<p>Currently I'm choosing between Amherst, Grinnell, Colby, Carleton, Whitman, and the University of Chicago.</p>
<p>I CAN'T CHOOSE!! (As you can see because I have to choose in about two weeks and I've only narrowed it down to six.)</p>
<p>I've visited, or am visiting in the next week, all of them, and I've liked the ones I've visited so far. Does anyone have any insight into how these schools compare academically, socially, etc.?</p>
<p>Any and all help would be appreciated.</p>
<p>If you take a look at this post, you’ll find threads comparing Carleton to almost every school on your list: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/carleton-college/691523-index-carleton-vs-____-threads.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/carleton-college/691523-index-carleton-vs-____-threads.html</a></p>
<p>It would help if you could be a little more specific about the parts of each school that you like and any questions you still have.</p>
<p>Take a look at what your transportation costs and hassle are. Go to something like travelocity and run some itineraries for Thanksgiving travel. Add in any ground expenses like getting to the airport from campus and look at total trip time. Depending on where you live, a flight from school A may cost $300, but a flight from school B may cost $500. Will there be a three hour layover? Another one may be a 6 hour drive or a train ride. Think about how often you may want to go home - Thanksgiving, winter break, spring break, great grandma’s birthday, etc. Are your parents going to want to fly in to drop you at college? Will they come back for parent’s weekend? End of the school year? Will they need to rent a car, stay at a hotel? Will your parents feel badly if they can’t afford to go?</p>
<p>Unless money is no object, there may be a potential $2,000 right there. Your fit at a college is important but you can’t break the family budget. So, keep an eye on the non tuition/room and board expenses. You may be able to eliminate a couple of schools that way.</p>
<p>racheljs</p>
<p>You sure you don’t want to give us more info about your academic orientation, personal interests, geographic preferences? Might be easier to offer advice with 6 disparate schools offered up for comparison.</p>
<p>Well, here goes:</p>
<p>I think it’s best to think about your choices in 3 groups. I’ll up front offer that I’ve visited all these colleges, some several times, with the exception of Whitman. Sorry Whitman.</p>
<p>Since this is a Carleton thread, it only seems right to start with:</p>
<p>Carleton, Grinnell and Whitman.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>All offer intimate campus-based experiences in rural-semirural outposts with, in size, Walla Walla (wins hands down on name) > Northfield > Grinnell. </p></li>
<li><p>While all are certainly LACs, Carleton’s student body is about 25% larger than the other 2. More similarities than differences in student personality profile - hard working, intellectual, individualistic, fun-loving.</p></li>
<li><p>Carleton offers easy access to Minneapolis-St. Paul, about 700,000 souls, with a metro area upwards of 3 million. The MSP airport is easy access to campus and an international hub. Grinnell and Whitman are significantly more isolated from any large city and major airport. </p></li>
<li><p>Carleton is measurably more competitive admissions-wise and rankings-wise than the other two, but not by a wide margin.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Amherst and Colby</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Both similarly offer campus-based experiences in rural-semirural outposts with Waterville not most people’s version of an ideal college town - Amherst closer to that image. Amherst has Northampton and four other colleges within not quite spitting distance. Have always felt the consortium is not very relevant to the Amherst experience with most kids staying pretty close to home (i.e. this is no Claremont consortium or Haverford-Bryn Mawr bi-co, for example).</p></li>
<li><p>Similar sized LACs a bit smaller than Carleton. Similar student bodies to one another, noticeably more preppy, jocky, and New England in personality than C-G-W. More pre-professional and conservative (in a relative sense) as well.</p></li>
<li><p>Neither school is really accessible to any large city. Boston is a weekend excursion from both. Portland (ok, small city) a day trip from Colby.</p></li>
<li><p>Amherst clearly more competitive admissions-wise and rankings-wise than Colby.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>U Chicago</p>
<p>Why is Chicago on this list? Lots of cross-applications to Carleton, admittedly, but to Colby? Amherst? Adding this to five campus-centered LACs physically removed from cities (no Mac, Barnard here) leaves me a bit confused. Happy to offer advice if this really is still something you’re considering and have specific questions.</p>
<p>You’ve visited and are still visiting. See what feels right. I do think that you need to separate the Northeast from the Midwest/West here. Very different vibes. Very different experiences to be had. </p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Well, I have pretty much no idea what I want to study. I’ll probably go to an lac, but I have a kind of emotional attachment to uchicago because my dad went there. I’m from the midwest, and I sort of want to get away but I really like the midwest schools.</p>
<p>Sent from my SCH-I500 using CC App</p>
<p>Just to clarify–Boston is a FREQUENT day trip for those in Amherst!</p>
<p>My daughter faced a very similar decision from a group of LACs she was accepted to last year - 4 of which are in common with your list. We visited all but one (like 1190, we also owe apologies to Whitman). Northeast, west coast, and midwest - we visited them all. Like you my daughter had always seen herself venturing a ways from home. We live in the Minneapolis area so while she always fond of Carleton it didn’t fulfill her distance expectation.
In the end it was the visits that helped her though the decision process. All were good schools that could meet her academic needs (she was an “undecided” major as well). All had positive features that she liked. The differences were in how she felt she fit in, how she visualized herself living there for 4 years. What sealed the deal for her was her 2 night visit during admitted students week at Carleton. She felt that she just more easily clicked with the students there, had interesting conversations with lots of laughter, and appreciated the non-judgmental culture. She decided maybe the distance wasn’t so much a factor if she didn’t make it one… she wouldn’t be coming home that much anyway.
She is a freshman at Carleton this year and very happy. Being in a “comfortable” environment really helped her during those transition bumps that inevitably occur during freshman year. She will be coming home this weekend for Easter and bringing two other Carls with her. This will be just her 3rd time at home ( counting breaks ) since we dropped her off in the fall.
I hope your visits are productive. You have 6 great schools to choose from. Based on my daughters experience I suggest you pay attention to the gut feel you get from each school. The fact that you “really like” the midwest schools is telling. Good luck with your decision.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t say Minneapolis is easily accessible from Carleton unless you have a car. Correct me if I’m wrong. I have never been there. My son visited his good friend at Carleton and found it to be a real hassle to get to the campus from the airport. He had to pay for a shuttle ride that cost $40 each way and took over an hour. The college offers its own airport shuttle only on holidays/breaks. If you want easy access to a city, U of Chicago is your school.</p>
<p>Actually, the bus shuttle to MSP downtown, the Mall of America and the airport is only $11 each way. Even without a car, the Enterprise WeCar program ON campus allows for hourly rentals at very little cost. With these two options, there really is very little reason to have a car on campus. There’s also a local bus service that’s free to take you around Northfield, to shopping and even over to St. Olaf (if facing a traitorous momentary lapse in judgement 
).</p>
<p>Since everybody is apologizing for not visiting Whitman, I just thought I’d suggest that everybody should. There is an airport in Walla Walla which makes getting there pretty easy. OK, it’s not at easy as UChicago, but it’s not as formidable as everybody thinks. Whitman is a wonderful place. </p>
<p>The student body is engaged, accepting, very active, gregarious and intelligent. The academics are rigorous, but students don’t just study, they find time to do a bunch of other stuff. The outdoor program is very active, music and theater thrive, and lots of people play intramural sports. Walla Walla is a charming little town. There’s so much going on at the campus and immediate surrounding area that students don’t feel isolated, and they make lifelong bonds with each other.</p>
<p>Lastly, let’s discuss weather. It’s not nearly as rainy as Seattle, and not nearly as cold as the midwest. It does snow (off and on) but melts after a few days, except in the Blue Mountains where you can get to downhill skiing in an hour. The sun shines for at least part of the day throughout much of the winter, official tally is 300 days of sunshine.</p>
<p>Sounds like you’ll probably stay east of the rockies. You’ve got many great choices, you can’t go wrong. I just wanted to encourage people to actually visit Whitman.</p>
<p>Tried to encourage my D to apply to Whitman but to no avail–too close to us here (45 mins north of Seattle). Think it’s part of the reason she declined Reed’s offer–too much of a Pacific Northwest feel. </p>
<p>I’m still in shock – but respect her decision – that D also turned down Carleton this week. She attended the School’s Summer Writing Program last July & had a wonderful time/grew as a student & person during time away. She’s narrowed it down between Swarthmore and Kenyon. </p>
<p>The ironic thing about Kenyon?–D hadn’t developed an interest in this school, until we had attended a “Best 8 Colleges” event in Seattle last fall. After the presentations, D gravitated to the Kenyon table & had a encourging conversation with their admissions counselor (a Carleton alum). She wore her Carleton sweatshirt to that event. She later visited the Gambier campus and melded well with those students.</p>
<p>Sorry I digress…grateful for this forum. It’s the best source I’ve found in either written or web form on the topic. :)</p>
<p>oompaloompa64, Kenyon sounds like a terrific school, a friend’s D just confirmed that she’ll be going there in the fall also. All these college’s are great places, each has a different personality, just like the students who try to find their perfect matches.</p>
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<p>I will agree that is isn’t super easy to get into the cities, but this isn’t true. There is a common shuttle that costs $11 each way to get to and from the airport, which also stops at the Mall of America, Minneapolis, St. Paul, and several other places. The college always has shuttles to the airport - they run every day, on set time schedules. When there are breaks, the schedule is just more spaced out.</p>
<p>If I were you I would sit down and thing about what you want from a college experience. Then look at the schools. Then if you still can’t decide put the names in a hat and draw one out and go there. The point being if you can’t decide it probably doesn’t not matter that much which one you go with. That being said </p>
<p>(don’t read the next part until you have drawn a name out of a hat.)</p>
<p>When you draw a name out of the hat do you feel happy or sad about having to go there? This should tell you something about where you really want to go.</p>
<p>I chose carleton :)</p>
<p>Sent from my SCH-I500 using CC App</p>
<p>Congrats, Rachel! What sealed the deal for you?</p>
<p>Congratulations Rachel! Thank you for posting. I really wanted to know what you chose.</p>
<p>Congratulations, Racheljs! My D chose Carleton over Amherst, Wesleyan, Bowdoin and several other top LACs. Two things sealed the deal for her: the smart yet entirely unpretentious student body and the sense of humor that is woven into the campus culture. I didn’t tell her until she had finalized her decision, but I agreed with her choice 100%!</p>