<p>I, too, would choose an LAC where professors were available inside and outside the classroom. It’s interesting that very few on this thread have named large universities as their preferred choices–which flies in the face of what many college-bound high schoolers today claim to desire. The lesson? Maybe small really is beautiful…if you’re 40 or older.</p>
<p>I would go to a huge binge drinking haven full of gorgeous frat rats. The percentage of greek participants would be over 80%, and the campus would be full of non-intellectual materialistic meatheads. I would only be going to find a rich spouse with rich parents (and a likely inheritance), so that I would never have to work. I would never find a suitable spouse at a LAC. :D</p>
<p>P.S. just kidding. (I think…)</p>
<p>1sokkermom, LOL</p>
<p>hey, if dstark can have his fantasy I don’t see anything wrong with yours :p</p>
<p>Sounds somewhat like Bucknell University in Pennsylvania-except for the fact that the kids are really smart.</p>
<p>The hope is that I can still live “vicariously” through my daughter . Good thing “we” have a couple of years to look… :eek:</p>
<p>(focus: rich and handsome, rich and handsome, rich and handsome…);)</p>
<p>For me, it’s not where would I go that would be so different, but what would I study. A few months before graduating I realized I should have been in engineering. 10 years later I went back to school (1 course/semester) and after 5 years got a masters in manufacturing systems engineering.</p>
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<p>Amen. I actually did a “gap” year between sophmore and junior year. Not for any grade issues, just because I was sick of it. The difference in the way I savored the academics afterwards was night and day. College is so much more fun when you are academically engaged and taking courses because they are interesting and challenging.</p>
<p>I think one of the reasons we all get so involved in our kids college hunts is that it’s fascinating to take a fresh look, knowing what we know about our own college experiences. To the extent that we can share the pluses and minuses with our kids and help them visualize what college is all about, we are doing them a big favor. For example, my role in our family discussions was playing devil’s advocate for large state universities. I really liked UNC-Chapel Hill. A little worn around the edges, but it felt like an energized place and not the least bit stuffy. Nice vibe.</p>
<p>At the end of the day, I came right back to where I started. I still would have picked a liberal arts college. However, if I were doing it again, I would have picked one that mitigated the one big disadvantage (small, insular) by providing more ready access to a city and the real world. I spent too much time in college driving all over heck and back just to get away for a weekend.</p>
<p>“It’s interesting that very few on this thread have named large universities as their preferred choices–which flies in the face of what many college-bound high schoolers today claim to desire. The lesson? Maybe small really is beautiful…if you’re 40 or older.”</p>
<p>Carlmom, I looked back over the thread, and it looks pretty divided to me (including some divided people, lilke me!)</p>
<p>Wow, you’re right, Garland. The eyes of this beholder of the thread saw what she wanted to see. Scary. By the way, I attended large schools for my degrees and, although, I don’t have regrets, I definitely would choose small this time around, as I indicated above. As we all know, the new world order will demand that people not only be incredibly adaptable to changing working conditions, but they will have to identify and then assume new careers many times in their long, long work lives. I think the critical (and nimble) thinking skills that one gets exposed to at most LACs would best serve those needs.</p>
<p>Well, as I said earlier, for various reasons Georgetown looks attractive to me today. But finding a co-ed equivalent of Smith would be extremely attractive. Preferably with no or minimal Greek influence and at the middle or lower end of the alcohol-centered scale. Urban or small town, but not rural.</p>
<p>I had been biased in favor of research universities but my D’s search and subsequent experiences really opened my eyes with respect to LAC’s.</p>
<p>I’d go to the University of Michigan if I could have a do-over. The campus is great and Ann Arbor is a wonderful city with a small town feel. I would major in biology and english and go on to med school. I’d never get tired of singing Hail To The Victors!</p>
<p>Cruella–my H majored in bio (and philosophy)at UM and went on to med school; I majored in English there, and we never get tired of singing Hail to the Victors. So, we have combined your do-over for you. :)</p>
<p>Amherst, as I love everything about it and wish D would let me fake my credentials so I could apply too, or Yale. Fell in love with the campus and the system.</p>
<p>Yale again in a heartbeat. It was the happiest place on earth for me and with all the campus renovations, the addition of significantly more freshman seminars, and extremely tasty food on campus, it’s only gotten better.</p>
<p>Hi,
I graduated from Lafayette and loved it - I was in the second graduating class with women - that was interesting. We showed our first D the college - had no interest at the time but applied along with 8 other colleges/univresities. She got in as a Marquis Scolar so heard early - went to see the college on that Marquis Scholar Day and fell in love with it. From there on, all college acceptances/rejections did not matter. Had a great experience, although told her younger brother it has become too nerdy - whatever - he is at Emory. Totally different environrment but he would have done well at Lafayette. I love my school! Funny - I went on to Columbia grad school - our daughter is now there in a similar program. Too weird. Other two children following different paths. Lafayette gave our daughter what she needed but she had to work hard!</p>
<p>Bad type errors for a Lafayette Grad. Sorry.</p>
<p>garrity, your intentions notwithstanding, you did mean to offend any bowdoin people. and, irrespective of what middlebury reports as their stats, they are in the same league as bowdoin, and haven’t always been. whatever your experiences with the campus (a visit, a friend who worked for admissions) your biases are just that. your claim that bowdoin is subject to rural isolation where middlebury is not is still unsubstantiated. furthermore, my experience and the experiences of my friends at bowdoin and middlebury testify to the opposite of what you describe, regarding intellectual flair. i’m not here to criticize middlebury, because i think it’s a very good school, but i find it frustrating when advocates of middlebury can only promote their school on the backs of other schools. as someone who went through bowdoin without drinking, had a fantastic and intellectually stimulating time, and would do it again in a heartbeat, yes, i find your perspective limited and a bit unfair.</p>
<p>pb: Yes my experiences are limited. I have no connection to either Middlebury College or to Bowdoin College. I have visited both within the last few months, and have had contacts with students,parents and admissions folks at both schools. My posts represent my experiences and knowledge of both schools. I am sorry if this offends you ,I do not mean to. You obviously have an interest in Bowdoin so I value your input. Does not make my experiences any less valid. I have no interest in either school,but my contacts with Bowdoin are quite substantial. I do not have any emotion toward either school, and, I suspect, that there are kids who make it through Dartmouth, Washington & Lee, and Penn State and even Lehigh without drinking . To Bowdoin’s credit they did away with fraternities. I am, however,slightly suspicious of Bowdoin’s admission stats as SATs are not required and due to possible incomplete reporting of stats on heavily recruited URMs.</p>
<p>Wheaton College in Illinois in a heartbeat!</p>
<p>my dad loved Berkeley and he’d probably do it again, except with more efforts to get fin aid or student loans (he’s the oldest of 8 and paid for college all by himself). But he also loves LACs and since my sister went to Scripps he’s especially fond of the claremont colleges. His semi-jock, poli sci/econ/history-loving teenage self would want to go to Claremont Mckenna, and his laid-back stoner teenage self would choose Pitzer :-D. He also probably would’ve applied to Santa Cruz, it really seems like a good fit for him past or present.
[Me: why didn’t you apply to santa cruz?
dad: because I was a moron.
:-D]
he also loves those really isolated east coast schools like bates, colby, bowdoin, middlebury but to his dismay he couldn’t convince me to apply to them because IMO they’re too isolated. And if he had to pick one ivy to apply to he would choose Columbia because of NYC, or maybe also Penn cuz it’s big-ish and in a big city or Cornell because it’s just big. He’d also want to go to NYU - he’s one of the few parents who encouraged their kid to apply to NYU instead of freaking out about being in the big city and you’ll get mugged and it’s too expensive blablabla.</p>
<p>So basically, he’d want to go everywhere. And he wants me to go everywhere, too. </p>
<p>My mom was a bored middle-class suburban kid who became a hippie slacker as a teen. She did a year at local csu and dropped out, and then about 10 years later when she and my dad were living in Seattle she went to CC and transferred to UW to get her occupational therapy degree but had to drop out for various financial reasons. My mom says if she had to do it over she would’ve transferred to the University of Puget Sound for OT instead of UW because even though back then she didn’t want to be in Tacoma a smaller environment probably would’ve been better for her and she would’ve gotten financial aid and might have been able to actually finish her degree. </p>
<p>if she REALLY had to do it over, she might go to an artsy school and get her degree in interior design because she loves that stuff and she’s really good at it. A few years ago tried to start going to the jc again to get her associate’s in interior design but she has NO TIME. It really sucks.</p>