<p>I visited and liked all of these schools, but I can't choose one! Well, I chose Hamilton, but I got deferred. Could someone just fill me in on there own perceptions of any of these schools? Or which one they believe to be "better"? If you want to know more about me, this is basically it. I go to a prep school in NJ, I will need finicial aid, my ACT score is a 31, and I have a 5.2 GPA on a 6.0 scale. I am taking three APs this year (AP Language, AP World History, AP Comparitive Gov't and Politics) and I took two last year (4 on the AP US History exam and a 5 on the AP Literature). 740 on the SATII Lit, 700 on the SATII US History. Soccer, winter track, and am a coxswain on the rowing team. Not sure if I would want to do a sport in college, but if I did I would cox no higher than d3. Please help! I would appreciate anyone's opinion or experiences.</p>
<p>These are all great schools. In terms of selectivity they fall roughly into two categories, with Bates, Hamilton and Colby in the first with acceptance rates in the mid-20’s to low 30’s, and Union, Skidmore and Lafayette in a second with rates in the low 40’s. HOWEVER, the best school is the best school for YOU. Have you taken a good look at each school and what it has to offer? Spend some time on the school websites and look at requirements, popular majors and differences in the social atmospheres. For instance, do you want to be in a frat or major in engineering? If so Lafayette would be a good choice. Do you love to ski? One of the Maine schools might be the right place for you. These schools (with perhaps Lafayette as a tiny bit of an outlier) look very similar until you start to dig deep. For a comparison of two schools on your list,</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1405627-bates-colby.html#post14958898[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1405627-bates-colby.html#post14958898</a></p>
<p>If you don’t have a clear frontrunner, why not apply to all of them RD and then revisit the schools to which you are admitted?</p>
<p>It might help you if you were to apply to more geographically diverse schools. Every east coast prep school kid seems to look at the NE LACs. If you were willing to consider LACs in the midwest, for example, you would face less competition from kids ‘like you’ at schools that are comparable to Hamilton, Bates and Colby - and be eligible for merit aid. Look at Grinnell and Macalester, for example. Both have excellent financial aid and merit aid, academics that are at least as good at the schools you’ve applied to (and in some cases better) and many fewer applicants from the NE.</p>
<p>While I agree that the best school is the best fit for you, I’ll give you my rankings:</p>
<p>As a Hamilton student I’m obviously biased, but I also was admitted to several of the schools you’re considering and chose Hamilton (if that says anything). So I’d rank Hamilton at the top, followed by Colby/Bates (personally I preferred Colby, but applied to both because they’re both great), then Lafayette, then Union/Skidmore (I don’t know THAT much about these two, so I can’t make a distinction).</p>
<p>Hamilton, Colby and Bates are ranked at a similar level by US News. The other schools are ranked lower.</p>
<p>My suggestion would be to visit, visit, visit! I ended up at Colby, but I looked at all of those schools and in the end was stuck deciding between Hamilton and Colby. The biggest factor that persuaded me was the visit though. I highly suggest you take a tour and have lunch with a current student, it will completely help!</p>