<p>Hey all you Amherst people, soon-to-be applicant here. I was wondering which of these fine institutions should I submit my Common App ED to. If it helps, I intend to major in Philosophy, and probably go to Law School afterwards. The quality of education, EC’s, and environment are what’s most important. Feel free to suggest another option, correct me on something I’m saying, or even suggest another major. People with experience would be welcome!</p>
<p>This is how I see it right now:
Quality of Education: W, S, A, P</p>
<p>Environment: S, P, W, A</p>
<p>EC’s: P, S, A, W</p>
<p>I’m kind of leaning Swarthmore, or Williams, at the moment.
Another note: This is assuming I get into any of these, I’ll be applying to all of them. I’m somewhat confident about my chances, but, hey, ***** happens.</p>
<p>Go figure - my son chose Amherst in part for the great college-town environment. Quality of environment is entirely personal - go and visit prior to applying ED.
Quality of Education - How have you come up with that ranking? I would make it a dead heat – they are the top LACs in the country.
I am not sure what you mean by ECs. Sports is far superior at Williams and Amherst. Amherst with the 5 college consortium would have more cultural events.</p>
<p>Amherst and Williams graduates have superb stats for admissions to top medical, law and business school admissions - they rank in front of many Ivy schools. </p>
<p>Admission selectivity: A P S W for what that is worth.</p>
<p>I agree with violao; these are the top schools in the country. Any of them will provide you with a great education and post-college opportunties. My son is a FY at Amherst and loves it, but did not apply to the other three on your list, for various reasons. You should visit all of them before applying ED, then go with your gut.</p>
<p>After seriously considering all of these schools (other than Pomona), my son ended up getting admitted ED to Amherst and it turned out to be a great choice for him as he is loiving his time there. That said, he also had very strong impressions of Williams & Swarthmore and I think he would have been very happy at any of them. So here is a summary from a father whose son really liked all three schools, but choose Amherst as his first choice based on his subjective feeling that it was the right school for him based on the feeling he got during his visits.
As violau points out, Amherst has the best “college town” environment of the three schools. It is the only one where you can easily walk off campus to pizza shops, bars, chinese restaurants, coffee shops, etc. Add to that the 5 college consortium and you have a lot more going on just off campus at Amherst than at either W or S. For my son’s taste, in trying to split hairs between A and W, Williams just seemed a bit too isolated for him. Of course, if you’re into camping, snowshoes, or cross country skiing, you may enjoy Williams because of the 3 it seemed to have the most opportunity for “outing” activity, with Amherst running 2nd. Williams does not have any college town, certainly not within walking distance, so that is one easy way to distinguish A & W. Swarthmore has the town of Swarthmore, but there is nothing within walking distance except residential neighborhoods. There is shopping/some restaurants within a short drive, but very few students have cars. There is a very convenient and inexpensive train into Philly that leaves from the bottom of campus, so it is easy to find civilization, big city style, if you are willing to take the train. But for a true “college town” you can’t beat Amherst. One easy way to distinguish S from A/W is the relative lack of emphasis on sports at Swarthmore. Any school that eliminates its football program is distinctive, and I give Swarthmore a lot of credit for doing so once they decided that they couldn’t compose the type of class they wanted if they had to use up X number of spots on football players. This is not to say that people who enjoy sports can’t be happy at S, or that there aren’t plenty of people who couldn’t care less about sports who are very happy at A or W, but if you are the type of person who would prefer going to a pterodactyl hunt (a tradition at S) instead of a football game, then you might strongly consider Swarthmore. If you put any importance at all on cheering on your team, A or W may be more for you.
We didn’t look at Pomona, but if you don’t mind being in California, you could do a lot worse than going to school where it is 75 degrees and sunny most of the time, with the caveat that Pomoma is not as well known in most parts of the country as the other three schools (although law schools will certainly know the school).
I believe all four schools offer a tremendous education and I would agree with violau that that’s pretty much a dead heat. I do think it is true that, fairly or unfairly, right or wrong, Amherst and Williams are generally considered slightly more “prestigious” than the other two schools, for what that is worth (obviously all four schools are extremely well regarded).
Bottom line is you can’t go wrong at any one of these four great schools: visit them all if you can (preferably more than once), try to sleep over in a dorm-- and then trust your gut. Good luck!</p>
<p>Son visited Amherst, Swat, and Pomona (Williams was just too far off the main drag). He really liked the intellectual feel of Swat. That had a lot to do with the person who gave the info session and the student who gave the tour. He liked that it was close to Philly, but had the same impression that wasastudentonce had regarding the lack of places around campus to walk to. He really liked the curriculum of Amherst, and thought the area around it was beautiful, but said he just couldn’t connect with the campus (it probably didn’t help that there was a lot of construction going on and that it seemed that the lawn mowers were deliberately following our tour group). Amherst had much more of a college town feel than Swat, but said the Claremont Village at Pomona was the closest to what he envisioned a college town would be. He said Pomona seemed very intellectual, but in a much more quiet way than the others. </p>
<p>A couple of folks in the forums where you have posted have mentioned the consortiums that the various colleges belong to, and that also got my son’s attention. He liked that Swat students can also take classes at Haverford and UPenn, but the Swat tour guide kinda downplayed that, noting that getting around between the campuses required some effort (again, just one person’s opinion). Amherst has its 5Cs, but his general impression was that the Amherst folks turned up their noses a bit towards UMass (which is the closest and has most of the variety of offerings), and again, needed a bit of effort to get around to the other 3 colleges, especially in the winter. He said Pomona seemed to have the closest ties with the other members of its 5Cs, with all the campuses being right next to each other. With regard to ECs, he felt that all of the campuses had far more things going on than anybody could possibly take full advantage of, though Pomona’s weather allows you to do more of them outside in the winter. He’s not sure if he’s going to do ED with any of them, unless he decides to play the “athlete card.” I am pretty sure that he is going to follow a piece of advice that he heard from students at all 3, (and a few others that he’s been to) which is to do an overnight and attend a couple of classes before making a final decision.</p>
<p>Coming from someone looking at many ofthe same schools as you, Id just say that 1. quality of education is a wash, its so great at all these schools 2. Personally I think amherst has the best environment of these schools. everyone is reallly positive and friendly while being fun and not overly intellectual</p>
<p>Actually, the town of Williamstown is intertwined with the school. It is tiny, but it does have a variety of ethnic restaurants and a movie theater. It’s true, it doesn’t compare to Amherst, but there is a town. Some schools have no town at all.</p>
<p>S chose W over A, but I’m sure he could have been happy at A. It’s a sibling rivalry. Many Williams kid are New Yorkers and most don’t feel isolated at all. That said, if Amherst beckons, definitely go with Amherst.</p>