,680 undergraduates and 280 grad students, for a total enrollment of 1,960. Even the smallest SUNY (Potsdam) is more than twice as large as MCLA; the difference is even more striking in comparison to other SUNYs. MCLA is truly LAC-sized (in fact, it’s smaller than neighboring Williams), which may or may not be what you are looking for.</p>
<p>thanks for all the feedback. definitely food for thought. D would prefer a small liberal arts college so that is a plus in MCLA favor. HOwever, it may be too unselective for her. She is going to want to be competitive to get into grad school.</p>
<p>If your daughter is considering SUNY’s you can’t go wrong with Geneseo. The school’s focus is on undergraduate education with top students and strong academics. </p>
<p>More than 40% of undergraduates attend graduate school. </p>
<p>Having graduated from Geneseo and then NYU I can tell you from experience that the challenging academics at Geneseo prepared me well for graduate school.</p>
<p>Geneseograd…already told you on another thread that she looked at Geneseo and didn’t like it! Thanks anyway!!</p>
<p>Going to Accepted Students’ Day at MCLA today. Will let you know what we think. There is an allure of the small LAC and it has been recently blessed with huge grants to build a science center. My son will be studying languages and they have told us about the cross-registration policy with Williams. The town itself sounds really neat, so we’ll see. I am a little concerned about the lower selectivity as it is a safety-safety for my son, but definitely has its great points.</p>
<p>CCL8-thanks, look forward to your report!</p>
<p>Hi again,</p>
<p>We made our visit to MCLA on Friday for Accepted Students Day. Aside from the dreadful ride out Rt 2 all the way which made me carsick snaking around the rivers and mountains for miles and miles, the school itself was great. </p>
<p>MCLA has a nice campus and many of the buildings have recently undergone renovations. If you’ve visited any of the state school dorms in Mass, they look like clones to them with the painted cinder block style rooms. But they were a good size, in comparison to some of the private schools we went to where the rooms were tiny.
We were very impressed by the staff at the school in all regards. The professors seemed especially attentive to the students and the students themselves reported that they felt their teachers really cared about them. One student joked that if he missed a class he would get an email from his professor asking him where he was and reminding him that if he wanted to earn ‘that A’ this semester he couldn’t miss lectures. It was an amusing anecdote and also spoke to the compassion of the faculty towards the kids. It was very warm. The teacher/Student ratio is very low at MCLA, where the very largest classes might have over 30-40 students [Intro Psych], but generally class size was about 15 students, according to our tour guide. Most students lived on campus, which was nice, and the return rate for sophomores was 76%, which seemed great for a Tier III school.<br>
We did learn that my son would most likely need to take courses at Williams in order to take the higher level courses needed for his degree, so that was a plus and a minus. Good because Williams is a great school, bad because they don’t offer transportation to their campus. [Frankly, I thought that was a bit odd, given freshman cannot have cars.]</p>
<p>All in all, my son liked MCLA, as did we. I think it could be a nice stepping stone for the future. All of the colleges are what you make of them. I found it refreshing to learn that the college president was a former student herself. I think that speaks volumes.</p>
<p>You’re close enough in Binghamton to visit MCLA. Alternatively, you could attend the NY City college forums to meet MCLA representatives. That’s where I talked with one a couple of years ago. My impression of MCLA is positive, but it’s likely that many SUNYs have more resources/assets than MCLA, but not by much. Be aware also that as an NY resident, you may be eligible for reduced tuition at MCLA.</p>
<p>Love the small class size and setting at MCLA.</p>
<p>CCL8- thanks for the report. I’ll share it with my D and see what she thinks. And Lake Washington-it is definitely close enough to visit in a day trip… and easier than going to NYC for a meeting with a rep!</p>
<p>I know a few people who went to MCLA and transferred after a year because they absolutely hated it. They said the town is boring and there’s nothing to do…they also weren’t that impressed with the academics.</p>
<p>if you can get into SUNY Geneseo or Binghamton or Buffalo/Stony Brook, those schools would be better than MCLA in my opinion.</p>
<p>Dear herestothenight:
That’s not encouraging. Were the students who hated MCLA ones you knew personally? I’m a little surprised given the relatively high sophomore retention rate, as compared to other like schools [and even much better schools]. I wonder a bit. If over 75% of the students are happy enough to return, I wonder what were the reasons that the ones who left might have had. Perhaps it was that college was not for them, even the low tuition was too much, etc. I’m sure there are many factors.</p>