<p>What are these places actually like, does anyone know? What is their reputation in the States? I’d never heard of them until recently, and although I really like the sound of what they do, I’m a bit dubious about going all the way over to America and ending up in some random college nobody’s ever heard of. How would you say they rate compared to more ‘normal’ universities and the Ivy League universities? Why aren’t they more popular?</p>
<p>The Harvard forum is not the right place to ask this question! If people are choosing Harvard then it is because their priorities are different than those who prefer LACs. Go visit the forums of the top LACs, such as Swarthmore, Amherst, Williams, etc. for a read on the characteristics of why many students prefer studying where the education of undergraduates is the top priority!</p>
<p>No I’ve read stuff about why LACs are so good. What I want now is some arguments against!</p>
<p>lack of research opportunities and everything else that big research universities give you… any major research university will open the doors to top-notch faculty members since they have a PhD program… it will also prob. allow you to have many opportunities to attend seminars and events at the school that are truly groundbreaking… most have professional schools which, in some cases, will allow you to take classes in them… stuff like that, really.</p>
<p>Here’s a thread from a while back on this issue:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=46786&highlight=harvard%2Flacs[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=46786&highlight=harvard%2Flacs</a></p>
<p>Epistrophy:
Thanks for the link to your old thread. I enjoyed reading it. Now that your son has finished a year at Harvard, would you mind updating us as to how it went? Did it meet your/his expectations?
Thanks.</p>
<p>What’s known to be the all-round top liberal arts college (league tables aside)?</p>
<p>Also could anyone list the top LACs for:</p>
<p>East Asian Studies
International Relations
Economics</p>
<p>Please?</p>
<p>The LAC version of HYPS is AWS = Amherst, Williams, and Swarthmore. They are perhaps the most prestigeous. But there are many other excellent LACs besides those three. The CC list is probably as good a list as any of the top LACs:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/forumdisplay.php?f=53[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/forumdisplay.php?f=53</a></p>
<p>
</p>
<p>All in all, my son had a great first year at Harvard. Highlights included taking Michael Sandel’s Moral Reasoning class (AKA Justice); doing a lot of writing for the daily newspaper (the Crimson); working on a Habitat for Humanity project (building a house) in Jackson, Mississippi, with a group of other Harvard students over spring break; and attending all kinds of fascinating presentations, panel discussions, conferences, etc. Next week, he’ll be leaving for a three-week stay in China (Shanghai), where he and a group of other Harvard students will be teaching seminars on issues relating to globalization, etc., to a group of Chinese high school students.</p>
<p>That said, I strongly suspect that he would also have had a great year at any number of other colleges, including the LACs that he was considering. Would other schools have provided him with some opportunities that Harvard didn’t? Undoubtedly. He would have, I’m sure, enjoyed some of the more intimate-sized classes - and, relatedly, the chance to get to know more professors on a more personal level - that he likely would have found at a smaller school. (He will, I expect, have more of a chance for both things at Harvard in coming years.)</p>
<p>At the risk of stating the obvious, there are always trade-offs. So much of the talk on CC and elsewhere seems to be framed in terms of which is “better” - Harvard or Yale (or Princeton or Stanford or wherever), Harvard or a top LAC, etc., etc., etc. Better? That seems to represent an awfully simple-minded and reductive way of thinking about any number of fine colleges - each of which, I trust, provides its own richly varied opportunities, as well as certain limitations.</p>
<p>Vive la difference!</p>
<p>^ Which school are they teaching at?</p>
<p>Ace Is Back:</p>
<p>Here’s some information about next month’s “Harvard leadership summit” in Shanghai:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.shanghaidaily.com/art/2006/07/28/287492/Harvard_to_hold_city_forum.htm[/url]”>http://www.shanghaidaily.com/art/2006/07/28/287492/Harvard_to_hold_city_forum.htm</a></p>
<p>
Haha what’s that supposed to mean?</p>
<p>Anyhow thanks, that looks quite interesting. Do you reckon I can go along and take a look at some of the lectures? I don’t go to school here or anything, but maybe they’d let me tag along?</p>
<p>MJ is absolutely amazing. She actually STOPPED going to classes and flew back and forth from China and Cambridge during the year in order to get this conference ready (but she did well enough to move on to sophomore year). I know most of the people that are teaching seminars at HSYLC, and I regret not applying to teach one. I’m here in Cambridge right now, one friend left today, another is leaving Sunday, one just left yesterday, etc. It sounds like they’re going to have a lot of fun. </p>
<p>It is events like these that make me so honored to be classmates and friends with amazing students.</p>
<p>The Ace is Back: No, I know it’s not possible.</p>