Comparing LACs and Universities

PurpoisePal · February 19, 2007, 4:40pm

A couple of things:

If your parents wouldn’t go for Holy Cross, you’d better scratch Georgetown off the list too (it’s Jesuit, Catholic).

Do your stats fit all your schools? My point is - don’t forget when planning trips to visit match and safety schools too.

Do your parents’ finances fit all these schools? Now is a good time to have that conversation with them, if you haven’t already. Again, it’s critical to visit financial safeties too, and be sure to interview at any schools where you are seeking merit money. (PS Most of the schools on your list offer zero or very little in the way of merit money.)

It’s great to get ideas about location, campus amenities, on-campus culture, etc. But there are often other factors that can broaden your search.

Yeah, I don’t know whether or not they’d go for Georgetown. The thing is, it’s not as blatantly christian as Holy Cross because the name doesn’t automatically give that away.

My stats do fit all these schools, and I go to a well-known school among colleges, which helps. I don’t have any real safeties yet, but I’ll probably discuss that with my college advisor at school when I get a meeting with her.

My parents finances do fit these schools. It would be great if one of them offered substantial merit scholarships, but I don’t know if we’d qualify for any real financial aid.

Like I’ve repeated (over and over again), this is just a rough list of schools that caught my eye. Over the next few months, I’ll smooth it out and probably even find some new schools to add to the list.

I just threw it out there to see what people knew about the schools on it. It really helped, by the way.

weenie · February 19, 2007, 4:51pm

^Well, that sounds good! Your college search should be easy - especially with money being no object. Good luck.

PurpoisePal · February 19, 2007, 4:52pm

Thanks!

Tuition itself is like no object (for the most part), but money’s going to be tight when I go to college (obviously). It does help, though. I can apply early! lol

johnwesley · February 19, 2007, 6:24pm

onemoremom wrote:

From the Amherst thread you referenced:
“Obviously there is a completely different enforcement strategy. Williams (and I assume Amherst from the disciplinary referrrals) has a ban on alcohol in freshman dorms, a ban on unregistered kegs, etc. They enforce these bans (to some extent) with security police walk-thrus, busting up parties, handing out tickets to visit the dean, etc. That is clearly going to generate a lot more violations.”

It seems you’ve forgotten even your own comments in reference to all that:

“This probably reflects a number of factors: 1) there is much more self-policing at Wesleyan, where every effort is made not to bring Middletown cops on campus except in cases where physical safety may be involved, and, 2) perhaps as at Swarthmore, a general leniency toward activity taking place in the privacy of one’s room.”<

What’s the discrepancy? By “self-policing” I include on campus policing by university security guards. And, by “activity taking place in the privacy of one’s room” – I mean just that – one’s room, not public spaces like lounges or university sponsored events where liquor is often served (to people with proper i.d.) , but where a marijuana joint would entail a high risk of getting busted (by campus security.)

Btw, the full context of the comment onemoremom snipped – I’m not saying maliciously – but, perhaps without realizing it was as follows:

" Controlling for size (Wesleyan is about twice Swarthmore’s size) it has about the same number of disciplinary referrals for alcohol as its Little Three brethren, but WAY fewer actual arrests for either drugs or alcohol. And, like Swarthmore, almost no SJB referrals for drugs (at WESLEYAN?)

“This probably reflects a number of factors: 1) there is much more self-policing at Wesleyan, where every effort is made not to bring Middletown cops on campus except in cases where physical safety may be involved, and, 2) perhaps as at Swarthmore, a general leniency toward activity taking place in the privacy of one’s room.”

I stand by that.

johnwesley · February 19, 2007, 7:14pm

Regarding the above and since the original Amherst CC posts were written, I have received word from reliable sources that even activity in the “privacy of one’s room” is less sacrosanct these days at Wesleyan as fire inspections of rooms also bring the risk of SJB referrals if contraband items are found in the course of the inspection. -JW

huskem55 · February 19, 2007, 7:46pm

could also check out connecticut college- its two strongest departments are probably psychology and english, awesome sense of community, active hillel, liberal but quite as liberal as wesleyan, socially-aware student body

PurpoisePal · February 19, 2007, 10:50pm

Now that I know a little more about the schools I was looking at, here’s a new list:

Swarthmore College¶
University of Pennsylvania
Barnard College (NY)
Washington University in St. Louis

I know it’s kind of short, but it’ll get longer when I start looking for “safety” schools and I’ll hear about other schools and look at those and who knows? I might find a fifth school to add to my list! Right now, though, I’d be very happy at any of the schools above.

johnwesley · February 20, 2007, 9:41am

Also, I think Northwestern kinda fell through the cracks during the discussion. It’s generally considered on a par with Georgetown and Chicago. Not Catholic and more on the pre-professional side of things than Chicago.

PurpoisePal · February 20, 2007, 6:24pm

Yeah, but Chicago’s cold. I kinda want to stay in the east. WashU’s an exception.

Comparing LACs and Universities

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