<p>My son is seeking input for his choice between Amherst, Carleton, and Davidson colleges. We live in Minnesota and are familiar with Carleton, but Amherst and Davidson are not well known. His interests, today, are in the sciences (Chem/Physics), but he knows that college may introduce him to a completely new world of interests and a corresponding change in major. He will be making the trip to Amherst for their open house, but will likely not make it to Davidson before making a decision. He is strong academically and will have no problems being away from home (thanks to Skype, his Mom will get to see him from time to time). Although the weather at Davidson sounds wonderful, he has no problems staying in the frozen north for another 4 years if the education choice is best. Thanks in advance for any suggestions you might have as he makes his decision.</p>
<p>Although I am a great fan of Davidson I have to admit Amherst trumps it on the basis of reputation and prestige. So unless your son does not like it when he visits, it's probably the logical choice--your family will probably come to love the cold Commonwealth--and to be fair, weather isn't really so bad in Massachusetts (Too bad he won't be able to attend Decision Davidson, though--they do a great job presenting the school.)</p>
<p>I know nothing about Amherst or Davidson except what I've read in guidebooks. We visited Carleton several times and it was one of my son's top choices. It has an incredible reputation in the sciences and a wonderful laid-back quality that sets it apart, I think, from many other rigorous, highly selective schools. I can understand wanting to try a new part of the country, but apart from that, I think he couldn't do better than Carleton. Glad you can visit at least one other. These schools are all so great academically that it is totally a matter of what feels better to him.</p>
<p>Son chose not to apply to Davidson because of it's more socially conservative character-certainly compared to Amherst and Carleton. This may be a plus or minus in your son's case.</p>
<p>Davidson is wonderful- but it is more conservative than Amherst and probably than Carleton. The climate is great and the honor code at the school is very strong. It is better known in the south and east than Davidson, but Amherst is the better known of the three. You have three great schools that are similar in many ways, but are in completely different parts of the country.</p>
<p>They are all strong, and essentially interchangeable in terms of their academic strengths (though I'd bet there are more chem/physics majors at Carleton than at the other two). So you should probably focus on the other factors - geography, weather, student body (Carleton has far fewer private school/wealthy students than the other two), town, etc. - in order to narrow them down.</p>
<p>For what it's worth (probably little), I saw a survey several years ago that said Carleton was the school (including all the Ivies, etc.) most favored for its educational quality by college professors.</p>
<p>Congrats, these 3 were also high on my D's list. </p>
<p>Davidson is more conservative than Amherst or Carleton, but is not particularly conservative for the South.
Travel was a big issue for us, and I think the back and forth to Davidson will be easier than Amherst, because Charlotte is so close and is a large hub.</p>
<p>Academically, he can't go wrong with any of them. Davidson is probably the most overtly pre-professional of all (lots of docs and lawyers to be). Amherst has the Wall Street firms visiting, Carleton is known for producing academics and working scientists.</p>
<p>If outdoor water sports like skiing and sailing, or basketball is important, there's no question :).</p>
<p>I would not make the assertion that these schools are "essentially interchangeable academically in terms of their academic strengths." They are different schools with different faculty. One is part of a consortium. One has an honor code. They are different sizes (though all smaller). One has a sizeable southern population. One has a sizeable midwestern population. Diversity on campus and in the classrooms is different on each campus. One has a much higher proportion of its grads going on to doctoral programs than the others. Another has been considered rather preprofessionally focused. </p>
<p>These are all significant and make for different learning environments and academic strengths - each one is not necessarily going to be the right place for the same student, academically or otherwise. They are all excellent schools, but there are significant differences worth exploring to distinguish them from each other.</p>
<p>I think you will find rather significant differences in per student endowment, per student expenditures, diversity (in the student body and faculty), emphasis on athletics, role of fraternities, and a host of other issues. </p>
<p>For example, one school barred Jewish alumni from serving on the Board of Directors until three years ago.</p>
<p>I have heard many an academic say that Amherst may offer the best undergraduate education in the US. In terms of sheer prestige, it definitely is superior to Davidson and Carlton. Which isn't to say that they're not good schools - they're just not up to the level of Amherst.</p>
<p>This is a link from Reed, but it's helpful for a number of schools. It's the undergraduate origins of Ph.D.s:</p>
<p>REED</a> COLLEGE PHD PRODUCTIVITY</p>
<p>Full disclosure: I have a freshman son at Carleton.:)</p>
<p>"I would not make the assertion that these schools are "essentially interchangeable academically in terms of their academic strengths." They are different schools with different faculty."</p>
<p>They draw all their faculty from exactly the same pool, and which professor teaches at which school in most cases has more to do with who was hiring for what in the year the faculty applicant was available. They ALL have honor codes (they just call them different things). They all have a plurality of students (large majority in Davidson's case) where parents can afford $180k over four years (in other words, come from the top 3% of the population economically.) They all have faculty who are expected to focus on teaching (in addition to research). </p>
<p>The big differences -- when they exist -- will be in on-campus climate, housing, fraternities, town, sports, physical layout, and administrative priorities. These can be very important differences in making choices, far greater than the academic ones.</p>
<p>Taking prestige out of the equation, I would reiterate that it is really important to visit the schools to choose the one that is the best choice for a given student. I had stated earlier that Amherst was a logical choice because of its larger measure of at-large reputational excellence--I did not mean to suggest that it was in fact "better"--just better known,and even then, only within the narrow spectrum of people who actually know about and acknowledge the excellence of liberal arts colleges. Style may vary at the three schools under discussion--quality of education is much less the issue in this really fine context of the OP's sons great options.</p>
<p><pssst, y'all.="" your="" anti-southern="" underwear="" is="" showing.=""></pssst,></p>
<p>I really like all 3 schools and have visited Amherst and Davidson. My D only applied to one, Amherst, and their financial aid was "not so hot" (we have a complicated return and they had no interest in understanding it). (Had I been designing a school from scratch for my D it would have looked a lot like Amherst. Relatives nearby. Great rep, great peers, great campus, great college environment, more moderate politically then some, and what she wanted in size.)</p>
<p>I'd rank the academics as very similar, the student bodies as maybe less similar. Amherst is more national than the other two. </p>
<p>I could see many kids who would like all 3 schools, just as I can see some kids who would like one and reject the other two, or like two and reject the other one. That's just a gut read by the kid and in this instance I think a visit is very important. </p>
<p>One thing about Davidson to consider, there is zero grade inflation (some would say deflation) which I think med student poster hubbellgardner would tell you doesn't help that much in admissions. If that's important you need to research that possibility. </p>
<p>If your personality is a match (and I believe my kid would have been comfortable at all 3) you can't make a bad choice. All 3 are great places for a science-y kid who still wants to throw things against the wall and see what sticks.</p>
<p>DD weighed Amherst and Carleton, among other LACs. (She didn't consider Davidson; even the Philadelphia area was "too hot" for our New England shredder-girl.) </p>
<p>As others have suggested, the campus visits for accepted student days and the 'feel' of the travel involved turned out to be important for her decision, but so were basic differences like the calendars (traditional semesters vs. trimesters with long holiday break and June finish); open curriculum vs. distribution requirements; and optional honors vs. mandatory capstone projects or exams. (Her parents would have weighed these factors differently than she did.)</p>
<p>Both schools are tremendous--am sure all three are, actually--and one of them, at least as of last year, still offered merit aid, something that's questionable in principle until they offer it to you. ; )</p>
<p>Happy visiting and deciding... Wonderful options all!</p>
<p>MN Dad, what a neat range of choices to have! I have only visited Amherst, and have a son that was accepted there. He'll be a freshman this fall. So my experience is very thin and mostly based on limited knowledge and hearsay. Keep that in mind. ;)</p>
<p>I would agree with many of the posters here that they are very similar AND very different. My son considered Davidson briefly when he was casting a wide net, but the relative conservativism was not a good fit for him. Carleton always sounded lovely to him and I wish we could have visited it. First hand reports I've heard from other kids always comment on the strong academic program, great professors, laid-back atmosphere, and quirky student body. Sounds fabulous.</p>
<p>Amherst is beautiful (which is not to say the others aren't -- just that I've actually seen it) and also seemed fairly relaxed and focused at the same time. Big appeal for my particular kid was in the open curriculum, being part of the 5-college consortium, the non-urban setting (but not so remote as to feel exiled), it's reputation in the social sciences (his calling), and he is an athlete and does enjoy sports even though he's also an egg-head. So between academics, the 5-college community, sports, and bucolic small town life... it was Amherst for him. I am sure he would have been as happy at Carleton, although it was not practically visit-able for us and his particular sports team was stronger at Amherst.</p>
<p>So there are little things like that which make the decision get pretty clear when you start to hack through the details.</p>
<p>"One thing about Davidson to consider, there is zero grade inflation (some would say deflation) "</p>
<p>That's HORRIBLE! If I were a parent, I'd say I paid a lot of cold, hard cash for those "A's", and so the school better provide them or else! :rolleyes:</p>
<p>^interesteddad^ Which of the three had the prohibition on Board of Directors membership? Veddy interesting!</p>
<p>^^ I think that was Davidson. There was a thread about that a couple of years ago.</p>
<p>I don't have a dog in this hunt. I think all three schools are excellent. I'm just pointing out the kinds of differences in culture exist among seemingly similar schools and the kinds of things that could be researched to learn more about a school's culture.</p>