Travel may be a consideration for OP, but note that it’s also not uncommon for the schedules to have given this some thought. I note that Tufts field hockey has two away games this weekend- both in Maine. I’d be really surprised if they’re not staying overnight.
Personally, way back when, I was a NESCAC athlete. Some of my fondest college memories involve travel to more distant schools. These were almost always on weekends, sometimes included hotels, and always featured team meals – sometimes at a teammate’s home, but more often at a place serving popcorn as appetizer and pitchers of beer.
So yes, a consideration, but travel isn’t always bad!
Not what I meant at all. I’d hardly call Princeton and Amherst snobby and elitist when such i large percentage are FGLI (I think 30% of this incoming class at Princeton?)
People get way too hung up on this. There are plenty of less selective schools that are piling on the full pay students.
Kenyon has (by far) the smallest number of poor and middle-class kids; all three have comparable numbers of top 1% and top 10% families, but Amherst almost certainly has the most 0.1 and 0.01% types. They are extremely committed to making the school more socioeconomically diverse, but there is a critical mass of incomprehensibly wealthy families compared to Carleton and Kenyon.
People talk like these students have the plague and represent everything that is wrong with a college. I’d certainly rather have my kids be in an environment with students from all walks of life. They are better, more empathetic people for it. And guess what? Those 0.1% at these schools are, more often than not, brilliant and hard working too.
What? No one thinks there’s anything wrong with Amherst. We are saying there are plenty of people with a LOT of money there. Tiny little Amherst is the 25th richest college in the nation, including universities. It’s not an opinion. It’s a great thing. It’s an excellent school. These are all excellent schools.
All three of these colleges are terrific colleges. I’ll offer a suggestion that might not be a popular one. Take the sport and premed out of the decision equation. The student could get injured and or not play for other reasons. The student might decide to pursue something other than medical school.
Which of these colleges is a place where this student wants to spend the next four years?
I…literally posted that Amherst would be my no-brainer choice among these schools, and that it is deeply committed to recruiting more poor students??
I raised the point about uber-wealthy families in response to your claim that Kenyon was the wealthiest of the three. Kenyon may have the highest proportion of top decile families or some measure like that, but it isn’t remotely in the same league as Amherst on the high end (nor is Carleton).
I’m sorry I misread it as a negative. Maybe because of too many comments like
Regardless, I don’t think the existence of the uber wealthy dominates the environment. IME kids are much less likely to flaunt it at a diverse place like Amherst. What I see through my kids (at a diverse BS), is that FGLI is a point of pride (I am so glad that has changed from my college years) and wealth is a point of embarrassment, which is also unfortunate because these are kind, hard working, self aware kids. They should not feel ashamed of having grown up without adversity.
I hope OP responds to some of these posts. I am sure OP’s S has certain factors that he prioritizes, and would encourage him to do a pros/cons list for all three schools. That might bring some clarity.
Regarding travel, if an athlete can’t study on a van or bus, that does complicate things. Many students get motion sickness and can’t read at all. That was me. In my college team travels, one team was smaller so used a van that sat 20 or so, another team larger that used a bus. The vehicle type didn’t matter, still couldn’t read without getting motion sickness and/or headache. The teams were evenly split between those who could read/those who couldn’t. Those who wanted to study sat in the back. Those of us in front talked, sang, played music (this was in the days before headphones and mobile phones), did stand-up routines, pulled hijinks for the entire trip. Some of those who wanted to study did not find that a very conducive environment to study. Both my S and D report similar issues with studying while driving with their college teams.
Has your S visited all 3 schools? Posters on this thread will give you all sorts of vibes for these 3 schools. It’s what your S thinks that’s important.
Of all the NESCACs, Amherst is the most centrally located making it a bit easier for student athletes and fans to travel to games. It’s roughly an hour from Trinity and Wesleyan and 1 1/2 hours from Williams.
He did visit all three. Still undecided and perhaps didn’t spend enough time to get the full Amherst vibe. The other two spent more time and loved the vibe of both.
This suggests to me that he wasn’t getting the vibe as much as the other two because he probably wasn’t feeling the vibe like he did with the other two. So I think he may want to rule out Amherst. He seems like the type of student who will excel if he likes his environment. I’d ask him to start eliminating wrong choices. His top choice will then be easier.
Is it possible for your son to arrange an overnight at any of the schools he is considering? Overnight visits were invaluable to my kids in narrowing down their choices. Though she didn’t choose it in the end, my daughter loved Amherst and would have chosen it over my alma mater Williams. She felt the Pioneer Valley was a near ideal place to be a college student.
Fwiw, our athlete felt the trimester system would be more manageable than a semester system, in that it’s easier to schedule a lighter load for 1/3 of the year than 1/2 the year without disrupting academic progress.
