<p>I have heard that most of LAC's have absolutely no diversity and it's hard to be accepted for a non-white upper class American. And since i am very russian (meaning i have a strong accent so it's obvious that i am not american) i am not sure if i should apply to LACs</p>
<p>ethnicity is almost never a consideration, never officially, and being a minority or international student is usually a bonus–unless the competition is tougher among international students.</p>
<p>what schools are you thinking of?</p>
<p>If you check out USNews’s lists of [url="<a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/college/liberal-arts-most-international"]LACs[/url">http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/college/liberal-arts-most-international"]LACs[/url</a>] and [url=”<a href="http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/college/national-most-international"]universities[/url">http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/college/national-most-international"]universities[/url</a>], you’ll find that many LACs have larger int’l student bodies - as a percentage - than top national universities.</p>
<p>I would say the only drawback of being international is finances. Internationals usually are considered last when it comes to financial aid.</p>
<p>YES!
i’d say the main reason i came to study in the states is the concept of a liberal arts college - small colleges with high faculty to student ratios/small classes, the freedom to take many classes out of your field, etc. besides, the rate of international students in most of the better liberal arts colleges is around 10%, which is relatively high when compared with bigger universities. as for the financial aid, true, the recent crisis prompted some schools to go need aware for internationals, but still there’s a higher chance of getting a substantial amount of financial aid from a liberal arts college than a bigger university if you’re an international.</p>
<p>Most LACs actually want to be viewed as diverse and work towards providing an international learning environment. Albeit some are still more diverse than others. The well known state and private schools like the whole UC system, U Michigan, U Texas (austin), U Chicago, U Illinois and HYPM, tend to attract students from all over the world. I dont know about the small ones. </p>
<p>The location is also something to watch for. I’ll advice you look at schools in the north east which tend to be more liberal, diverse + i think you might actually like the weather ;). You might also want a school next to or in a metropolitan city as opposed to a rural area. </p>
<p>The option is to attend a technological institute- the likes of MIT, Caltech, Georgia Tech. These are quite different from LACs. They more career and technology focused but to be honest with you, they just as diverse if not less than most LACs. Their international student body is comprised of mostly Korean, Indian and Pakistani students.</p>
<p>Above all it is very important that you gather information about each school in particular to get a feel of their student body. Im sure you can find plenty of stats online.</p>
<p>hope that helps.</p>
<p>i probably won’t apply for financial aid</p>
<p>i’m pretty sure that small, elite LACs are looking to improve their diversity and actually seek to admit more international students</p>
<p>if you can speak english well, you’re totally fine. definitely apply to LACs such as Bowdoin, Williams, Amherst, Carleton, Macalester, Swarthmore, Haverford, and Vassar.</p>
<p>A lot of LACs have very diverse student population. Carleton, Dickinson come to mind. Trinity University, where I’ll be a freshman next year, also has an international student rate of 10-11% which is pretty high, and it’s located at San Antonio, which is a very diverse city. Even at schools with little diversity, like Villanova and Colorado College for example, I’ve heard that the students are generally very accepting of others with different backgrounds. Don’t stress too much about this, and don’t make the mistake of turning down a school just because of its low diversity.</p>
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<p>Information like this is very easy to obtain because schools make these statistics readily available, on their websites for starter or you can check a book like the Princeton Guide. I don’t know where you got your information but whoever said it didn’t do the most rudimentary of checking before making this huge generalization.</p>
<p>The top LACs strive very hard to have a diverse class. By top LACs I mean places like Middlebury, Williams, Pomona and the other LACs that have been mentioned in this thread. They admit minorities over more qualified white and asian students for the sole purpose of achieving diversity. The LACs on the next rung down are not as diverse because they can’t compete with the top LACs for the qualified minority applicants. </p>
<p>I’m also confused by your post because I can’t tell if you’re applying as someone who lives in this country or as an international student. It is harder for students from the international pool to be accepted but I think you might be applying as someone from this country who happens to be of Russian heritage.</p>
<p>It was a generalization, but it’s not very far off. True, the top LACs are quite diverse, racially and socioeconomically. Many, however, have the reputation for attracting upper-class white students. Look at the LACs of suburban Philadelphia and upstate New York, for example.</p>
<p>yes but the “it’s hard to be accepted for a non-white upper class American” part is a kind of baseless generalization. Whatever school you go to, just make sure you go out there, join clubs and socialize. It’s not like the whole student body will ostracize you just because of your accent and culture. While it’s true there will be certain people who for some reasons wouldn’t want to hang out with minority students (and vice versa), it’s almost impossible not to have at least a decent circle of friends when you go to a school with 1000+ people.</p>
<p>And even colleges with predominantly white upper-class students are all striving to diversify their community. Villanova, where I was accepted to earlier this year, is an example (yeah not an LAC but still the same logic applies to many LACs). They’re making serious efforts to increase their international students rate. If I’m not mistaken, in previous years they accepted like 3 or 4 Vietnamese each year at most, and it wasn’t until 2 years ago that Villanova had the first Vietnamese student. This year they accepted 6 Vietnamese. </p>
<p>Like the OP I wasn’t really fond of the idea of going to a school filled with mostly white rich kids at first, and only applied to Villanova because of their business school reputation. After I was accepted though, I did more research and found out Villanova students are actually very accepting of internationals. If it wasn’t for financial issues I probably would have chosen it over Trinity. Again, my point is look closer, diversity is a factor but don’t let it influence your decision to apply to a school if you really like it.</p>
<p>^ Oh right, yes, I missed the OP’s statement that LACs do not accept those that are not upper class white.</p>
<p>In that case, I’ve never heard a shimmer of truth into that. I would assume that LACs were actually craving for diversity, and as such, it would be easier (less difficult) to be accepted if you show that you can bring something different to the college.</p>
<p>well, i am actually white and upper middle class, but I am not American, and many people think that i am asian (since russia is mostly in asia)… so i am concerned about being foreign in an american college.</p>
<p>you will be, but no foreign exchange student isn’t. you wont be alienated–people usually really like the foreign exchange students.</p>
<p>foreign exchange student’s are often very welcomed at LAC’s</p>