Bates v.s Colby v.s Colorado College v.s Wake Forest v.s UCs

College Search & Selection
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@cchp23 Penn or Bates, based on your stated preferences.

As you are an international student, if you intend to return to your home country, it is likely that Penn will have more name recognition than Bates. If you are serious about finance/investment banking, then Penn would edge out Bates. The history department is larger and will have more diverse course offerings.

Penn is in a consortium with three LACs - Haverford, Bryn Mawr, and Swarthmore. Cross-registration is possible to take courses on those campuses, although I suspect few take advantage because you have to budget time to travel among the campuses. However, it’s a possibility if you were strongly motivated to pursue it.

Bottom line - there is no bad choice, but I believe that these two best approximate what you are seeking. I would focus on these two.

Congratulations on your many acceptances!

22

Seems like it would be more common in consortium arrangements for LAC students to take upper level courses at the larger university because they are not available at the LAC.

23

Penn’s history department is excellent, and the university has unique resources not found at many peer institutions. If you take a course on Latin American or ancient Egyptian history at Penn, for example, your class may take a trip across campus to see the Maya and Egyptian artifacts in Penn’s anthropology/archaeology museum, one of the largest and most impressive in the world.

Of course, Philadelphia itself is fascinating for a student of US history.

https://www.visitphilly.com/articles/philadelphia/must-see-historic-attractions-in-historic-philadelphia/

24

Wow. You’ve obviously worked hard and taken advantage of your gifts. What a great list of schools.

Can you share some with some other students. Lol.

I would definitely revisit the following schools if you had a magic carpet.

UCLA Penn Colby and Bates.

The California school despite rigorous academics certainly will have a more relaxed vibe and loads of sunshine. It’s so diverse I am sure you can find the group to suit your social style. Don’t count it out.

Penn is Penn. outstanding in all academics. However don’t go there if you think your history track will lead to IB or consulting nirvana. You’ll have to outpace your Wharton competitors. But aside from that it is the Ivy League. And law school, business, academia are all available to you in a big way. You get it. Campus is great, location is less so.

You applied to three schools that offer more of the fresh air and outdoors. This isn’t the atmosphere. Probably a less laid back than the others.

CC. I probably would drop this school from my list, if I had to choose one. Simply from a logistical standpoint.

But, to be honest I don’t know anything about Colorado college other than it’s reputation locally. It’s universally considered the best lac in Colorado and only the Air Force Academy would compete in reputation, maybe Mines for an engineer. More east coast preppy than you would expect. An element of ski oriented kids and superb academics. But on the short cycle and fast paced. But Colorado is not NYC. It’s chill as a rule. I don’t know this for a fact but it does have a reputation for being fun.

Now the two Maine schools. Really tough. Colby is almost exactly what you describe. Bates too. It’s changed over the years and my experience with the school and alumni friends were different than today. It seems to be more hip than it once was. Colby was and is very much what you desire. Hard choice.

But to throw out an idea, cull your list into a manageable decision set. Colby for the quintessential LAC, Penn for the mid size Ivy and UCLA for the large but in some rankings the #1 public uni in the most pleasant and laid back environment.

Go spend a day at each if you can and choose what makes you excited for fall. It’s a no lose scenario. Win win for any choice.

You can of course substitute CC or Bates with Colby and not be wrong either.

25

Anecdotal: I know a couple of recent CC students who loved the student experience, but who felt unchallenged academically. In the first year they found the non-competitive atmosphere was great, but it turned out (in their experience) that a lot of students were just not as academically motivated. One ended up transferring out; the other stayed and got lots of prizes but felt let down overall.