Opinions on College List

merc81
Tue, 30 Jun 2015 02:42:31 +0000

“the term ‘liberal arts’ makes him cringe”

If that’s the case, then LACs have a serious public relations problem.

This is how universities typically compare to LACs in terms of their most popular majors:

Vanderbilt (from your list)

Economics
Social Sciences
Mult-/Interdisciplinary Studies
Political Science and Government
Mathematics

A top-20 LAC (USNWR)

Economics
Mathematics
Political Science and Government
Psychology
History

They’d really be hard to distinguish on this basis at least.

However, you did say you know the preconception is unfounded, @FrothyShake, so this is just a reinforcement of your own understanding.

More immediately pertinent to you, I’m not sure what your son’s SAT score is doing for his profile. His ACT has already given him a very strong standardized test result. An SAT retake seems like it would at best only approach the level of his ACT score.