<p>There are lots of other ways to explain the discrepancy, but the entire study is flawed, as it only actually measures the preferences of high-income candidates, i.e. those for whom financial aid wasn't part of the mix, and only those admitted to at least two of the schools, again much less likely among low-income applicants.</p>
<p>i think 1/2 of the people that apply to wellesley actually want to go there. if they didn't, they wouldn't apply. it's not like yale, stanford, or harvard, where you just throw it on the list and don't expect to get in, a reach that if perchance you did get in, then you go. of course there are SOME cases, but most of the times, people usually don't apply unless they have at least given it some consideration. i never really thought about going to harvard, but i still applied there since it was a given by my dad's expectations. </p>
<p>on the other hand, its not your average safety/match like umich or PSU... its not a "common" school that a whole bunch of people from a school applies to. like living in east lansing, no matter where you apply, you HAVE to apply to michigan state university; that's our safety... and sometimes people end up going to it...</p>
<p>rovee,</p>
<p>Thanks for your concern but where did you see me getting "pi*ssed"? Too bad, stats don't lie and guess you don't like it when it doesn't favor your preferred school. Oh yeah, I think it's totally okay to suspect someone is bashing when the statement is so far off from the truth. Wow, you find that incomprehensible and don't see how it works? Don't know how to help you. It's really not hard to understand. </p>
<p>By the way, it's typical that LACs, largely due to its small enrollment, lack of graduate programs and research, are not known to many in foreign countries. Many don't even know what LACs mean and think "colleges" are for those that aren't good enough for "universities" (that's exactly what the naming system was in Hong Kong). If you don't believe me, go look at zillions of threads here that had already covered the pros and cons of LACs. Don't just ask me to feed you. I mentioned I took this into MY consideration and you got problem with that even after I acknowledged many benefits LACs offered? Maybe you are the one that needs to chill (and stop cursing). LOL!</p>
<p>Whereas downgrading a school because it's not well known in your home country is...is...is....</p>
<p>I'll try to find the word. But "smart" or "enlightened" is not one of them.</p>
<p>is prestige THAT important to you.....???? i guess northwestern isnt good enough then, you should've gone to harvard... oh wait, i dont think you got into harvard</p>
<p>come on... who cares if somebody "heard" about your school... you go there to learn stuff, and wellesley does extremely well in sending its students to grad school, probably better than northwestern i think, i forgot where i read it, so who cares? what looks better</p>
<p>under: northwestern
grad: northwestern/harvard</p>
<p>under: wellesley
grad: harvard/yale/stanford</p>
<p>they're like, the same thing... im trying to grow as a person in wellesley... i mean, college is gonna be new, and i think im gonna absolutely love the environment. i would totally turn down northwestern/umich/nyu stern for it... oh wait... change would into DID</p>
<p>TheDad,
Where did I downgrade a college??? Your comment is really puzzling me. You should read someone's posts carefully before judging, esp when you feel the need to dig into what/who is "smart" or not.</p>
<p>xokandy,
It's kinda rude to remind someone that he/she didn't get into Harvard. Besides, I already said I agreed with the benefits of LACs you mentioned earlier and that I got into couple LACs (Oberlin/Carleton) myself. If you read my post carefully, you'd notice when I first mentioned about name recognition, I wasn't even doing so in the context of comparing Northwestern and Wellesley. It was sorta a slip at my end to share a bit about my own decision and how it's harder to escape prestige as a factor because of where I came from. Had prestige not a factor, I'd probably have picked Carleton.</p>
<p>okay i appologize about bringing up harvard... it was a lack of character </p>
<p>it was just, u started talking on about on about how nobody "heard" of LACs and doesn't even know what it stands for... and about how well a school is ranked.. but i mean, TONS of american companies know top LACs, and if you say there's no ranking, you're looking at the WRONG ranking; they can't rank the LACs and universities together cuz they're... like comparing apples and oranges, but... in terms of "prestige" with the "upper to middle" class, LACs are actually very well know. in terms of the lower class, of course they heard of lots of universities and stuff but less on LACs. it just depends where you look. im sure people would NOT mind sending their kids to williams or amherst. i would rather have my kid go to "Williams
COLLEGE
" than "michigan state
UNIVERSITY
"...
mentioning hongkong was a horrible way to compare.... a HORRIBLE way, i cant even imagine someone doing that... you know its actually HARVARD COLLEGE and not HARVARD UNIVERSITY for undergrads???? in
AMERICA
, naming a school COLLEGE means undergraduate education... university means GRADUATE or PHD, absolutely nothing to do with prestige... you got it wrong there</p>
<p>You again misunderstood my post. I was just explaning to rovee how it's not known in where I came from. Notice that post was addressed to her.</p>
<p>Few internationals are talking about the same dilemma I faced before and their choices were berkeley/columbia vs amherst. Notice how no one from the Amherst board jumped all over them just because they mentioned about the issue of name recognition. I was just sharing the same issue I had. It was only relevant to myself or someone from my hometown. I thought it was pretty clear. I understand the US system very well and did my undergrad/grad here. I was just saying many in other countries don't and those who come here to study may take that into consideration if they plan to go back.</p>
<p>yeah, but then.. wouldn't you live in US?</p>
<p>i think.. people making fun of Top LACs.. are like people making fun of maybach. hahaha</p>
<p>so you're saying someone might not go to harvard becaues its called harvard college</p>
<p>hopemanjkjk: don't they cost like, 300k?</p>
<p>hopemanjkjk,</p>
<p>Well, if you are a foreigner and you are about to head to college, you don't really know if you will/can stay 4 years later. Lots of people have to go back because of various visa/sponsorship issues. By the way, I didn't make fun of LACs. I don't know why people on this board seem to take things so personal.</p>
<p>xokandy,</p>
<p>Harvard is a research university. There's no point to create a hypothetical situation that doesn't exist. Please understand I do know top LACs are great. I was just decribing the unfortunate reality. If you are curious about name recognition (but then I thought you don't care) in other countries, you can research CC threads that already covered it.</p>
<p>you can drive a toyota... they seem kinda "well known"</p>
<p>ill drive a maybach</p>
<p>i dont mind the name recognition thing</p>
<p>HAHAHAHAHA</p>
<p>LOL! I wouldn't put Columbia as "Toyota" and Amherst as "Maybach". Your analogy is flawed. ;)</p>