OSU Full Ride or Swarthmore? Parent's perspective would be greatly appreciated!

<p>Hey Mommusic - boy do I know kids who have done amazingly well @ Cinci engineering -had incredible co-op experiences and fantastic jobs.</p>

<p>My friend was the valedictorian of his Ohio public school graduating class, and is in the honors business program at UC and has done extremely well so far. He just spent part of his junior year interning in Atlanta.
You can do well at all schools, especially state schools, despite what the elitists on this website tell you.</p>

<p>Thanks for the encouragement, everyone. :-)</p>

<p>Glad it worked out, Brig. Have a good four years.</p>

<p>=====</p>

<p>I don’t believe anyone ever said that one can’t do well with a state school. Now, if you want to bet on the relative odds, that’s a different matter. Funny (strange) that folks here touting top LAC’s have experience with both, those being defensive about state schools defending what they know. I don’t see “elitists” in this thread, I do see proponents of “the school of good enough.”</p>

<p>"Seems to me that the demand and supply of LAC seats is about in equilibrium. "</p>

<p>I am not sure about that. When we entered this process, I was impressed with William and Mary in our state, an example of essentially a public LAC. Since I have heard about many others - it seems like almost every state has one now. Virginia has established a second less selective one, Christopher Newport. Now I don’t know the dates each of these were founded, but my admittedly very vague impression is that there is, or at least recently was, a disequilibrium, and State systems are trying to fill that.</p>

<p>Also, private universities in some ways - Lehigh, for ex, admitted our daughter to South Mountain College, a small residential program aimed at providing something like a LAC experience. They started that just a couple of years ago, and it is one of the reasons we regret passing on Lehigh. </p>

<p>There is one more issue - its not like starting a new LAC, you immediately get considered a prestige LAC. And there is some question, in my mind at least, whether lower tier LACs have the comparative advantage against their larger peers that the higher tier LACs do. </p>

<p>(BTW I may be biased as well - I attended a highly ranked but large university, and yes, I was mainly taught by grad students, I did not get lots of attention from faculty, etc. Now to a considerable extent that was my personality - but I have to judge my DD’s personality, and she is even shyer than I was at her age)</p>

<p>^Wow, SMC looks really neat. This is the first I’ve heard of it, and I’m surprised (positively) that it’s hosted by Lehigh.</p>