<p>top 3.. in your opinion! i know prestigious does not matter much I'm just curious as to see what peoples opinions are. and please explain why</p>
<p>Swarthmore
Amherst
Williams</p>
<p>Only because they are ranked high. most people still don't know about them and would give you a stupid confused stare if you mentioned either of them. They are mostly prestigious for their clout in academic circles and their rankings on US news.</p>
<p>Agreed. Most would say Amherst, Williams, Swarthmore. Still, there are a bunch of other really good ones (ex Pomona, Middlebury, Bowdoin etc)</p>
<p>A, W and S may be one of the few rankings things on which there's general concurrence on CC.</p>
<p>I second gadad. Had a friend who went to Stanford for undergrad and law school. Said if he had to do it over again he would have gone to Swarthmore for college.</p>
<p>AWS 10char</p>
<p>wesleyan university</p>
<p>I love Middlebury, Davidson, Pomona, and Carleton. Also love the LAC-type schools that are a little bigger like Tufts, Rice, William & Mary, Wake Forest, Notre Dame, Emory. Prestige cant be limited to three schools only.</p>
<ol>
<li>Amherst College Lord Jeffs</li>
<li>Williams College Ephs</li>
<li>Swarthmore College Phoenix
I'm going to add two more because the top 3 is obvious </li>
<li>Bowdoin College Polar Bears</li>
<li>Middlebury College Panthers</li>
</ol>
<p>This has been done 1001 times. Here are the views of more than 100 CC folks:</p>
<p>beside the obvious three, why is Wellesley not on here? it's ranked 4th and is an excellent school</p>
<p>I would argue that more people have heard of Wellesley over Swarthmore, if only because of a few select alumnae.</p>
<p>what about haverford</p>
<p>It's "quietly prestigious." </p>
<p>As in Fords don't feel the need to brag about how great their school is or how hard they have to study. *cough (SWAT)</p>
<p>Reality is that most LACs have little prestige once you get beyond certain circles with the general public. If I were generally trying to impress someone outside of academia with a brand name I don't think I'd pick an LAC. Most people are even vaguely familiar with very few.</p>
<p>^ Perhaps you're right, but the general public tends to be grossly misinformed about the quality of various schools. I'll bet if you asked a random sample of people in Nebraska about the relative prestige of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the University of Chicago, a strong majority would rank UNL at or above the U Chicago level. Why? They've heard of UNL, they follow its sports teams, it's far and away the best school in the state (with possible competition only from Creighton, a much smaller Catholic school). Unless they travel in academic circles, they've probably never heard of the University of Chicago, or if they have, they probably haven't taken the time to distinguish it from run-of-the-mill publics like the University of Cincinnati, or run-of-the-mill privates like the University of Detroit. Yet in the academic world, the University of Chicago is generally regarded as one of the world's greatest universities.</p>
<p>Among academics, schools like Swarthmore, Amherst, Williams, Haverford, and Wellesley are seen as every bit as prestigious as the Ivies. So I guess it depends on who you're trying to impress.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Among academics, schools like Swarthmore, Amherst, Williams, Haverford, and Wellesley are seen as every bit as prestigious as the Ivies. So I guess it depends on who you're trying to impress.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Yes, I pretty much agree. These LACs work fine as long as the "prestige" being sought does not mean recognition by the broadest possible audience. As you say, it depends.</p>