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Top 10 LACs
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Replies to: Top 10 LACs
Amherst, Barnard, Bowdoin, Carleton, Middlebury, Pomona, Reed, Swarthmore, Wesleyan, Williams
Harvey Mudd is more specialized, but it too belongs in this company if you're interested in science or engineering (in fact, if you're interested in getting a four-year degree in engineering, most of the schools above won't be of much use to you).
There are many other schools I would consider just as attractive as the ones above, though: Vassar, Oberlin, Macalester, Claremont McKenna, Smith, Bryn Mawr, Haverford, Davidson, Grinnell, etc. Habitually overlooked schools like Agnes Scott and Morehouse should also be mentioned in these conversations.
American kids are fortunate to have so many great options; choosing between them often comes down to subjective factors like fit because of how consistently strong they are academically.
Selectivity is an enticing method of separating the wheat from the chaff, but, what does it really reflect? Popularity? A college can be academically rigorous and not terribly popular. Chicago, Reed -- even Swarthmore -- are each examples of colleges that went through dry spells, in terms of popularity, largely because of their rumored grade-deflation.
SAT median scores? Again, it says less than you think. Just because a college has a high median SAT/ACT median doesn't guarantee that its students learn from each other between classes. That, is the ostensible advantage of attending an elite college. Otherwise, all you're doing is having your high school grades, board scores and teacher recommendations certified and ratified by a prestigious degree.
Furthermore, there really is no trick to charging $50,000 a year in tuition and drawing enough upper and upper-middle class students to fill out a class of high-achieving students.
The real trick is in going a little deeper into your school's applicant pool in order to admit middle-class kids from city schools, rural schools and schools with only one college counselor for a thousand students, kids who will ultimately go back to their communities and run for Board of Ed, become members of the Chamber of Commerce and raise money for the United Fund. Those are legitimate markers as well and not always reflected in magazine statistics.
Amherst, Pomona, Williams, swathmore, Harvey mudd, Claremont McKenna, bowdoin, haverford, Wellesley, middlebury, Wesleyan
In no order
1. Amherst
3. Swarthmore
4. Pomona
4. Middlebury
6. Bowdoin
7. Harvey Mudd
8. Haverford
8. Wellesley
8. Reed
Reed (seems to be the most rigorous LAC with the best curriculum & testing system)
Carleton, Swarthmore (a little cut above the others in rigor)
Amherst, Claremont McKenna, Haverford, Pomona (strong consortium LACs)
Bowdoin, Wellesley, Williams (the most selective of the rest, but otherwise mostly indistinguishable in any very important way from about 30 other LACs)
Harvey Mudd is as strong as any of the above, but it's really a science & engineering college, not a comprehensive "liberal arts" college.
I doubt Reed is any more rigorous than similar schools, despite the Buzz.
More info: http://www.reed.edu/apply/college-rankings.html
I think that a student can get an equally rigorous education at most schools through effort, but I think at Reed, the bar is set very high (Junior quals, Senior thesis, HUM 110, very small classes) for everyone, so everyone has to perform at some high level or they risk not graduating in time. At a lot of schools, a student might be able to find easy classes to fill up their schedule, but almost every intro course at Reed is basically a full on academic course in that field.
Keep in mind I have yet to take classes yet, as I am in the class of 2019, and I might have a bias toward Reed, but from all the research I have done (talking to students, internet research, course lists), this seems to be the case.
Williams - almost always #1
Amherst - almost always #2, although alternates with Swat and Williams often
Swarthmore - like the other top 3, alternates
Wellesley - mostly #4, although has fallen to #7 (2014) and #8 (1980s)
Bowdoin - now we're getting into the more variable territory; has recently been ranked in top 5, but prior to 2013 was #6, #7, and briefly in the 90s didn't cut the top 10
Pomona - nearly a consistent #5 rank, sometimes up to #4 and down to #7 as in 2007 and 2008
Middlebury - usually top 5, until 2015, put from 2006 and before it was all over the place in the top schools, going to as low as #11
Carleton - in the 80s ranked high at #3 (taking Amherst out of the top 3 in 1988) and #4, then in 1989 dropped from the top 10, to reemerge in 1997 where it's been high as #4 and as low as #9 in 1999 and 1997
Claremont McKenna - a recent school to cut the top 10, emerging in 2012, but prior to this was as low as not in the top 20s to as high as 11 in 2011 before finally making top 10
Haverford - made a huge leap in 1991 from #21 to #8 and has steadily been a top 10 school, with a high of 5 a few years in the early 2000s
Davidson - recently fell to #11, but has alternated throughout the years as a lower top 10/high top 20 school
Vassar - made top 10 in 2013, and that's really been its only time in the top 10, usually ranking in the high top 20
This, and yeah, it's weird, but it's also what Reed wants: a certain rakish charm, an anti-establishment cachet, and an ability to say "we're the best and the rankings can't dispute that because we're not playing by their rules." And in the immortal words of Lisa Simpson, who doesn't love "a good-looking rebel who plays by his own rules"?