These are the colleges I have been accepted to. The finaical aid packages are very similar. I currently live in NYC and I am undecided about what I want to major in. I am thinking about doing something in the Sciences or Business. Which college do you think would be the best fit for me?
I think Wesleyan has good sciences and math as well as overall. It is my personal favorite then Barnard, but for you I’d get out of NYC and experience a bit different life for change of pace.You can always be in NYC on breaks and even intern there. I also know less about the other colleges. Whew, one more crisis solved, next!
What are you looking for in a college experience? What kind of atmosphere are you comfortable in? Where do you thrive? You’ve got at least one school on the list with a very conservative vibe (Bucknell, where according to one site, students describe the campus as 20% conservative, 36% moderate, only 4% liberal and a whopping zero percent “very liberal”) … but then you also have what is practically its polar opposites, Wesleyan (generally seen as pretty outside-the-box / granola, and comes out as “zero percent” conservative and 72 percent “very liberal”) … then Barnard, if you’re looking for a feminist environment in an urban setting … or Hamilton, for a pretty isolated LAC (some say it’s liberal preppy, don’t know myself) … Those are surely very partial characterizations, but without thinking about those things, how can you know “fit”?
If the OP is a potential science major, the everyday milieu is going to be very similar no matter how “outside the box” the rest of the school may or may not be. Her peers are going to be fairly buttoned-down. The chief concern should be accessibility to professors, availability of research opportunities and whether there will be enough upper-level courses to keep them sharp.
OTOH, I can’t help but think that choices are sufficiently different in other respects - mainly location - that it’s hard to imagine the decision is really that difficult for a native New Yorker.
Advantage of Barnard: A campus but in NYC. You can take classes at Columbia. Lots of opportunities for internships in both science and business. Rochester is strong in science but you are in Rochester which is probably pretty rough in the winter. I have several friends who are physicians who graduated from Wesleyan and were able to do research there as undergrads. They are probably less buttoned down than @circuitrider describes but more middle of the road in terms of politics than @MomOnALaptop describes.
IMO, not Bucknell. Probably not Barnard. Probably Hamilton, Wesleyan or Rochester.
All of these schools are excellent; you can get a good education at any of them; and unless you are very advanced in your chosen science, you are very unlikely to run out of classes at any of them. Rochester and Bucknell are only ones that have a formal business major for undergraduates (Bucknell has a whole School of Management; Rochester’s BA is a dual degree and you have to choose another major, which works well for you), but Barnard does have the [special concentration in business management](http://www8.gsb.columbia.edu/programs-admissions/special-concentration/application-information) in collaboration with Columbia’s school of business. They also offer a lot of courses in business, financial economics, operations research, industrial engineering and applied math that are related to business.
So I think it depends on what you want, as these colleges are very different. Barnard is a women’s college - one with a very close relationship with Columbia, but a women’s college nonetheless. Rochester is a medium-sized research university, which is very different from the small LAC environments of the other colleges (although Barnard’s co-location with Columbia and partnership make it sort of a mix). Hamilton and Bucknell are located in more rural-ish areas; Wesleyan and Lafayette are in suburban areas/small towns, Rochester’s in a medium-sized city and Barnard is in New York. Does distance from home matter to you? All of these are relatively close to NYC, though.
What kind of social and campus life do you want? Fit isn’t determined just by academics - all of these schools have great academics.
Personally, the choice for me would be between Barnard and Wesleyan. Wesleyan is an excellent place; Barnard has the advantage of the partnership with Columbia (and all that that offers) while still being a small women’s college.