<p>I attended a public state university (UW-Madison) my first year and have decided to transfer to a LAC because I want small classes sizes and a more community feel to college.</p>
<p>That being said, I am lost at where to go. I am from the Chicago land area so I have been looking at some Midwest LACs, but I also want to be open to trying out the East and West coasts.</p>
<p>I know that I want a liberal student body. My major is sociology. </p>
<p>I don't know how to eliminate...right now I have about 25 on my list. Does anybody have any insight on eliminating college list of liberal arts schools when there are so many?? </p>
<p>Also, in general, I kind of have an idea that it might be easy transferring to a LAC in the Midwest because then there might be some people from around my area that I may have mutual friends with. Does anyone have insight on how it is transferring to a LAC far away from home???---take it in mind I'd be transferring in the spring term.</p>
<p>Any insight would be very helpful. Thank you.</p>
<p>First, check whether these LACs admit to the Spring Term (many don’t). Then, look at costs - transfers get lousy financial aid compared to freshmen. That should cut down your list.
Then, look at their statistics for transfers in the College Data Set.
Would you apply as a sophomore or as a freshman? </p>
<p>Transferring to most LACs is very, very difficult. They are very tiny and no one leaves. Take a look at freshman retention rates - for you to get a spot, someone has to leave. In a class of under 500, there might be as few as 10 spots a year that open up at some schools. It’s often much more difficult to get in as a transfer than as a freshman. </p>
<p>That list of 25 - you might need most of it to get even a few slots, forget being picky, hope you get one.</p>
<p>MrMom62: However, few kids try to transfer in to LACs (especially otside the top tier) either. If you look in the “Transfers” forum, you’ll find almost no threads about transferring in to a LAC.</p>
<p>As you can see, at the more selective LACs, the acceptance rate is usually under 10%. Davidson is surprisingly high, but outside of that one, you have to get down to the level of Whitman before you see an acceptance rate exceed 20%. </p>
<p>You can look this up for any school, it’s usually about page 13.</p>
<p>However, only one of those LACs is in the Midwest and none are near Chicago, @MrMom62.</p>
<p>Of LACs near Chicago, for the last year that I can pull, Depauw admitted 19 of 79 but Beloit admitted 48 of 91, Hope admitted 103 of 148, Kalamazoo admitted 38 of 57, and Knox admitted 49 of 81.</p>
<p>No one would think that the Ivies represent most research universities, but here you go making the most selective LACs represent “most LACs”.</p>
<p>Sorry, I assumed going to a school like UW-Madison OP was going to aim for similar quality LACs. OP also stated a willingness to look at schools outside the Midwest. We are reading the same post in two different ways.</p>
<p>I recommend Lawrence University, Knox College, Hendrix College, Southwestern University, and New College of Florida for their quality education and good chances to get in. You can try some more selective LACs in the Midwest: Carleon, St. Olaf, Macalester, and Grinnell. They all have quite a few students from Chicago land. When I visited Lawrence, the tour guide was from Chicago suburb. I like everything Lawrence offers for its students. Since you are in Madison, why not try to visit Lawrence? The admission staff are super friendly.</p>
<p>Second semester freshman. And yes, I’ve been seeing that financial aid is poorer for transfers too unfortunate. But my parents said the cost isn’t an issue and that I should go where I like best, so I’m not sure if that’s going to help me decide! Scholarships always help, though </p>
<p>Yes I visited lawrence and loved it! Just trying to add a few more to my list in case I don’t get in/I don’t get the financial aid I wanted.
Mr mom: I understand whay you’re saying, so thank you I will take my application very seriously. I had a 3.67 at madison and good involvement so I’m hoping this will get me somewhere! The only thing I’m worried about is that I did not know my professors very well at all so my recommendations are probably not going to be very good… we’ll see though. Hopefully teacher rec isn’t a huge factor. And they should understand bc I’m coming out of a college with 300+ person classes. </p>
<p>That GPA at UW-Madison will help a lot, so I’d take a shot at some higher level schools while keeping your safeties. One problem is going to be that a lot of top-tier LACs only allow fall transfers and you want a spring one.</p>
<p>Macalester admitted 47/146 applicants and allows both fall and spring transfers. Carleton only has fall transfers. Those are the best two LACs close to Chicago. Grinnell would be next closest, spring transfers, 24/173 admission success rate. Then there would be Kenyon, spring transfers, 45/185, and Oberlin, spring transfers, 63/220.</p>
<p>Rochester, Case Western, Tufts, Lehigh, and Wake Forest are all somewhat similar to W&M in size and national rank.</p>
Take a look at Ohio Wesleyan. It’s about an hour and a half southwest of Wooster and has a similar “vibe.” OWU has a reputation for being easy to get into but hard to stay; which means it is very rigorous.</p>
<p>You could give a look at Hendrix. The “Hendrix Odyssey” guarantees a research experience. Same thing at Centre. Both would be easier to transfer into than most LACs even if they don’t take too many.</p>
too unfortunate. But my parents said the cost isn’t an issue and that I should go where I like best, so I’m not sure if that’s going to help me decide! Scholarships always help, though </p>