<p>Many LACs (although some of them are way overrated)</p>
<p>I am brand new to this board and this looks like a great thread. Any opinions on overrated or underrated Liberal Arts Colleges? Sorry if this was discussed elsewhere but I am still learning how to navigate this site. My daughter is interested in attending a LAC and I would love to hear anyones comments. Thank you!</p>
<p>Northeastern University is underrated because it’s ranking in US News is low because it factors in the % of students that graduate in 4 years, when NU is a 5 school (because of Co-op).</p>
<p>
In the South, I would say that Centre and Hendrix are extremely underrated. The women’s colleges are similarly underrated (Agnes Scott, Sweet Briar, Hollins). Less selective, BSC, Samford, Wofford, Randolph, Randolph-Macon, and Lynchburg are underrated/unknown.</p>
<p>
According to its CDS, Northeastern has a 5 year graduation rate of 63%, which isn’t that impressive. UCSC, which is tied with Northeastern at #96, has a similar 5 year graduation rate of 67%.</p>
<p>I think someone criticized Penn for having a high acceptance rate in relation to the other Ivies. Fiske’s Guide cites Penn’s acceptance rate at 16%.</p>
<p>Most underrated college on CC (mentioned least despite being awesome, and I predict it will become popular within a few years as it gets “discovered”):
Whitman College in Walla Walla, WA.</p>
<p>I also think Grinnell, Pomona, Davidson, and WashU are overrated, and Macalester is underrated. (Again, over/underrated by CCers).</p>
<p>I’m surprised to hear you say that, flying_pig. If anything, Davidson seems to be extremely underrated on these forums (e.g. Davidson vs. UNC thread).</p>
<p>“Grinnell, Pomona, Davidson are overrated”
-flying_pig319</p>
<p>Do you have any basis for that accusation? Both Grinnell and Pomona are top 10 future PhD producers and provide excellent and rigorous educations. Grinnell’s classes are said to have a rigor equal to that of Grad Schools. I don’t see how you can justify that they are overrated.</p>
<p>^ IF anything i think that Pomona (I am not too informed about grinell) is underrated, especially on US News.</p>
<p>I couldn’t agree any more with flying_pig, Whitman College is the most underrated LAC inthe US right now, I really wanted to go to that school but it didn’t have my major :(</p>
<p>I’ll take back what I said about Pomona (looked up some stats and was impressed with rates of students getting PhDs, so I apologize to Pomona…? haha), but I do think Grinnell gets a boost in rankings (and resulting boost in love on CC and in the world of the college-savvy) because of its huge endowment and because schools in the midwest get a lower selectivity rate because they get a lot of kids applying there from both sides of them (whereas schools on the coast are only near one coast… if that makes sense). I visited and talked to some students and was pretty underwhelmed. I had heard great things about it and was ready to love it, so it’s not like I had a bias going in. Sorry if that offends anyone – these rankings games are offensive by nature, I guess.</p>
<p>As for Davidson, I live in North Carolina, giving me personal experience with the school that I’m betting few CCers have, and I know many current, past, and future Davidson students. Though good in school, the ones I’ve met aren’t very intellectually curious in the way that students at a lot of (other) top LACs are, and I generally haven’t found them very interesting or engaging as people. I’m sure it’s subjective (my random sample of a few dozen people is likely not a perfect representation of the school), but that’s where it comes from and I have to go off what I know.</p>
<p>Grinnells selectivity was a 27% acceptance rate this year (i can provide a link to the Grinnell AdCom’s blog that it was said in) but Midwest colleges tend to have higher selectivity rates because no one wants to come to the Midwest. (Case in point, UChicago, WashU, Northwestern all have higher admit rates then East and West coast peers). People want to go to the Northeast and the Northeast has many prep schools which give it a higher amount of top college bound students. If anything Grinnell majorly suffers in selectivity due to location.</p>
<p>I think its endowment is important and while it may inflate its ranking, I think it is deserving of it. It is very intellectual (i have overnighted and talked to many students and unlike you, was impressed, more so then Carleton, whose students seemed like fake intellectuals) and has a better PhD production rate then Pomona, so if your giving Pomona points for that, why not Grinnell?</p>
<p>Hm, fair enough, you make good points. </p>
<p>I do love Carleton though.</p>
<p>
I know that six-year graduation rate is a factor in the USNWR ranking:</p>
<p>“We measure the difference between a school’s six-year graduation rate for the class that entered in 2001 and the rate we predicted for the class…”</p>
<p>But how does “4-year graduation rate” come into play?</p>
<p>Underrated-Holy Cross, Tufts, Rice, William& Mary.</p>
<p>I would say Rice is neither over nor underrated.</p>
<p>I think Rice is generally underrated, but only relatively speaking. Few people realize how great that school really is.</p>
<p>What is overrated is the perceived difference between whatever school someone is ranking number one this week, and whatever school is being ranked 25th (or whatever).</p>
<p>Both schools will have brilliant faculties and excellent facilities. Both schools will have a student body comprised of some brilliant students, and others who are merely bright, in slightly different proportions, perhaps, but still the same basic mixture. The brilliant students at the 25th-ranked school will be smarter than the mediocre students at the top ranked school. I’ve never seen anything that indicated that the brilliant students at the 25th ranked school will be at any disadvantage when it comes to the next stage of their lives. </p>
<p>I interviewed three candidates this week for a job opening in the legal department of the Fortune 1000 company where I work. One candidate clearly stood above the other two by virtue of his experience. I’ve already forgotten where he went to law school; I spent maybe three seconds of a 45 minute interview thinking about that. What I did focus on was how much expertise he displayed in the areas we’re looking for, how succinctly he conveyed his depth of knowledge in the area, and how well he presented himself as a potential colleague.</p>
<p>I fail to see how Penn can be overrated when it is confused with Penn State in perpetuity.</p>
<p>ilovebagels, I think people are referring to Penn’s rankings in the USNWR. Along with Duke, it has been ranked at the same level as MIT and Stanford for the last 5 years or so. That does not sit well with many people. I agree that among the masses and in well educated circles, Penn is not overrated, but that is not the case with the USNWR.</p>
<p>^ agreed. That is the primary reason.
Neither Penn nor Duke really deserve to rank higher than MIT or Stanford as they have in years prior.
Penn should be around Columbia and Chicago, and Duke should be around Northwestern, Hopkins, and Cornell.</p>