Chance and match me please! Bowdoin/Wesleyan/Kenyon/Pomona for literature major? [3.95, 1590]

Chance Me / Match Me!
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hello! applicant seeking good humanities programs (literature and philosophy are my top two choices) here.

background: I’m a Japanese-American male attending a magnet school in the northeast (but have a unique profile for a person of that background and want to represent myself as such).

numbers: have just finished junior year. 1590 SAT, 3.95 unweighted GPA, 4 APs in junior year in STEM subjects (all 5s – I don’t think this is much of an advantage because I’m applying to humanities), IBs in history, world lit, Spanish. electives I’ve taken include creative writing and Russian history.
planning to take AP Art History, AP Bio, multivariable calculus senior year as well as the aforementioned IB classes.

awards: young writers’ scholarship from college (NOT finalist but still won money); Regional Silver in Scholastic; state winner in agriscience research.

extracurriculars:
– Editor-in-Chief of school literary magazine (5 publications/school year, organized and hosted student concert). won a midtier national-level award for this.
– composer (nothing major but composed contemporary classical music for some students/professionals I met online [based in Europe, Japan]). creating ambient/experimental music in free time which I publish over Bandcamp. also founded small jazz band as a hobby (performs regularly at school events).
– have helped (private job as tutor as well as public school volunteer) non-native-speaking kids learn English.
– summer job at library (designed maps for accessibility, revitalized social media).

who I am: love to read Japanese literature, discover new kinds of music, watch art films, and have philosophical discussions with people. maybe want to study ancient theater forms in college but idk who knows. I think I have an outsider mentality that’s not present in people around me with similar demographics.
– currently insecure about how exactly I would get this across (since awards+extracurriculars = not as strong as I hoped). would the essay be enough to do this?
– I’m very passionate about creative stuff but again, I don’t have anything specific I could really promote.

pretty strong essay, discusses the connection between loneliness, introspection, different genres of music (my music taste comprises of very indie/avant-garde stuff which I can explain in detail and I’m hoping this adds some insight into my “personality”).

net price calculator for all of the schools below indicates manageable values.

I like all of the above options (+Bennington, which would probably be a safety for me).
Bowdoin seems to be ideal, since it has a literary magazine and some really interesting-looking classes (like wth is nihilism and magic? totally my thing). probably going to ED1 there.
…which leaves the question of ED2 – something I would love input on.
Wesleyan I visited and liked the chill vibe. also has a College of Letters (or almighty humanities program), which fits my interests like a bucket.
Kenyon has an environmental center (!) and acclaimed literary magazine (!), which means that although it’s rural there’s going to be places I can enjoy getting involved in.
Pomona is very competitive (although I don’t know how much of a reach) and has similar small class environment to other three colleges. personally gotta love the free music classes there, but the literature classes seem slightly less appealing than for the other colleges. please back me up or refute me on this.
Bennington is super nice. planning to visit in August, but they have strong literature, drama, music, artistic-in-general programs so I know for sure I’ll enjoy it there. big caveat is future income, but I still like Bennington much more than any other potential safety.

I used to have “prestigious” colleges such as Princeton or Columbia on my list (because they too have amazing literature programs), but I don’t want to waste an application on something I have a very slim chance of getting into.

greatly appreciate y’all for getting through reading this. thanks so much :heart:

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Regarding your interest in philosophy specifically, you may want to consider some of these schools for your greater college list:

As an additional resource, IPEDS offers information on the popularity of philosophy as a major at various colleges (e.g., College Navigator - Bowdoin College). This may offer you a sense for the strength of the philosophy community at schools of potential interest.

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You look like you’ll have a reasonable shot at those schools, and your strong identification with your Japanese heritage will likely be an interesting factor. Are you an IBD candidate? It doesn’t matter - just trying to make sense of your schedule, which seems rigorous.

Given some of the things that you called out - philosophy, environmental center – and your choice of Bowdoin as ED1, Colby would have seemed a likely one to throw in the mix. Bates, otoh, is closer in vibe to Wesleyan and Kenyon. For many students, these 3 Maine schools are all fits. Williams is frequently an overlap with Bowdoin.

Bennington is a good safety. It has a pretty special vibe. If you have any hesitancy about that, I would suggest that you consider adding another safety or two. Bard might be one to consider, based on what you are looking for.

Good luck!

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thank you! I will consider this list to research what kinds of classes are offered at these schools. also, I personally feel that less students in the department → more connection with professors in that department. what do you think about this?

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thank you so much. I’m not an IB diploma candidate, but the classes have been almost exclusively APs/IBs for my junior and senior year (there weren’t any I was eligible to take previous to that, so I’ve got lots of honors courses in my frosh/soph transcript).
– follow-up question: do you know anything about how the Maine schools are different in terms of vibe?
– I’ll probably add Bard to my list if my earlies don’t come through. have also heard that College of Wooster is really nice, and something like TCNJ too might be good (New Jerseyan here).
thank you again for the insight!

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I have a daughter at Kenyon who is a humanities major, and I think you’d have a great chance and would be an excellent fit. You’re likely to get a good merit scholarship there, too. Just make sure to demonstrate your interest in the school, they consider it strongly. Their Japanese and philosophy programs are strong, as far as I know, as are English and other literature departments.

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I think you stand a definite chance at acceptance to Bowdoin ED (or RD, but of course, that’s even chancier), but it’s certainly a reach. Pomona would also be a reach, simply because of how popular it is. If its literature offerings don’t seem like a good fit, then I would certainly look elsewhere to find a department that seems like a good fit. I’d say that Kenyon is a toss-up bordering on likely, and if you show good demonstrated interest, I’d suspect it would be a likely. Bennington would probably be a sure-thing, but I agree with others that an in-person visit would be an excellent idea as it tends to be very much a fit school. If you don’t have the chance to visit prior to submitting your apps, I would add at least one more school that would be an extremely likely admit that you would be happy to attend.

I will say that your profile is refreshing and would imagine that it will garner interest in the admissions offices. Do you have any interest in studying Japanese literature in its original language? If so, do all of these schools offer that opportunity?

Also, with respect to the number of majors who graduate per year, if there are too few majors per year then the major is likely to offer fewer electives and may be in danger of being cut by the university. The more majors there are, the more diverse the offerings may be. I suspect that you’re a student who is going to make himself known to his professors and have a close relationship with them regardless of the number of students in the major/classes. Just as a frame of reference, many philosophy programs seem to have 0-2 majors/year when I’ve looked at the IPEDS data for that field. But (especially at a smaller school), even getting up to 4-5 majors/year makes me much more confident in the longevity of the department. One of the highest numbers (at a small school) I’ve seen was maybe about 12 majors/year. So we’re not talking about a major with 100 graduates or more/year in the field…these are still pretty tiny numbers.

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thank you! great to hear some primary source reassurance here.
I will be researching Kenyon more in depth, but as of now it’s high up on my list. might put it ED2 since people are saying it’s a likely school for me.

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wow! thank you for such detailed advice!
as for Japanese literature, Bowdoin has good study abroad opportunities (good colleges in Japan I’ve heard of), so that probably means that I could probably study Japanese literature (or prepare myself for graduate research in that field). Bennington seems to have a really committed Japanese professor (there is only one), and given their interdisciplinary freedom and strong creative community, I presume it would be very easy to get into that kind of research.
with the small size of lots of philosophy departments (Bowdoin has only two majoring – although they offer abundant courses), I might get a better experience if I major in a literature/english-related topic and then take some philosophy classes on the side (possible minor if they offer it).
I’m considering striking Pomona from my list because it might not exactly be the vibe I’m looking for, but if anyone could convince me against it please do.
any target/low reaches I should add? Wesleyan seems like a low reach right now. Maybe Bates? Vassar? Boston College?

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With respect to the study of foreign literature, such as that of Japan, colleges strong in foreign languages also may be strong in foreign literature. This site offers some suggestions:

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just curious, what are these rankings based off of?
my criteria would be interaction with professors and study abroad opportunities.

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Make sure you check not just the course catalogs for which classes are offered, but also the class schedule, which indicates how many classes have been offered in each semester. @Shelby_Balik wrote a recent post which helps explain part of why there can be such a difference, but may have additional insight to share here, too. Best colleges for exploring multiple fields? (creative writing, linguistics, computer science) [WA resident, 4.0, 1530, needs full merit ride] - #137 by Shelby_Balik. Here’s another post of hers that might help explain, too: Missing opportunity to take a course in a small department due to infrequent offering - #7 by Shelby_Balik.

I think you should major in what you want to major in, and there’s no need to decide today, or before you start college. Most liberal arts colleges allow you until the 2nd semester of your sophomore year to declare a major. I do think, however, that it’s important to make sure that there are sufficient offerings for any major you’re thinking about having.

Check and see what the language of instruction will be in those classes and if it’s those universities’ regular classes or special classes that are designated for foreign students. Alternatively (or additionally), schools that offer a major in Japanese will be likely to offer Japanese lit classes in their original language.

Will think about it. :slight_smile:

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Feel free to pm me if you have more questions. They have lots of study abroad options (my daughter just finished her semester in Europe). My husband and I are both literature professors (at a large research university) with Ivy degrees and we have been very impressed with Kenyon (and LACs in general).

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For a criterion such as accessibility of professors, you may want to consider a survey-based analysis. This one from the Princeton Review includes Bowdoin, for example:

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hello! thank you for responding so quickly.
I’ve seen the post, and for the colleges I’m interested in, they seem to offer a lot of literature-related courses that also match my interests, so I don’t think I’ll have to worry about that. I was considering philosophy only as a possible alternative to my main choice (something literature-related). will decide further after attending whatever college I’ll be attending – it’s certainly wonderful how many colleges give you some time to choose.
honestly I would be just as happy acquiring general knowledge about Western literature (that would prepare me well for graduate research at say, somewhere like Princeton, which I’m looking at for the far future) that I don’t think it would be an end-all if there was no rigorous Japanese language program. I definitely know enough Japanese (an L1 for me) to directly place in higher classes (placing is something that’s obscure for me so I’ll have to do more research on that), and as long as I can get a study abroad opportunity, I would be happy.

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thank you so much for your help! I would love to ask more should I have any more questions.

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are there any intangibles/unquantifiable stuff I should be looking out for? i’ll be visiting colleges so I hope that would help me understand the vibe.

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To help brainstorm a list of schools that might interest you, I looked for schools that offered both a major in philosophy and Japanese (language and literature or studies), as those would be the most limiting majors you’re interested in. I’ve listed the number of students who receive a Bachelor’s degree in those fields in the most recent year of IPEDS data, per College Navigator. They also generally all had good numbers of English/creative writing majors, and more than a few also had good numbers in film studies or similar. (I personally find that look at the breakdown of majors gives a good sense of the academic interests of a student body.)

I developed most of this list before seeing your comments about Japanese and philosophy. I will say that foreign language majors are generally not about learning the language, but the literature, culture, films, etc, in the original language. So although you have native proficiency in Japanese, the advanced courses should be appropriate for your level (at least, the advanced foreign languages I took that used western characters were that way). So though you may not have an interest in majoring in Japanese, if you’d like the option to take advanced classes in Japanese apart from a year abroad, I still think these numbers are relevant.

As an FYI, here is what some of the schools on your current list look like:

The schools below are categorized by my very fallible guesses as to what your chances at these schools might be. I’m not entirely sure if the vibe of each one would match what you’re looking for, but I will let others speak to that. I will just have to put a plug in for St. Olaf, as if I had known about it when I was applying to high schools, it would have definitely been a strong contender for me. Also, midwestern schools tend to be more financially generous with merit aid than their brethren on the coasts, as there is simply less demand amongst students wanting to go to the midwest. It has absolutely no reflection on their academic quality, but saving money is always a nice side benefit.

Extremely Likely (80-99+%)

Likely (60-79+%)

  • St. Olaf (MN): About 3k undergrads and there have been many reports on CC of visitors who loved how collegial and intellectually curious the student body is here. 6 Japanese majors (and a focus on foreign languages generally), 12 philosophy majors, and its College Navigator page. It has cross-registration with neighboring Carleton, 1 mile away.

  • Whitman (WA): About 1600 undergrads, 0 Japanese majors (though a foreign language focus generally), 12 philosophy majors, and its College Navigator page

Toss-Up (40-59%)

  • Macalester (MN): About 2200 undergrads, 4 Japanese majors (with a focus on foreign languages generally), 10 philosophy majors, and its College Navigator page

Lower Probability (20-39%)

Low Probability (less than 20%)

  • Hamilton (NY): About 2100 undergrads, 0 Japanese majors, 11 philosophy majors. A very open curriculum, which might appeal to you. Its College Navigator page.

  • Middlebury (VT): About 2900 undergrads, 4 Japanese majors (with a focus on foreign languages generally), 5 philosophy majors, and its College Navigator page

  • Swarthmore (PA ): About 1700 undergrads, 1 Japanese major, 10 philosophy majors

  • Williams (MA): About 2200 undergrads, 2 Japanese majors, 6 philosophy majors, and its College Navigator page

Edited to add Bates

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I have written about this before, but essentially…

Decades ago, each had a slightly more distinct character. Bates was the most “granola”, Colby was the most “outdoorsy”, and Bowdoin was the preppiest (in a mainstream, elite, Boston way). All were recognized as excellent schools and attracted the vast majority of ther students from New England. Especially the private school world. In spite of the fierce rivalries, the alums of all 3 seemed to find strong bonds among each other post-grad. Maybe it was surviving Maine winters, maybe it was being on a small campus, but this is to say that post-grad, lots of alums saw more that was alike among them than different.

Over time, and particularly as all have evolved from regional schools to national ones, the differences have become less great and for many students, being transplanted from colby to Bates or from Bowdoin to colby would have no impact on their happiness. They have all evolved pretty rapidly in terms of attracting a wider range of students and all seem committed to having students who are rounding out the community.

At the very fringes and for specific reasons, however, there are probably kids who would be happier at one, and all schools carry some bit of their prior reputation. They are all fabulous schools, have tight communities, and happy, engaged student bodies.

As a betting person, I would guess that what you liked in Wes’ vibe may be more dominant at Bates. With that said, you can definitely find that at Colby (having been there recently) and almost certainly at Bowdoin as well.

I wouldn’t ED anywhere that I hadn’t visited when it was in session, and it’s pretty easy to visit all 3 of these over 2 days.

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For some reason I didn’t include Bates on my list above, perhaps because it had no majors in Japanese, and then I changed protocol partway through? Regardless, I have since added it to my earlier post for ease of reference in comparison to the other schools. Colby does not have a Japanese major and had 3 students major in philosophy, per its College Navigator page.

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