Random regular people might not know, but the people who matter do. I’m a NESCAC alum, and every time I’ve gone for a job interview, my alma mater’s name has been, uh, recognized.
Where I live name recognition of non big sports colleges from outside the state is rare. If I were to mention Bates to the majority of folks at school, church, or via H’s job most would instantly think of the Psycho movie.
However, all three of mine went to non sports colleges that are out of state and they’ve yet to have a problem. They just often have to answer the question, “Where is that?” and they enjoy doing so. It’s not a big deal. It’s ok if folks think the school is inferior to Penn St… Most think U Penn is also inferior to, or the same as, Penn St and I live in PA. 
The average person really doesn’t know much about colleges. They learn more when they get involved (kid going to school, hiring, traveling) or if they come from a family where knowing more is highlighted, but that’s the extent of it. The world still goes around. Most college grads have jobs.
Pick a school you like that fits you and if necessary, fill folks in later. It’s all ok.
Well, sometimes definitions matter. Many of the colleges on that list of 500 - as many as half - are basically business or technical schools. Yes, they are often overwhelmingly undergraduate focused, but, a quick look at their catalogs might reveal one broad humanities major which they often label “liberal arts” and no laboratory science courses to speak of (whereas, even tiny Agnes Scott College in Atlanta, GA and ranked #51 by the USNews, has a decent sized physics facility: https://www.agnesscott.edu/physics/facilities/index.html)
My hunch is that by the time you reach #100 on the list, you would already be stretching the definition of LAC.
Most of those NESCACs have exceptional career and internship offices and work hard to compensate for any lack of bowl-game profile. Isn’t that what matters most?
If you’re unsure, call the career services office of your prospective college and have a chat with them about what they do.
“Oh, if the OP is planning to live in the south or southwest, he may have to explain where Bowdoin is (and where in Maine, and why Maine) many times over”
And where Maine is…But those who need to know will know. It is true that the alum network isn’t as extensive (obviously limited by # grads/year) as it is for top universities but that does not necessarily impact on job opportunities (but you’re less likely to walk into your local bar and see your school playing Duke, for example).Most of the appeal of name recognition is worthless.
Grad schools know the nescac schools.
Employers who care about hiring from competitive/elite/whatever schools know the nescac schools, with the effect likely fading somewhat the further you get from the northeast or the smaller the company gets.
For instance, I know for a fact that google knows Wesleyan and doesn’t have it confused with Ohio Wesleyan or Kentucky Wesleyan or any of the dozen or so other schools with Wesleyan in the name. Nor does google confuse Wesleyan with Wellesley. I know this because google, along with a lot of other big name employers, recruits at Wesleyan.
IOW, the people who need to know, know.
Amherst, Bates, Bowdoin, Colby, Hamilton, Middlebury, Tufts, Wesleyan, Williams, plus Trinity and
Conn College.
Fwiw, the first 8 are in the top 22 of USNews for LACs. Tufts, in the Uni rankings, is just past that, 27. Regardless of how you feel about USNews, it does show the respect.
Frankly, why worry what people think, if they don’t know where Maine is? And, as each of these colleges draws kids from across the country, it’s not like you’re the first to go there and leave the Northeast.
I will throw a monkey wrench in this – I know a fairly large number of spoiled brats that attend and have attended many of these NESCAC schools. Kids with a chip on their shoulder because they are from wealthy families and these schools are an extension of their private high school or affluent suburban school. I also know a huge number of jocks at these schools. So while Bowdoin, etc are all very good schools they are still extremely expensive schools where being full pay is an advantage. Personally I would be more inclined to be impressed by Pomona, Grinnell, Davidson than Colby, Bowdoin, Bates… And I agree that most of the country knows what they know–in their geography. Bowdoin will never compare with MIT or Duke in NYC or Chicago but it is still an excellent school
Sigh.
Bowdoin is NOT trying to be MIT.
But there is an expression: “Where do you think all those top performers go, when that tippy top doesn’t have room?” Often, Nescacs. (And sure, the Claremonts, Davidson, Grinnell, Vandy, all sorts of other great colleges. Do you worry people don’t know where Iowa is? Or they think it’s some hick school? Far from it. )
This isn’t a contest to see who knows what or thinks what, among the Joe Publics. Anyone wanting one of these colleges should know better, think deeper. (Or they may not get in, lol.) Or they can go to Big Football State.
Historically, Amherst, Williams and Hamilton maintained higher academic expectations than a school such as Duke, while Bowdoin and Middlebury maintained similar standards: https://books.google.com/books?id=ykQEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA100&lpg=PA100&dq=life+magazine+1960+college+admission+tufts+bowdoin&source=bl&ots=5BKi5WV8SQ&sig=GFl_LycVnJV8AGIXLX2P9kW97I0&hl=en&sa=X&ei=sO1TT4uPK-jm0QG8ifC3DQ#v=onepage&q&f=false.
Life Magazine^1960, a good ten years before some of those admitted women.
One could make a similar argument for some of the schools today. For example, Williams, Amherst, and Duke have approximately the same test score ranges and similar other metrics of “academic expectations.” Bowdoin is not far behind, in spite of being test optional. However, measures of “academic expectations” or selectivity, are often very different from name recognition.
Duke plays in Div I and usually has one of the top ranked men’s basketball programs in the country, winning the championship in 2015. In contrast, the NESCAC is a Div III athletic league. Schools in Div III will never have the sports name recognition that Duke does, which is one of the key reasons random people you meet are familiar with private schools. Duke is a research college with 16,000 students, the majority of which are graduates, including many students attending their excellent medical, law, business and engineering graduate schools. The NESCAC LACs usually only have ~2k students and no grad programs – in some cases 9x fewer students than Duke. The total enrollment across all NESCAC LACs (I am not counting Tufts as a LAC) is similar to the enrollment at Duke. The tremendous difference in size and existence of graduate programs also contributes to random people on the street being far more likely to recognize Duke.
For similar reasons, the schools tend to attract different types of students, often with different types of employment goals. For example, Duke students are far more likely to pursue more vocationally oriented fields like engineering and nursing, while students at NESCAC LACs are often far more likely to pursue liberal arts oriented fields, including a PhD and career in academia. Athletics is also a key difference beyond NCAA division, with more than 40% of students being varsity athletes at some NESCAC schools. It’s more a different type of school for different types of students than “not comparing” with Duke or having similar “academic expectations.”
These generalities are not especially important for the purposes of the OP’s employment, nor is whether a random person on the street is familiar with the school name. What is more important is how the schools will assist in meeting his goals, in whatever field(s) he plans to study. There may or may not be a relevant difference in name recognition among employers, depending on the specific employers, particularly varying with location and field of employment. However, most of the discussed NESCAC have good employment history among grads, with many employers attending events on campus. The employers attending events on campus obviously will be familiar with the school. You can usually review more specific details about employment/internship placement and specific employers on the respective college websites.
Bowdoin does, however, require all students to submit scores prior to matriculation, and reports a seemingly reliable, and lofty, 1290-1510 middle range SAT (when totaled) on its CDS.
@lookingforward shoot, until 1961 Duke categorically disallowed Black students from attending. I doubt they were attracting the best minds in the country throughout that decade.
The hard thing is having to explain how to pronounce “Bowdoin”, over, and over, and over, and…
Kind of hard to attract engineering and nursing students, if you don’t have an engineering or nursing school. :-/
Yes, that was my point. The discussed NESCAC LACs (Wiliams, Amherst, Bowdoin, …) do offer a 5-year dual degree engineering program that involves spending 3 years at the NESCAC school and 2 years at Dartmouth, but very few do this. Instead the overwhelming majority of students who are interested in engineering don’t even consider NESCAC LACs and instead apply to different types of colleges, such as the previously mentioned Duke and MIT. The reverse could be said about various other fields/pursuits. The colleges often attract different types of students, with different goals and post college plans.
You have to compare apples to apples. Students at Trinity College, which is the formal name for Duke’s undergraduate liberal arts and science division, have the same problem - at best, they can only minor in engineering. A 4+1 program of some sort is their best bet for an industry recognized degree. Wesleyan, a nescac, is headed in the same direction. No one really bothers with the 3+2 route anymore.
@circuitrider, why does “no one really bother with the 3+2 route anymore”? To me, those types of programs sound like the perfect route for well-rounded, intellectually curious students that would like to be an engineer.
I think many students don’t want to leave senior year