Nonpretentious, Liberal LAC's

Parents Forum
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<p>My son is a junior and we are looking at moderately liberal to liberal LAC's. We want to visit those where students are serious without taking themselves seriously and not so much of a pressure cooker type, and considered nonpretentious but intellectually solid. We will be looking in California, Northwest, Midwest, and Northeast. </p>

<p>Soon we will be visiting Lewis and Clark, Evergreen State College, University of Puget Sound and Whitman and possibly Willamette. Any feedback about these schools would be appreciated and suggestions of others in other parts of the country would also be appreciated. Thanks in advance.</p>

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<p>Earlham!..</p>

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<p>Whitman definitely fits this profile.
And I'd echo Earlham, Knox, Beloit, Kenyon. I'm just naming one's I have some personal knowledge about.
Any of the Colleges that Change Lives are probably on target too. Good luck.</p>

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<p>Good choices above. Add Occidental in California, the Midwest Big 5 (Carleton, Grinnell, Macalester, Kenyon and Oberlin), skip the Northeast.</p>

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<p>Hampshire College, Bates.</p>

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<p>
[quote]
My son is a junior and we are looking at moderately liberal to liberal LAC's.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Oh, on that front, you can most definitely relax. There are probably fewer than a handful of LACs that are NOT moderately liberal to liberal.</p>

<p>I would highly suggest to redefine your list of criteria because as it stands it is way to generic and it will only lead to replies that represent personal preferences and popularity and are not that helpful because of a lack of rhyme or reason.</p>

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<p>Can't believe I left out Oxy (I'm an alum). But it reminds me to add Pitzer, URedlands and if you must include the Northeast: Skidmore, Allegheny, Franklin and Marshall..and moving back midwest: Kalamazoo.</p>

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<p>Midwest Schools that fit your description dead on:</p>

<p>Carleton
Grinnell
Macalester
Kenyon
Knox
Beloit
Lawrence</p>

<p>Northwest:</p>

<p>Check out Reed</p>

<p>Northeast:</p>

<p>Bowdoin
Hampshire
Marlboro</p>

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<p>Threads like this are making me begin to understand why people warned that CC can be addictive! Thanks for starting it. I will be watching closely for more good tips.</p>

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<p>Add Bard to the Northeast list.</p>

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<p>Check out SCAC schools like Colorado College and University of the South (Sewanee).
My Episcopalian friends complain that Sewanee is too liberal all the time.LOL</p>

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<p>
[quote]
We want to visit those where students are serious without taking themselves seriously and not so much of a pressure cooker type, and considered nonpretentious but intellectually solid.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>It might be helpful if you would give a few examples of LACs that you DON'T like. Pressure and pretention in particular tend to be in the eye of the beholder. (Several LACs that I would have assumed you would find too pretentious or too much of a pressure cooker or too liberal have been suggested above...)</p>

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<p>Whitman and Evergreen are very different in many aspects. Which one do you think your child would like more?</p>

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<p>
[quote]
I would highly suggest to redefine your list of criteria because as it stands it is way to generic and it will only lead to replies that represent personal preferences and popularity and are not that helpful because of a lack of rhyme or reason.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>No kidding. It's like going to an auto forum and asking, "what's a good car with an engine and four wheels?"</p>

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<p>
[quote]
Pressure and pretention in particular tend to be in the eye of the beholder

[/quote]
</p>

<p>I agree with the above and Xiggi too. Soon you'll have the entire list of top LAC by USNWR, balanced out with the Colleges that Change Lives on this thread.</p>

<p>Maybe you can look for identifiers of 'pretention' you'd like to avoid. This i because no one is going to consider (able to consider) their favorite LAC as pretentious. Just like no one ever sees their circle of friends as snobby. But we know such schools and people exist for others.</p>

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<p>Kalamazoo fits this description perfectly.</p>

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<p>Sewanee isn't liberal compared to many other LACs, but there is a lot of drinking (nothing else to do). I love the place- don't get me wrong.</p>

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<p>Posting your son's stats would help us suggest reach/match/safety schools. Or you can get your own rough idea by googling a school's "common data set" and looking at sections C4 to C12 to compare him to the last entering class.</p>

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<p>Agreed that pretentiousness is largely in the eye of the beholder, but to this beholder the pretentiousness level seems markedly higher in the Northeast than in the Midwest or West (and this applies more broadly than LACs).</p>

<p>My D & I have visited quite a few colleges, and she has somewhat similar criteria---definitely into liberal, definitely into academic quality, but she can't stand what she labels "snootiness," as in "We're better than the rest of the world and our question for you is whether you're good enough to be one of us, or (more likely) are you one of 'them?'" For her, Williams, Amherst, Wellesley, and Pomona fell into the "snooty" category when we visited (based on limited data, to be sure), as did most of the Ivies we've visited. Haverford, Bryn Mawr, Wesleyan, Bowdoin, Macalester, Earlham, Brown, and Cornell (the latter two not LACs) didn't strike her as "snooty." She thought Middlebury was somewhat snooty but she liked it anyway for other reasons. My impressions didn't always match hers, but then I'm not the one seeking to avoid "snootiness" so perhaps my "snooty-meter" isn't as finely tuned. </p>

<p>I'd note three of the "non-snooty" colleges---Haverford, Bryn Mawr, and Earlham---have Quaker roots. I do think the student culture at these schools is still imbued with something of the Quaker ethos, which emphasizes intellectual inquiry, egalitarianism, mutual respect, humility, personal integrity, community, cooperation, and service. We're not Quakers, but that combination of qualities pretty well captured for my D the combination of liberalism, high academic achievement, and non-snootiness she seeks in a college, and the kind of community of which she would like to be a part. Swarthmore, another historically Quaker college, is in some ways similar but it seems to be populated by such high-achieving types that we sensed a stress level there that wasn't apparent at the other schools. </p>

<p>On the other hand, D's reaction to Bowdoin and Wesleyan was also very positive along these lines even though neither has any historic connection to the Quakers. So go figure.</p>

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<p>She might like Oberlin.</p>