<p>How would I go about convincing my mother that top LAC's(Williams, Swarthmore) have name recognition if she has never heard of them? She is worried about possible job prospects after and I want to go visit them as a transfer student.</p>
<p>show her the stats for williams wall street placement</p>
<p>Selective LACs in general have strong regional recognition lesser national recognition. They also have strong recognition in graduate schools. If you are staying in the region or attending graduate school there are statistics you can search on recruitment and graduate schools acceptances. There are many that will disagree with me but if you are leaving your region and wish to return and are not contemplating an immediate return to graduate school, you would be better off finding an equally selective LAC in your region or at the very least you’re going to have to do some deeper research to convince your parent if “brand recognition” is a strong concern of your parent. For instance my former Fortune 50 company recruits LACs regionally to their HQ but recruits choice state publics nationally.</p>
<p>This ranking may help to convince her:
<a href=“http://www.wsjclassroomedition.com/pdfs/wsj_college_092503.pdf[/url]”>http://www.wsjclassroomedition.com/pdfs/wsj_college_092503.pdf</a></p>
<p>My mom is worried about whether potential employers have heard about the college and her criteria basically centers around whether she has heard of whichever college. She acknowledges that these schools may be helpful for graduate school but is worried about job prospects. Those wall street numbers would be quite helpful if anyone has them.</p>
<p>Try this: <a href=“http://www.swarthmore.edu/Documents/postgrad%20plans%202010.pdf[/url]”>http://www.swarthmore.edu/Documents/postgrad%20plans%202010.pdf</a></p>
<p>There’s a difference between useful name recognition and prestige. I’ve got nothing against prestige, but it *is *sometimes irrelevant to success. </p>
<p>As mentioned, people who will matter to you in your education and career – graduate school admissions, HR departments of big organizations, especially Eastcoast, connections with people with similar educations – will recognize and appreciate Swarthmore and Williams and the like.</p>
<p>People you meet in real life, your neighbors, your relatives, etc. may give you a blank look when you (or your mother) tell them where you go to school. Having been through this myself I have to admit it’s irritating. You want to say, “Look at USNWR!” which would of course be ridiculous. You develop a thick skin.</p>
<p>But for you personally, if either of these schools is a good fit, you couldn’t get a better education and a better start on life. Four years after graduation all of my son’s friends (Williams 07) are either on fulfilling career tracks or in excellent professional or graduate programs.</p>
<p>You might show your Mom Forbes ranking which was based, in large part, on career success.
[America’s</a> Top Colleges - Michael Noer - Backslash - Forbes](<a href=“http://blogs.forbes.com/michaelnoer/2011/08/03/americas-top-colleges/]America’s”>America's Top Colleges)</p>
<p>PS, What’s your area of interest? We may be able to give some specific examples of grads who have done well.</p>
<p>Please, let’s not use Forbes rankings to substantiate anything. Their methodology is terrible. Student Satisfaction rates from Rate my Professor, the highest weighted attribute (17.5% of the total)?</p>
<p>Your mom is right. They have no street-name recognition. She has never heard of them, and 95% of the population hasn’t either. Though when I name my alma mater (Williams), on occasion someone has heard of William and Mary and talk about their trip 20 years ago to Williamsburg. (I don’t correct them.) They do have cred in certain business areas and grad schools (though probably not to the degree the quality of education offered would deserve.)</p>
<p>And you’ll get a great education at them.</p>
<p>Have your mom start a thread here on cc. We’ll set her straight :)</p>
<p>Now, how many people have heard of Caltech? I live 15 minutes away and a majority of the students have NOT heard of Caltech. Does that nullify its reputation?</p>
<p>No, but it would say that it doesn’t have significant name recognition, which is what the OP’s mother said. (However, in my experience - hey, I graduated from one - the recognition is substantially lower for the LACs.)</p>
<p>Job prospects from both, however, would be excellent, but perhaps not because of the quality of the education, but because of the initial quality of the student bodies. (The only study I have seen, but it is not entirely on point because it is not specifically about liberal arts colleges, is that the effect of attending prestige schools is greatest among those from very low-income families, and there seems to be little or no effect “for the same student” regardless of where s/he attends.)</p>
<p>One thing to note is that since most LACs are relatively small, an out of area employer may use its limited travel budget for campus recruiting on a visit to a Big University over a Small School, simply because the traveling recruiter can talk to more students and collect more resumes per trip. Even if Small School is generally “better” in the subject targeted by the recruiters, if the Big University’s top-(number of students in the Small School) are equal or better than the Small School, then the Big University may be seen as a more attractive place to recruit.</p>
<p>Name recognition amongst people without influence over your future is worthless. I went to Bowling Green. I can’t tell you how many times people have said, inexplicably, “Oh, that’s a really good school!” I guess they say that because they remember hearing of it, perhaps because the name is unusual or because it has Division I sports. Either way, it’s name recognition, but it doesn’t really have any value.</p>
<p>One criteria you can use, but it might not satisfy your mom, is to look at where the students come from. A LAC that draws students nationally has greater name recognition than one that draws students primarily from in-state.</p>
<p>Maybe, or maybe not. When a small LAC draws nationally, name recognition can be greatly diluted in all locations. In fact, that could be precisely what the OP is experiencing from his mother. </p>
<p>I think we just have to admit that LACs as a rule don’t have much name recognition among the general public. They have more recognition among “those who matter”, though, even there, I expect less than they perhaps deserve (relative to others). But the “shoulds” don’t matter - one really can’t make the case for them based on name recognition.</p>
<p>I agree. It’s unfortunate that much name recognition for universities is due to sports, not academics.</p>
<p>So which LAC’s would you say do have name recognition?</p>
<p>Well, there’s…that one famous one that everyone knows. And that one that Hillary Clinton went to. And…another one they say is better than most Ivy League schools, or something. All have excellent name recognition. There are probably others, too.</p>
<p>Ask your mom how many college grads she has hired in the last fifteen years.</p>