<p>^Peer assessment and financial resources criteria would both hurt.</p>
<p>Pizzagirl: Congrats to your niece. Our S just feels so fortunate to have discovered Davidson. It suits him to a ātā and heās thriving there. I take him back next week and am actually looking forward to it despite the long drive - I love to spend a little time on campus.</p>
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<p>Iām not so sure about that.</p>
<p>I mean, itās difficult to recreate the <em>status quo ante</em> 1980, but in terms of selectivity HYP were still in double-digits, not that far from Amherst. Stanford had a 25% selectivity rate as late as 1990. And, if endowment or expenditures were measured on a per capita basis, it would have been the research universities that had more to fear. Itās perfectly conceivable that if combined with LACs, the very first the top ten USNews college ranking would have been half LACs.</p>
<p>JHS,
Move far away from the NE and youād be surprised. One of my M.D.s never heard of Williams or other LACs. NO ONE ever heard of Caltech or Pomona. Yet, the people we carpooled with, all from NE, sent their kids to UChicago, Wesleyan, and the like. And my relative in Israel encouraged the worm to consider Williams and other top LACs. Schools that are well respected abroad are unknown to my colleagues and acquaintances.</p>
<p>bookworm, as I said, I acknowledge the truth of what you are saying. But Iām not certain what I should do with that truth, other than be patient and understanding. From my standpoint, itās just ignorance. I can be tolerant of it, but I donāt have to respect it.</p>
<p>Come on. Educated people who havenāt heard of Caltech? Thatās hardly some obscure LAC. Itās one of our two top technical institutes, and a crown jewel of the American university system. Why should anyone think itās OK for someone who purports to care about higher education to be proud of not knowing anything about it?</p>
<p>JHS, wrt the types of people youāre describing:
Iām not sure that I agree that either
a) they purport to really care about higher education (beyond in general thinking itās a good thing)
and / or that
b) they are proud of not knowing anything about it. </p>
<p>You knew Lake Forest College growing up ā Iām guessing that was probably more a function of preppy social circles than a commitment to higher education. Just out of curiosity (no agenda), at this same time, had you heard of Grinnell? Oberlin? Carleton?</p>
<p>Grinnell not so much. Oberlin and Carleton for sure. Where I grew up was semi-oriented towards the Midwest. Lots of people went to college in Ohio ā not Ohio State, but Oberlin, Kenyon, Denison (one of my closest high school friends went there). I donāt know why I knew about Carleton, but I did.</p>
<p>Other places I didnāt know about: Any of the Claremont Colleges other than Pomona, and indeed any LAC west of the Rockies other than Pomona and Reed. Any LAC south of Virginia or Tennessee (i.e., Sewanee), except one of my cousins spent a year at Trinity (San Antonio). Ithaca College. Anyplace in Michigan ā Kalamazoo, Hope, Albion. Any Wesleyan other than the ārealā one.</p>
<p>In high school, I knew Amherst, Williams, and Wesleyanā¦and the dreaded Middlebury. (To say I knew it is stretching the point. Oh, and I had friend who went to Wabash.) I went to a magnet science high school, and Iām sure I never heard of Caltech (MIT and, especially, Cooper Union were the places to go.) My parents didnāt know any of them, and couldnāt figure out why I turned down City College for Williams.</p>
<p>Antioch was a popular LAC when I was applying - it may have shut down for lack of funds.</p>
<p>40-ish lady I know was pleasantly surprised that Iād heard of Williams. Said she usually got blank stares when she mentioned her alma mater out here in prairieland. </p>
<p>Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using CC App</p>
<p>I hadnāt heard of any of the Claremont colleges either until I started coming to CC and becoming aware of colleges for our search - Iām not sure I even knew Pomona. Iād maybe heard of Scripps. Of the schools that we visited during my kidsā search, I donāt think Iād heard of Colorado College, Lawrence, Clark U, American U or Macalester prior. Which begs the question ā what makes someone think, āOh, xxx is a good school.ā Is it just being in a decent place in the ranking? Hearing someone whose opinion you trust say so? Knowing someone who went there who seems like a decent, smart person? I think the whole thing is a lot more gut-feel and impression than we all give it credit for.</p>
<p>Besides for the wonderful & stimulating people on CC, I remain here to learn about colleges. Professionally, I work with a lot of young people and I can pass on info.</p>
<p>I think people know of colleges because of sport teams or some other headline (think Obama and Occidental).</p>
<p>Its fascinating what we heard of back in our day. I was familiar with Harvey Mudd (always loved the name) and Pomona, but not the other Claremont schools back then.</p>