Your child should consider an LAC.

RookieCollegeMom
Sat, 24 Nov 2018 13:46:45 +0000

Thank you @Lindagaf for your thread! I agree that students should CONSIDER LACs, just like they should CONSIDER the myriad of other higher education options out there. Let’s not forget that the world is not just small LACs and big universities. There is a lot in between, including community colleges.

I agree that I think many people (who I know, at least) aren’t familiar with them. Other than 2 in my state, my good friend, who herself, is a highly educated educator had not heard of many, including the more well-known ones. About LACs in general, she actually said “why would I pay more (than state univ) for a sub-par education”?

I was not very familiar with many either until a few years ago. I think people just think “private”. And see the published prices and think “can’t afford that!”

We learned more about the LACs thru the book, CTCL while looking for a small school for D1 who said she could not sit in a class of 100 kids and pay attention.

She ended up going to a community college (ours has a great reputation) and absolutely loves it. Now looking to transfer after a couple of years there (1 LAC and 1 large univ on her list).

D1 probably would not have gotten enough merit (even with FA) for us to be able to afford many of the LACs.

D2 now looking at LACs for next year. She has the grades and scores for top merit and along with FA, that will make some LACs about the same as our highly regarded in-state univ (according to the NPC for some may actually be less, but I won’t believe anything until I see if on official school letterhead!)

I will say that even though $30k merit is great, at some of the LACs, that brings it down to $30k or $40k, a year which is out of our budget. We couldn’t do it without FA.

So yes, people should CONSIDER ALL types of school. Even within each “type” schools differ - every large univ is not the same, every LAC is not the same. Every kid is not the same.