We are down to the wire and my daughter still hasn’t been able to make her final decision between St. Lawrence University (net cost after merit aid $28,000) and Connecticut College (net cost after merit aid $45,000). She really likes both schools but is leaning toward Connecticut College as it is closer to home (1 hour drive vs. 6 1/2 hour drive) and she perceives it as a better school/more academically rigorous based on rankings. I’m not sure if this is true. We can stretch our budget to pay for Connecticut College if that is her ultimate choice but I’m not convinced it is worth the extra cost. I know many people weighed in on my previous thread back in March but I would appreciate any last minute thoughts. She is thinking of double majoring in Biology and History with a possible pre med track. She would like to play club tennis and participate in the theater program wherever she goes. She also sings and takes private voice lessons so would also want to join a choir or a capella group.
She can major in biology or history…with a premed intention…at ANY college.
I know that Conn welcomes non music majors into their ensembles. I don’t know anything about St. Lawrence other than the location.
If you really can afford either school…let her choose.
If one is really not affordable…that’s another story.
Your post suggests that parents want St. Lawrence due to cost & daughter prefers Connecticut College.
Publisher. I think we are questioning her perception that Connecticut is a superior school academically based on rankings and whether the difference in price is justified. We will ultimately let her choose. We have already taken several higher ranked (top 20) schools off the list because she did not receive any merit aid and we decided they were unaffordable.
I consider them very much peers – when my kid was applying to LACs, I dove deeply into faculty bios at about 20 schools to compare where faculty had gotten their Ph.D. as a means of comparing “quality of education” and, broadly, there were not substantial differences between the top 10 and the top 50 LACs. For us, as a faculty family, that works as a shorthand way of testing academic quality. Others can, and have, disagreed with that approach. Coming from the east coast (if Conn is an hour away), then she has probably picked up the east coast sensitivity to prestige (I’m east coast born and bred), and Conn has been on the “approved” list a lot longer than St Lawrence has.
We visited both schools during the same spring break trip, and our perception – your mileage may vary – was that Conn Coll community seemed to more urban-oriented, more sophisticated. St L seemed to be a lot of “nice,” enthusiastic kids, with unbelievable athletic and outdoors sports opportunities. St L has D1 hockey (all other sports are D3), and the rivalries are apparently intense and great fun. St L does run shuttles to NYC and Boston for breaks, so you would not have to necessarily make the long drive to retrieve her. Long way of saying, I wanted to love Conn Coll but found it just kind of “meh” and didn’t initially love St L but on our second visit, succumbed to its charms.
I think I like Canton better than New London, for a college town. Conn has nothing nearby at all in terms of shops, coffee, movies and whatnot, though it is closer to NYC and Boston (and Long Island, via ferry).
I know at least 2 St L grads who are very successful and very loyal to the school.
St L’s M/F ratio is more balanced than Conn’s too, if that’s important to her at all.
They are both excellent schools… different campus vibes, but seem to be equal in academic rigor.
I believe that there is more of an acrtive theatre and music scene at Connecticut College. The Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center is on the campus, which is a wonderful professional theatre/ new work development organization.
I am not a big fan of the US News ranking, but for a moment, let’s assume it measures something useful.
Conn College’s raw score is 71 of 100
St. Lawrence’s raw score is 67 of 100
This is well within the margin of error of the methodology, so US News cannot be used to differentiate between the two schools (despite the apparent difference in rank).
Conn College was originally an all women’s school (it was the sister school to Wesleyan) and St. Lawrence was founded by Universalists so they both have distinctive cultures. One or the other may be a better cultural fit. Cultural fit can lead to a higher level of engagement, which can lead to a higher level of achievement. It can also make the college experience more enjoyable
Both Biology and History are broad fields and smaller schools cannot provide course offerings in all areas. One way to evaluate the schools is to look at the course offerings in the majors of interest and see if you like one better than the other. Finding the coursework interesting usually makes it easier to attain higher grades and it also suggests an alignment of interest with a faculty member which can lead to independent study/research relationships, which can result it stronger recommendations for grad school.
Good Luck