IR and Econ major.
W&L Johnson Scholar vs CMC McKenna Scholar.
Prefer CA and slightly bigger school and more diverse.
Any thoughts??? Career prospect, Alumni network, educational experience, research and internship opportunity. Thanks.
CMC appears to offer a world-level economics program. In this analysis based on faculty scholarship, you can see how it compares to W&L: Economics rankings: US Economics Departments at Liberal Arts Colleges | IDEAS/RePEc.
IR & Econ with what goal? Law school? Public policy? IB?
The Johnson is a full ride including summer experience, the McKenna is $15K off sticker- that is a HUGE difference. Is the nearly $300,000 difference for your family completely immaterial? If not, then the differences between the 2 are comparatively immaterial.
That’s because, in the ways that matter (incl " Career prospect, Alumni network, educational experience, research and internship opportunity") what you do as a student will outweigh any differences in the two schools. I get the appeal of CA! but unless your family is one of those that can write the check without blinking this is a pretty open-and-shut case.
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W&L by a mile. Their placement in DC per capita, according to a professor we met on campus anyway, is 2nd behind Sewanee.
The Johnson is unreal. And the school has programs to help place yiu for interns such as the Shepherd Center and more.
You can go back to CA later.
But I would not consider CMC over W&L even at the same price.
You want larger. CMC has the consortium but don’t forget W&L has near neighboring VMI.
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With respect to international studies, this site, in which CMC appears, may be of interest:
W&L doesn’t have an Intl major per se and doesn’t show up in rankings. We noticed this when we applied but found out it’s part of politics and then have area majors. That’s when we were given the per capita DC stat.
Unless the career stat we were given is false, it’s a powerhouse.
In the case though unless someone has several hundred thousand more to spend, even if it wasn’t a power house, the decision would still be clear. It’s why my kid is at Charleston and not W&L where she got in but full pay.
It’s a trade off. I want to live in CA for much of the next four years (don’t forget school is only part of the year) and it’s worth $71.5k plus annual inflation this costing my family potentially $300k.
Or I’ll go get a world class education with opportunities galore such as the DC semester and funded extras.
I mean $300k is a lot of jack, even for a wealthy family.
And we are talking about a top school.
If international relations is a goal, one will need to learn to spread their wings outside the golden state.
But you can’t do much better than Johnson. Congrats on the win.
Here would be my other question to @Jazzy321 why did you apply to W&L in the first place ?
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Note that while the (impressive) Johnson scholarship is self-explanatory in its extent, the McKenna scholarship may be supplemented by substantial need-based financial assistance. It appears the OP has not disclosed sufficient information for a value comparison.
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Care wise, interacted in policy, international economics. Not sure yet.
Let’s just compare without considering the financial aspect.
With respect to public policy, if you attend CMC, you will be able to enroll in courses that align with this interest at Pomona, in particular, as well:
In themselves, neither has an absolute advantage over the other in the terms you enquired about (career prospects, alumni network, educational experience, research and internship opportunity).
CMcK might have a very slight edge over W&L in terms of educational experience IF you factor in cross-registration at Pomona
W&L possibly has a very slight edge over CMcK in terms of alumni connections, esp if DC is a goal.
Not possible to discern even a tiny difference for either research or internships opportunities. As I posted earlier, what the student actually does- the relationships they build, the way that they look for and take advantage of research/internships opportunities, etc- will matter much, much, much more than any of the above possible differences.
What could matter a lot is what happens after college. Common paths from policy or international economics includes NGOs, policy institutes and think tanks (all of which will require grad school), or government agencies (which won’t pay well).
So, IF the cost of CMcK is equal to the cost of W&L for you, then go ahead and pick based purely on personal preference.
Or, IF your financial resources are such that any difference in cost between the two is completely incidental to you, again let your son pick solely on personal preference.
But, IF paying the difference means 1) debt or 2) less ability to help them with the transition to professional life (helping to subsidize a first apartment, helping with grad school), then follow the money.
*note that consulting or IB (current faves with a lot of HS students) value prestige, and neither school outranks the other for that
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As others have said, these two schools seem close enough in programs and opportunities that the decision should probably come down to finances.
However, as the mom of a current CMC student, I can tell you that the internship and research opportunities there are astonishingly good. It feels like the school is throwing $$$ at my son! As a first year (considering IR as a major), he’s already doing paid research for a well-known professor. He’s been awarded two CMC internship grants for the summer, including one to spend a month in a foreign country. And he’s already lined up a different paid research for next fall.
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As the mom of a current W&L student, I agree with the other posters that there are no meaningful differentiators in the academics and opportunities these two schools afford. Your student will have access to more resources and experiences than they can utilize in four years!
The meaningful differences (excluding finances per the OP) are in fit… where will your student be the happiest?
- With 2000 students (4000 if VMI is included) or with 8000 students in the consortium?
- CMC has half as many white students and double the Asian and Hispanic students (approx the same Black students)
- SoCal or the Shenandoah Valley of VA?
Those are questions for your student and your family. Interestingly about half of my kid’s friend group at W&L are Asian students so I sometimes have the incorrect perception that there are more Asian kids on campus than the profile reflects. W&L is making headway in attracting more students of color, but it is a work in progress. I suggest your student ask to be connected with a current Asian student at W&L. My D did this when she was making her decision (different diversity concern but same principle) and found that students didn’t mind “telling it like it is”.
Best of luck and congratulations on those scholarships!
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