Current Williams student. I think we are pretty different from Barnard and even Wellesley in terms of location, so they can take get into a major city over the weekend in 30 mins but we can’t. Also Columbia Barnard students can take classes at the university, Swarthmore students can take course at Penn, which offers them the chance to take courses not traditionally offered at LACs and makes them unique. I think for the rest, espacially reclusive Lacs like Williams, Amherst and Bowdoin etc, I think the classes are more or less the same but each college definitely had its special features such as the Art Museum associate with Williams and its special Art History program.
Also, Claremont colleges is a great collection of colleges, that flexibility in terms of cirriculum is not something that New England lacs have.
I do hope that your child takes a close look at Oberlin - its environmental studies program is second to none. And the vibe sounds very much in line with what you are looking for …
Just a quick note: there are a couple prominent consortiums in the Northeast: Five Colleges in the Amherst, MA area (Amherst, Smith, Holyoke, Hampshire, and UMass-Amherst), and then a sort of Tupperware/nesting consortium in Philly where Haverford and Bryn Mawr are the Bi-College Consortium, then they add Swarthmore to make the Tri-College Consortium, and then they add Penn to make the Quaker Consortium.
All of these function a little differently and so you would want to look at each closely, from the perspective of a given college of interest, if this was something that might appeal to you.
Like, Amherst and UMass-Amherst are very close physically, and I got the sense from our Amherst visit that was the most popular other place for Amherst students to take courses (although an Amherst student also mentioned taking a math class at Hampshire because it would be pass/fail). But activities were different, and there might be more joint activities with the other LACs.
Bryn Mawr and Haverford are also pretty close physically and have long had a relationship, and there are some regular joint activities and programs at the college and departmental level. Taking classes at Swarthmore or Penn happened but was less common, probably including because it was a longer trip. And so on.
OP: Based on your posts, Bowdoin College is unlikely to be a good fit. Bowdoin’s vibe is mainstream, preppy while your daughter’s interests seem to be alternative, non-preppy.
In answer to your thread title question: Some LACs are almost indistinguishable, while others differ dramatically.
I think those schools you listed might have similar vibes, but have been to Bates many times and kids seem a bit more middle of the road. Lots of athletes, lots of outdoorsy types who enjoy Maine adventures, but not quite as many urban hipsters w/ purple hair (from what I have seen the past couple of years!). I think part of that is just not being as close to a big city. But I will certainly take another look during parents weekend - could be I’m missing it entirely, and now I’m curious……
@melanienorall , what I was getting at actually fits exactly with that – they are ALL pretty middle of the road these days. In some ways, that’s not surprising as they all have very competitive sports teams, same % of student athletes, no Greek life, and none has a major city near it. Those are often drivers of vibe.
With that said, Bates probably has more “alt” types than the other two, but that’s still not a huge number and certainly not the dominant culture – you wouldn’t mistake it for Bard or Oberlin! And the other 2 have less mainstream students as well. But the kids I know who have been less mainstream and who have looked at the Maine schools have often gravitated to Bates over the other two.
But yes, probably 90% of the kids at any of the 3 would feel very much at home at the other 2, although it’s heresy to say so!
Random aside, but we are visiting Carleton this Saturday. We couldn’t schedule a formal visit with Macalester (they also have Saturday visits, but they are at the same time, and we can’t do two trips to Minnesota this fall), but we will do an informal visit. Neither is a demonstrated interest college, so I really did not think it mattered too much which we visited, but I think he likes the academic offerings at Carleton a bit better (including its relationship with St Olaf).
Anyway, my S24 could have some sort of intuitive reaction that differs between them, which is fine. On paper, though–the appeal is very similar and unless something surprising happens on the intuitive front, my guess is he either applies to both, or neither.
And frankly, I am rooting for something surprising because he still has too many possible ED II schools. Which is because too many look good on paper, and we are squeezing in visits to try to figure it out.
But I guess there are worse problems than having a whole bunch of colleges that all look like great fits.
I now want to go back to college at like at least half a dozen places we visited. They look fantastic!
So I am trying very hard to let him form his own opinions first. But if he says he is not feeling it, for really any reason? Cut! There are plenty more fish in the sea, no need to even think about keeping it on the list, at least not if it is a reach or target (obviously we need to be more careful about cutting the likelies too far).
My son’s final two choices came down to Carleton and Williams, he really loved Northfield, the walkability, the small family owned Mexican restaurant (we live on Mexican food), the gluten free store that sold all his faves, the Malt-o-Meal factory, and the train that ran through town. If he likes it make sure he interviews, my son got so much great information from his alum interviewer.
They are facing pressure, being a tuition driven school with a relatively small endowment, and a low yield rate (16%). However, this is not unique – there are many other tuition driven schools with small endowments, also facing pressure.