how good are LACs

[Corbett]

<p>I wouldn’t put too much stock in the exact rankings that the WSJ came up with. But there are some worthwhile general points to consider in the accompanying [url=<a href=“http://www.wsjclassroomedition.com/college/feederschools.htm]article[/url”>http://www.wsjclassroomedition.com/college/feederschools.htm]article[/url</a>] that described their results.

Beyond the top Ivies, things tilt quickly in favor of small schools, like Williams at No. 5 in our survey, Amherst at No. 9 and Swarthmore at 10. Indeed, of our top 20 colleges, seven have a senior class smaller than 600 – and only one graduates more than 2,000 students a year. Grad schools told us these small liberal-arts colleges tend to do a better job of advising their students, in areas like picking courses that look good on an application. And when students work directly with professors in small classes, they tend to get better recommendation letters.

Colleges see an opening here. Indeed, our survey showed many smaller schools catching on to the feeder idea as a way to stand out. Taking a page from elite high schools, they’re looking for – and finding – ways to package students so they get noticed by the top grad schools.

there’s tiny Pomona College in California, which sent a higher proportion of its kids to Harvard Law this fall than Columbia or Duke. No. 13 on our list, it’s created a separate office to handle grad-school admissions and fellowships, including its own full-time director. They do everything from grilling students in mock interviews (“How do you deal with stress?”) to hounding professors who’ve fallen behind on their recommendation letters. Dean of Students Ann Quinley pens about 100 testimonials a year herself. “It’s a huge job,” she says.

</p>

<p>In the case of Pomona College, 100 letters of recommendation is more than 25% of the graduating class. For comparison, what are the odds of getting a personal letter of recommendation from the Dean of Students at (say) UCLA ? Does the UCLA Dean’s Office make a point of calling professors, on behalf of graduating students, to nag them about recommendation letters ?</p>

[DSC]

<p>I refered to it’s flaws, but it also shows some level of the respect given to LAC’s by other schools.</p>

[tommybill]

<p>thethoughtprocess…you say……“This is just the proportion of people pursuing doctorates…it says nothing about the quality of the graduate programs.”</p>

<p>Yes…… I know… but don’t you think it tells one something….doesn’t it say you can get into graduate school from a LAC just as well and maybe better than from a large university?</p>

[brassmonkey]

<p>It does indeed</p>

[system]

<p>Tommybill - yeah, I agree.</p>

<p>Does anyone have a list of Fullbrights over the past year or two?</p>

[tommybill]

<p>thought process …this is a qicke and dirty on your request.</p>

<p><a href=“http://exchanges.state.gov/education/fulbright/recipients/2007/recipients2.htm[/url]”>http://exchanges.state.gov/education/fulbright/recipients/2007/recipients2.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

[brassmonkey]

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=350556&highlight=fulbright[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=350556&highlight=fulbright&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Here’s a thread on it. Keep in mind that the numbers are total numbers, and LACs dominate the list. So per-capita they shine even more</p>