<p>From the list of the above schools can anyone tell us the difference between them all? Scholarships at all but Carleton, but only waitlisted there anyway.
The student is a VERY motivated science student and used to N. CA weather, who says she will enjoy the snow!
I will be glad when the decision is made.
Thanks for any opinions...</p>
<p>Well, Grinnell and Carleton and Whitman are certainly socially more similar to each other than Bucknell. Congrats on fantastic acceptances! Has "the student" visited and is she comfortable among the intellectual and quirky? </p>
<p>If so, Grinnell does everything first class and the new facilities are incredible,including science. My D is "not so comfortable" yet as a junior around too much "quirk" it seems. Beyond that, which she may very well get beyond as a more confident 17 y/o, Grinnell may be exactly what she seeks. </p>
<p>Her desire for a less quirky feel has led her to consider Bucknell and what she has found without visiting is that it may have more of a pre-professional and "athletic-type" feel, though certainly mixed. As she is a pre-professional athletic type, she seems to think it might be a better fit. Go figure. I know you can find recent posts on Whitman, I think concerneddad just returned from a Northwest swing, and carolyn, emeraldkitty, mini and others should be able to chime in. Good luck.</p>
<p>I have a number of nieces and nephews going to the other college in Walla Walla. They love it up there. There are many outdoor opportunities. There is also a dramatic landscape to the area: beautiful farms on rolling hills, mountains many of which are extinct volcanoes, rivers. It is really "big sky" country. It is really wild west country. The eponymous Whitmans were missionaries to the Native Americans in the area, and if I remember my history correctly they were killed after a wagon train spread measles among the Native Americans there.</p>
<p>Whitman college is gorgeous. The grounds are very well kept. The academics are solid. They had a Rhodes scholar last year. The new science center is also beautiful.</p>
<p>Your D should go there at least for a visit. Go yourself even if D doesn't want to go. She can come visit you after you move there.</p>
<p>My S almost went to Grinnell. We have a very high opinion of the school. My H loved it when they visited. He was very impressed by a physics student they met there doing some sort of research that normally would be done by a grad student at a university. There seems to be a lot of resources/connections for specialized summer internships.</p>
<p>Whitman--I don't know much about, but am going to look at that one very closely for my D who graduates in two years from high school.</p>
<p>PM me if you want to know my thoughts on Bucknell, although I am biased because my son loves it. BTW, he's not preppy, and we're middle class. :)</p>
<p>S is at Grinnell, good friend teaches at Bucknell. Grinnell is quirky but kids are really into learning and the intellectual environment. It also has a ton of money, Intel, that means they have great facilities and support good internships for their students. S will be working on death row cases this summer on Grinnell's nickel. Bucknell seems to be much more frat, athletics and future engineers. Grinnell has the highest percentage of peace corps volunteers. One will fit, one won't.</p>
<p>Tough decision. I agree that Bucknell has a different feel than the other three --- it's also larger and has less of a "personalized" feel in terms of student-teacher relationships. </p>
<p>The other three are among the best LACs in the country, in my opinion. Any of the three will provide an outstanding education, close interactions with teachers, and other benefits. I would say it all boils down to whether your son would prefer to be in a quaint town in Washington surrounded by mountains, a cute college town in Minnesota that's within striking distance of Minneapolis, or a small town in Iowa. He might also want to factor in the actual travel times between home and these schools. Ironically, it may in fact be quickest and easiest to get home to southern Calif. from Carleton than from Whitman.</p>
<p>In the end, however, tell him to listen to his heart. There really is no wrong answer here - just different answers. In cases like this, gut instinct is often the way to go.</p>
<p>D was in at both Whitman and Grinnell last year and thought long and hard. Whitman ended up being her 2nd choice overall. I agree Grinnell is quirky but very comfortable. We visited Whitman several times and Grinnell once. I hear and observed that students are very happy at Whitman. The sciences are quite strong at both of them. I don't think you could go wrong at either. Can't speak about the other two. I agree with Carolyn, go with your gut feeling.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for being so quick and supportive with with your replies. We will be off to see them all in a week. After seeing 35 colleges last summer...we have great practice in getting the feel of a place quickly. Why didn't we see these three? (Ex. Whitman which we did see and she did like.) We had overlooked the midwest!
This college selection process is more involved than I thought. I wish I had found this website sooner!</p>
<p>What wonderful! (and indistinguishable!) choices! Good luck!</p>
<p>Wow...my son feels Bucknell is very personalized. He had contact with his academic advisor two days a week his first semester in seminar. When we had an issue with dorms over break, the Dean responded personally. Carolyn, do you have personal experience with Bucknell? </p>
<p>My son is not preppy, or athletic, or frat. I think people get carried away with the characterizations. Which by the way, my son felt that Washington and Lee was more preppy and "frat boy" after spending three weeks there during the summer. I wonder why that doesn't come up so often when people describe it?</p>
<p>I guess I'm just tired of the steroetypes that get passed around on-line.</p>
<p>I didn't mean to insult anyone Texastaximom! Bucknell is obviously a great school but does tend to attract a different student body than Whitman or Grinnell. While your son may not feel that Bucknell is preppy or frat oriented, it is definitely more frat oriented than Grinnell where there are no frats and less preppy than Whitman, and there are definite differences in size as well to be considered. Again, all are great schools but do have different feels - I don't see how anyone can dispute that. I do agree with you that schools are often stereotyped, but for the most part, I have found that stereotypes usually have some basis in reality and are somewhat self-perpetuating in that they tend to attract students that fit the stereotypes (although obviously your son doesn't fit in this category!). So, again, sorry that you took offense!</p>
<p>Both of Carolyn's posts are on the money, as are the posters who suggest that visits to those schools will reveal enough differences to make a choice relatively easy for most kids. Of the options, I know Grinnell and Carleton the best. Both are great schools and cost aside, I'd be hard-pressed to recommend one over the other for a science student. However, Carleton does tend to waitlist a whole bunch of kids, so I'd focus on Grinnell and enjoy the financial benefit of doing so.</p>
<p>a friend attended Bucknell from Wa- her sister was at Amherst
She really didn't like Bucknell although she had visited it before she decided to go- it was the most prestigous of the colleges on her list and that may have swayed her- she felt the town was gloomy- and social life was centered on frats.- She transferred out after one year and graduated from an instate smaller university that also had the business major she was interested in along with a study abroad program.</p>
<p>As far as Carleton and Whitman go- both very good schools I know kids who go to both- i would put the nod to Carleton having the slightly better name but it is in a town that drives some people to study abroad in Mali ASAP
I don't know anything about Grinnell except that it also is highly ranked.</p>
<p>I will lean toward Grinnell, because it is known to be a particularly vibrant community with loads of funding to bring things to campus. We love quirky and the students have a great reputation of committment and community. They also have established outposts for away study (D.C and London, iirc). It took me awhile because of location, but I think it is really a phenomenal school.</p>
<p>Last year a girl turned down Harvard and went to Carleton. I think Carleton is know for the very high calibre of students.</p>