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Please rank these LACs (only these)

Lawrence
Colorado College
Beloit
Hendrix
Depauw
Grinnell
Gustavus Adolphus

Thank you for your opinion, hopefully it will be useful to my cousin who is just now an upcoming senior in Arkansas.

By Tdizzo (Tdizzo) on Monday, July 12, 2004 - 07:06 pm: Edit

1.Colorado College
2.Grinnell
3.Beloit
4.Lawrence
5.Hendrix
6.Depauw
7.Gustavus Adolphus

Though I'm so sure Colorado qualifies as the midwest. Have heard good things about all these schools, visited Beloit personally. Your cousin should be careful though about selecting any of these schools. Personally, Grinnell was WAYYYYY to isolated for me and being from an urban area Beloit's small town persona was not something I was looking for. All in all, these represent a solid cross section of middle to high end second tier LACS

By A2a2 (A2a2) on Monday, July 12, 2004 - 07:09 pm: Edit

What's right for one person, may be totally wrong for another, but here goes:

Grinnell - best academics, good merit aid.

Big Gap

Beloit - nice small college.
Colorado College - pretty location, unique block schedule.
Lawrence - similar to Beloit, but with a conservatory.

Little Gap

Gustavus Adolphus
Depauw

Don't know anything about Hendrix. It's not in the midwest, is it?

By B18c1cx (B18c1cx) on Monday, July 12, 2004 - 09:34 pm: Edit

Thank you. I think she is going to consider Depauw (plus money) bc she says she doesn't feel like colorado is for her (too hippy) and that Grinnell is too nerdy. She has already made all of her visits. Any suggestions?? oh yea, she isn't really VERY concerned with most things ppl on this forum are (grad school placement, going after all prestige at the cost of a fitting school)... she is pretty preppy for a girl from Arkansas and is up for some serious money from Hendrix? Which one of these Midwestern schools would fit her best? (rank if you'd like still, also)

By A2a2 (A2a2) on Monday, July 12, 2004 - 10:27 pm: Edit

Among these, Grinnell has the best grad school placement, but it's not preppy. If she's preppy and wants a midwest LAC, she may want to look at Denison and Kenyon. But if she's limited to this specific list, DePauw and Beloit may be the preppiest.

By Shennie (Shennie) on Tuesday, July 13, 2004 - 03:13 pm: Edit

Beloit is not very preppy. It sort of has a rep for being very liberal and somewhat alternative. I think her best bets might be Lawrence and Gustavus Adolphus. I, also, don't know anything about Hendrix.

By Mini (Mini) on Tuesday, July 13, 2004 - 05:32 pm: Edit

Among the top 50 liberal arts colleges as ranked by USNWR, Kenyon (#6) has one of the highest entitlement ("preppy') indexes in the country; Depauw (#46), and Grinnell (#48) among the lowest; Denison (#30) somewhere in between.)

Both Depauw and Grinnell have tiny percentages (under 20%) of students who attended private schools; Kenyon's is in the upper 40s.

By Insertnamehere (Insertnamehere) on Tuesday, July 13, 2004 - 05:59 pm: Edit

Umm....Kenyon is ranked #30. And isn't Carleton in the Midwest?

By B18c1cx (B18c1cx) on Tuesday, July 13, 2004 - 06:04 pm: Edit

Mini, where is this entitlement index? I would like to see it...

"Insert.."...She has excluded Carleton and Macalester b/c she claims she doesn't want to be in Minn.

By Mini (Mini) on Tuesday, July 13, 2004 - 06:28 pm: Edit

You can see it on the Parents Forum.

(Kenyon is #6 on the Liberal Arts Colleges top 50 "Entitlement" Index.)

By Carolyn (Carolyn) on Tuesday, July 13, 2004 - 07:30 pm: Edit

I'd rank them a little differently:
Grinnell
Lawrence (has excellent academics, particularly in the sciences)
Colorado College
Hendrix (again, excellent academics. If it was not in Arkansas, it would be much more popular. It is working very hard to build its national reputation by offering big merit awards to top out of state students)
Beloit
Gustavus Adolphus (nice school)
DePauw - lowest in rankings because they have had some recent financial problems with their endowment investments. Moody's just downgraded DePauw's bonds for several reasons, not the least of which is that they discount their tuition so heavily with merit awards and financial aid. However, this may or may not have much of a dent in academic experience. If I took out this issue, I'd say DePauw is on par with Beloit-Hendrix-Gustavus academically.


However, all of these schools tend to be VERY generous with merit and financial aid. Re: DePauw. Does she have any objection to sororities and frats? Greeks kind of dominate the social scene at DePauw, while they either don't exist or are more low key at the other schools on the list.

By Alexandre (Alexandre) on Wednesday, July 14, 2004 - 02:43 am: Edit

#1 Carleton
#2 Oberlin
#3 Grinnell
#4 Macalester
#5 Gustavus Adolphus
#6 Lawrence
#7 Colorado College
#8 Hendrix
#9 Kalamazoo College
#10 DePauw

By Dhf1720 (Dhf1720) on Wednesday, July 14, 2004 - 12:33 pm: Edit

How good and how competitive is the Lawrence Conservatory? How does it compare to Oberlin?
Also, what's the best LAC for economics? And finally, what are some excellent schools for one interested in an economics major and a music performance (violin) minor?

By Shennie (Shennie) on Wednesday, July 14, 2004 - 04:07 pm: Edit

Lawrence has a very fine conservatory, but it does not have the national reputation that Oberlin has. However, I think it may be difficult to do a music performance minor. Music performance requires a student to get a Bachelor of Music. Usually, the only way you can minor in performance is if you are getting a B.M in another area such as musicology or theory. And, often, teachers won't even take you on if you are not a performance major.

As far as liberal arts colleges go, most offer a BA in music which would allow you to pursue your musical interests but might not give you the intensity of music that you want. My guess is that you want a school with a decent orchestra and those are hard to find at smaller schools. One small school with a strong orchestra program is St. Olaf's. You might be able to do a performance minor there. Larger universities often have more programs available that might meet your needs.

It is much easier to "dabble" in music at Lawrence than at Oberlin. Lots of students at Lawrence take lessons and participate in the music programs without majoring in music. I think you would have better luck at Lawrence trying to do what you are describing. I don't know about the strength of the economics dept. at either school, but my guess is that they both have decent econ depts.

By Dave72 (Dave72) on Wednesday, July 14, 2004 - 10:29 pm: Edit

Shennie, lots of students at Oberlin take lessons and participate in the music programs without majoring in music too. I think I've seen other posts in which you (or someone else? Forgive me if I've got this wrong) suggested that Conservatory programs are difficult for non-Conservatory students to take part in, and it's just not true. There are a few courses that are essentially closed except to music majors because of supply/demand, and it's hard for non-Con students to get to take private lessons with Con faculty (although they can take lessons with advanced Conservatory students, who are excellent). But there are many opportunities for College students to study and play music at Oberlin.

Economics is excellent at Oberlin. See, for instance, http://www.oberlin.edu/news-info/04jun/kennethKuttner.html/.