I agree. I thought Swarthmore had the prettiest buildings except for Princeton and Vassar.
I also am curious about that Wesleyan remark. As far as I know, Wesleyan has holistic admissions, just like all the similar schools… And The Gatekeepers certainly depicts a holistic admissions process, although there was a mention of trying not to look too inconsistent within each high school…
Weslyan: our students’ school has a longstanding relationship with them. They came to our school as part of parents college info session, and one of the ADCOMS either stated or intimated this.
okay, correction re Swarthmore: I checked with my husband who did admit that they went at a time there were few students on campus and they didn’t get a good tour. He admitted that most of what they saw was the water tower. My apologies, my comments on the other schools are all firsthand.
sorry, a little verbose today. If you are looking at NESCAC can I add a couple more?
Loved Hamilton campus. Yes it’s in the middle of nowhere, upstate NY, where there may be more cows than people, but the campus was manicured, and it had the feel of a mixture between Amherst and Middlebury, with its Science Center on one end of campus (which included Psychology), and Adirondack chairs on the campus.
Amherst: concern here was that they were too focused on having one student from every state and country vs. diversity in the way of talent. Seems like the type of diversity they were focused on was misguided. Our tour guide from Jamaica told us Ms. Martin wanted Amherst to be a biopsy of the world, and her 2020 vision was to have one student from every country represented as a microcosm of the world. It seemed to us, that they should be more focused on other kinds of diversity and refocus too on what Amherst is known best for: smart kids.
Re #23, Beyond picturesque Clinton, Hamilton offers convenient transportation to a nearby suburban area (<7 miles) and small city (<10 miles, population ~60,000):
https://www.hamilton.edu/campuslife/transportation/the-jitney
https://www.hamilton.edu/campuslife/transportation/utica-jitney-service
Since the area has beautiful rural aspects to the south and west, the impression that visitors have of the school’s setting may depend on their direction of travel.
@preppedparent re: Amherst-- But how are those in conflict with each other? The smartest kid in Nigeria (or wherever) is probably “smarter” than “a smart kid” from Phillips Exeter (or wherever).
In other words, I think the international element actually RAISES the bar.-- in smarts, in talents, and in diversity.
@redpoodles, I get your drift, but it was more like they wanted to sacrifice smarts for the sake of geodiversity, as if that trumped all.