Swarthmore- top value private college

[A.E]

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@HarrietMWelsch

And you do, A.E.?

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<p>I’ve provided citations for every piece of actual data I’ve used ITT. I have not made claims beyond simple ROI considerations, in which Swarthmore comes up short. Other people have tried to supply reasons for why Swarthmore comes up short compared to other elite schools, but they have not actually provided any data.</p>

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You were unhappy at Swarthmore; anybody who’s read these boards for any length of time knows that. Sometimes you post valid points, and a good reminder that the school isn’t great for everybody, and for some it isn’t even good. This isn’t one of those times.

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<p>I give you a 2 out of 5 for ad hominem. You should leave that to the experts and focus instead on what I say rather than who I am. My points ITT absolutely are valid. Instead of offering anything resembling an argument, all you have done is (1) misrepresent me and (2) attack me.</p>

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When you’re applying for a job, you’re presenting yourself; your alma mater is just one part of that picture. And for another, by the time people are applying for jobs, nobody cares what their SAT scores were. (And “better . . . on average” doesn’t pertain to any individual, anyway.)

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<p>I’m talking about trends, not individuals. This should be obvious given the topic of this thread. You may as well tell us that the ROI of any one individual can be different than the average of all students at his or her alma mater.</p>

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@Dad2

AE- absolutely: Swarthmore has consistently ranked in the top 3 institutions in the country for producing PhD’s per capita (safe to assume most of these folks aren’t going into mergers and acquisitions). When I last checked, Swat also produced the highest per capita number of Nobel laureates (above HYP, etc.), which suggests an academic bent. That said, I agree with Harriet: you are who you are- you either cut it and thrive at your alma mater or you don’t and you can’t ultimately blame your failures (or successes) on where you attended college.

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<p>I agree that you can’t blame your successes or failures on where you attended college. I do not attribute any of my own success to Swarthmore. I could have gone just about anywhere and ended up where I am now; Harvard researcher [Dan</a> Gilbert](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Gilbert_(psychologist)]Dan”>Daniel Gilbert (psychologist) - Wikipedia) has shown that our decisions in life don’t matter as much as we think they do, and where to go for college is undoubtedly a perfect example of this. The only difference is who my friends are, but I’m sure I would have made good friends at Harvard or Georgia Tech or wherever else as well. Also, just FYI, I’m pretty sure Swarthmore ranks second in number of Nobel Prize winners per graduate, not that the difference matters, and not that it is a large contributing factor to the value a school provides its students.</p>

<p>And my comments about the opportunity cost of going to graduate school for Harvard graduates who have lucrative jobs still stands.</p>

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@Keilexandra

How do you define “middle-class”? My family is middle class–what some would call “middle middle class,” not “upper middle class”–and above the median U.S. income. We have only been middle-class for 10 years, and started from essentially 0 before that point (immigrants). I receive substantial FA from Swarthmore, which calculated a family contribution less than my ~15k FAFSA EFC.</p>

<p>FA “generosity” will vary for every family, especially those with finances more complicated than paycheck income and typical assets. In that respect, Swarthmore is probably not any more or less generous than Williams or Amherst; but for a PARTICULAR family, the difference may or may not be significant.

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<p>I’m sure Williams and Amherst are in the same boat as Swarthmore when it comes to squeezing out the middle class. I don’t really know what the definition of middle class is, but someone from a family whose household income is $90,000 but who can’t afford to go to Swarthmore because of financial aid limitations would have to be a member of the middle class.</p>