Southern LACs

rayrick
Thu, 25 Feb 2016 21:12:02 +0000

@4kids4colleges, I don’t disagree with anything you’ve said, though I can’t comment on relative beauty of the campuses, having never visited Southwestern (we thought Trinity was actually quite pretty). The proximity of Trinity to a big city will be a draw for some kids and a turn-off for others. I’m not sure what you mean by a real “liberal arts” college feel – having visited over 20 at this point between my two kids, I thought that Trinity felt plenty liberal-artsy, but perhaps you’re describing some difficult-to-quantify aspect of Southwestern you found especially attractive.

And the post-graduate earnings bit no doubt reflects a greater percentage of STEM and business majors at Trinity, as you correctly pointed out. I thought about leaving that piece out entirely, as I think it’s not a terribly useful metric. For my particular kid, the strong STEM programs and facilities at Trinity are a big draw, but, of course, others mileage will vary.

Anyway, I’m not trying to bash Southwestern – it sounds like a terrific school – but I do think the metrics I listed are worth tossing in the ol’ decision-making cuisinart, along with all the other harder-to-quantify factors that should be weighed (and some easy-to-quantify ones like amount of merit money!).

And I also don’t want to sound like I’m a hard-data-uber-alles kind of guy – I could have written a very similar post comparing Trinity to another of my son’s top contenders (U. of Puget Sound), but I’m not pushing him to pick Trinity over UPS, because things like fit and strength in particular areas may well override all that other stuff.

Anyway, I endorse the general consensus that @texastexas20 should visit both and see what feels right. Good luck!