UIUC might be the definition of “cornfield college.” IIRC, there is actually a cornfield next the to undergrad library and pretty much in the middle of campus.
People just don’t realize how delish corn is when picked from the field, husked and cooked within an hour.
@Muchtolearn
ha ha. My kid, I guess, is going to an “immoral” party school! Thankfully, I haven’t been through that exchange yet.
I absolutely love Kenyon’s location- it really feels like it’s own world.
@am9799 , which school is that? I wanna go there!
@Lindagaf
And imagine it is also in the Midwest so although in a city it could still qualify for cornfield…
I always think of Grinnell when I hear “cornfield college.” (A school I love, FWIW.)
Kiddo can’t wait to get to his cornfield this fall and I couldn’t be prouder.
D was determined not to come home the first 8 weeks of college. Takes about 30 minutes from her college to reach cornfields. She was so happy to see corn on her first trip home.
Looking out my back windows now on hundreds of acres. There’s just something about good dirt that’s freshly plowed, with straight green rows of baby corn popping up 
My wife told me Cornell College in IA is really a cornfield college (I missed that trip with the Ds). Corn fields all around and no town (which Kenyon DOES have).
My hometown is Columbus, Ohio, and the OSU Ag school has cornfields in the middle of the city!
Also dairy barns that provide the raw material for garden enrichment, or political campaigns.
Not necessarily any college in the Midwest, but a college (generally in the Midwest) far enough off the beaten track that it is surrounded by actual cornfields for miles and miles around. Kenyon and Grinnell leap to mind, but there are plenty of others.
Yes, like Knox College, except it might be surrounded by soybeans instead of corn. (BTW, Knox was high on D15’s list and is on S18’s, and I’m an alum of a corn/soy college) 
“I complained to a good friend of mine that he is not letting his son reach his full potential by not letting him attend S and instead sending him into a BS/MD 3+4 program. (snip) I am sure there is a smile and nod thread somewhere else where he is complaining about me!”
Oy. Really bad form. It would be understandable if he complained about you - that’s really rather rude.
A good friend had a son who was recruited for a sport at both U of Chicago and (no name LAC) waaaay down in the pecking order. Kid chose the no name LAC. My H and I had our jaws drop when we heard this. But I would never say anything to her face about what she “should have” done. Not my kid. Not my business. Not my circus. Not my monkeys.
Perhaps there was a very good reason for that choice. The LAC might have offered a better deal financially, or perhaps he simply liked the sports program or the school better. The young man may have felt he would be " in over his head academically at U C. Who knows.
Your response was just right.
My neighbor sent her kids to parochial school while I put my kids through the public school system. Her mother (who lives with them, so we see her often) would constantly say things like “public school isn’t good enough for granddaughter 1 & granddaughter 2” and “we feel it’s important that they get a GOOD education.” She’d say it in front of my kids, too.
My kids are ecstatic to be headed to some amazing colleges in the fall, and her grandkids? Pretty awful colleges, if you ask me. These things work themselves out, and any place is what you make of it – HS or college.
A number of years ago, I was talking with some members of my wife’s family. Someone commented that one of her cousin’s daughters (who was a junior/senior in high school at the time) was very attractive and the dad must be chasing guys away. Dad said that was true. They lived in a suburb that had a good public school system though many of the kids went to a well regarded all boys catholic high school or an all girls catholic high school. Dad noted that he could immediately tell the difference between the public school guys and catholic school guys who came to the door to pick up his daughter. Catholic school guys were respectful, articulate and well dressed. Carried on a conversation with him rather than just being there to see his daughter. Public school guys wouldn’t look him in the eye, didn’t want to talk to him and weren’t as well dressed. I looked at him and said “You know they all want the same thing, right?” That was a concept that had never occurred to him.
Fast forward to the present. That daughter (who attended the all girls catholic high school) has a baby. She isn’t married. Father is a graduate of that very same well regarded all boys catholic high school. Her younger sister went to the local public high school. She is married to a grad of the same local high school. No children yet but they plan to have a family once they get more established. You don’t say.
I have never said anything to my wife’s cousin. And I won’t.
Years ago my neighbor and I were returning after walking the kids to the bus stop. Another neighbor came out of her house to tell us that she she would " clean toilets at night for private school tuition before she would send her child to public school".
Of course she has yet to set foot in that public school. And our kids have turned out fine.
We’re from Zimbabwe and my son was originally looking at universities in NC. When my elderly mother who has very little knowledge of the US except from the movies heard about S interest in NC she commented with a horrified expression on her face, " but isn’t that where all the slaves come from??"
Geesh maybe 250 years ago!
As the mother of a son who just graduated from a Catholic high school, I am neither smiling nor nodding my head as many of you post your Catholic school bashes. But I do hope you have a good day.