Top Notch National Universities Vs Liberal Arts Colleges

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<p>Though I’m not a fan of any college system like theirs, I’ll just add that you can transfer to another college (not to mention, given whatever communities you engage in, you see a lot of other people on a constant basis).</p>

<p>At any rate, my point is that, from the previous posts of barrons’, it does not follow that universities place a low emphasis on community, or that community is even difficult to find there. There are advantages to both universities and LACs, but I don’t think this is the one where universities lose.</p>

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<p>hippo, please please tell us that you are not comparing Arizona State with UC Berkeley, even for undergraduates - please tell us that you are not doing this</p>

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<p>so Hippo, when you make such a significant and wide ranging comment like this, can you please tell us the reason for you statement above?</p>

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<p>mercedes, that would be the person that goes by the name “hippo2718”</p>

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<p>And, my point is, that it’s easier to transfer out of a LAC than it is to transfer into one.</p>

<p>Why is there a need to try to ascertain whether a LAC is better than a university overall? The question can only be answered with respect to a given student and what that given student wants, desires, needs, would thrive best in. I have one going to an LAC and one going to a university this fall. It’s just … different. It’s silly to try to claim that one is better. Might as well claim that an elegant chain hotel is better / worse than an elegant boutique hotel.</p>

<p>Onecircuit, </p>

<p>Want to argue your belief that Reedies aren’t as intellectual as Harvard, Yale, and Princeton students effectively? Leave out the mention of the percent of students graduating in the top 10% of their class. Why? The difference between 95% (Harvard) and 99% (Princeton) and 63% (Reed) is very significant. </p>

<p>Contrastingly, the difference between Reed’s SAT reading range (670-750) and HYP’s (at the highest end, 700-800) is trivial. </p>

<p>Honestly, I’m surprised Harvard would touch an applicant with a sub 690 verbal score. Reading is most of college, no? (unless, as I’m sure given your user name you’d be quick to point out, we’re dealing with engineering programs, etc…) I’m kidding, of course. The implication that anyone below some arbitrary line is less “intellectual” is absurd. </p>

<p>Also, you are absolutely correct: statistically, most Reedies aren’t as gifted mathematically as their HYP peers (if we assume that Reedies and HYPers are prepping similarly). </p>

<p>And yeah, I’m an incoming Reedie. I also scored a 760 on the SAT reading section on my first attempt without practice. I do not, however, fancy myself more intellectual than my [many] IVY peers who happen to fall in the sub 750 category.</p>

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We should not assume this, lol. Most incoming Reedies realize that Reed is nowhere near as elitist as HYP regarding SAT scores. I never did SAT prep; I merely took the test and was satisfied with my scores.</p>

<p>Haha, I didn’t either. I just felt like I was going to be met with a variation of “you have no way of knowing that Reed students don’t dedicate as many hours to the SAT as (many) HYP applicants.” </p>

<p>Oh- and I realize that my point regarding class rank may not have been clear. I simply mean that given the divide between HYP and Reed academic profile wise, one would think the score differences would be even greater.</p>

<p>Most definitely. Reed and HYP just attract different types of students. Many students here, myself included, simply did not apply themselves during high school. I didn’t do any homework until my senior year, which was when I realized how easy it was to get A’s in high school—not so much the case here, haha.</p>

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<p>A school for intellectually-curious psychopaths and budding serial killers?</p>

<p>^ Perhaps that was inappropriate imagery for this polite forum.
I was thinking of how an ex Surgeon General described his education. I assume the animals were dead or anesthetized (otherwise it would’ve been hard, if you know cats). Anyway I don’t happen to know any Reedies who satisfied their teenaged scientific curiosity in that specific way.</p>

<p>To my mind, it’s better to go to a LAC for unergraduate and then to a top-notch University for grad studies</p>

<p>Liberal arts = unemployed at graduation. Good luck with that Classics degree. I am sure there are multiple job opportunities for people who have in-depth knowledge in the subject.</p>

<p>There’s that ironic username again! :)</p>

<p>At our D’s LAC in 2010 there were these majors:</p>

<p>8 classics
35 biology
27 math
16 physics
18 chemistry
16 economics</p>