Coin toss. Both truly fantastic schools. For my D who wound up at Wesleyan, Hamilton was a very strong contender.
First off I never said that Trinity was better. I stated that from experience at placing kids I would have chosen Hamilton over Wesleyan. However if it is sport specific like football Trinity then would be my recommendation . I am not saying all Coaches at Wesleyan are transparent but when a position Coach and a Head Coach are not on same page and give conflicting answers raises eyebrows. More disconcerting is that these Coaches have been in a program for a great deal of time and should be able to decipher a transcript. Why waste so many man hours , zoom calls in a courtship only to pull the rug out with a conflicting opinion. Lets be honest they know who will or won’t fly in admissions. If they spend that much time with a potential recruit then they know. You are correct Haverford , Penn State etc all have had recruiting problems. What I am trying to advise is once you get an offer keep and commit at the D3 level keep searching but keep it off social media.The faster the decision was offered it can be taken away since they do not send out likely letters. Every recruit needs to protect themselves. I agree on likely letters and I was only talking about dealings with these two schools
Five year old look at football stadiums in the NESCAC. Trinity comes out on top.
2019 standings show Middlebury on top with Wes’s only loss at Midd. Poor Bowdoin.
This article is 5 years old.
In the meantime, Bowdoin’s Whittier Stadium has been completely redone, adding turf and an 8 lane track so it can host championship level events. I am sure average attendance is still not very high though, lol.
Trinity is also improving Jessee/Miller Stadium.
Tufts is installing turf this summer to their football field.
I am sure there are probably some NESCAC improvements I am missing as well.
Very funny; very tart article, even if it is five years old.
Well, you kinda did:
actually all sports they are better in than Hamilton or Wesleyan
as (presumably) an immediate follow on post to:
Trinity has everything and better football than either school
On your point about the coaches, we’ll just agree to disagree. Sounds like you had a bad experience. We had a few questionable experiences along the way ourselves with coaches at different schools. It is what it is. One needs to be savvy and informed when going through the D3 recruiting process. On that I think we agree.
One other thing to keep in mind is that Trinity has a lower overall admissions hurdle than Wesleyan or Hamilton. It’s easier to get in, thus it’s easier for their coaches to make promises. It’s not a knock on the school … it has a lot going for it, but in terms of selectivity Wes and Hamilton are on another tier altogether.
4 Likes
No I stated Trinity has everything in terms of NESCAC experience just like the schools recruit is looking at is what I said. If recruit is looking for Football than yes Trinity would be better option. It was never stated what sport recruit was contemplating. I did not have bad experience several kids I have placed at schools have explained their dealings. It does not matter the ranking of the schools Coaches need to be transparent. You do not invest so many man hours , Zoom Calls ,Phone Calls visits and have transcripts for many months not to be able to decipher transcripts and be honest with kids. It would be more prudent if Coaches before getting into specifics about the sport viewed the academics instead of leading kids on. You cannot tell me that Coaches do not have experience reading these and can have direct pipeline for immediate feedback. It would be better not to waste kids time and give them false hopes.
Old article. Tufts field and Trinity field will be gorgeous when done. Both will bemake watching games more desirable. Tufts field was awful.
I agree coaches need to be transparent, but recruits have to ask the right questions too.
In this particular situation, I wonder if the kid just wasn’t that high on the list and coaches were trying to get students ranked more highly to commit…which can take a while. Point being maybe it wasn’t so much that the coaches couldn’t interpret the transcript but that they weren’t willing to send it admissions for a pre-read…a sure sign the kid isn’t high on the list. And just to be clear, none of the NESCAC coaches can ask admissions for a pre-read until July 1 prior to the recruit’s senior year.
If a student-athlete finds themself in a position where they aren’t getting timely or satisfactory answers to their questions, they need to move on. Some of those coaches might ultimately come back, if they are unable to get the recruits higher on the list.
3 Likes
My friend, I quoted your own posts. It is exactly what you said.
I’m moving on now.
1 Like
I’m not so curious about coaches transparency just more curious on which college better fits my criteria up top and anything people have to say about the environment/community/acadmeics at the two.
4 Likes
Fair enough. Your post was hijacked.
They are really comparable schools. One edge I’d give to Wesleyan is in the hard sciences. Plenty online about that, so you don’t need to take it from me. They are breaking ground soon on a new science center too. The renderings I’ve seen are impressive.
1 Like
If you were to consider U.S. News, Hamilton and Wesleyan, as with schools such as Williams, Swarthmore, Pomona and Bowdoin, represent the highest rated smaller colleges in states known for their number and variety of venerable institutions of higher education. Either choice should impress under educated scrutiny.
2 Likes
To the extent that this can be measured, in the National Liberal Arts category, U.S. News assigns a selectivity rank of 5 to Hamilton, 19 to Wesleyan and 68 to Trinity.
2 Likes
Unless someone has had a student attend both, you will find comparisons on here highly partisan!
I have had a student at Hamilton who studied economics and got a fantastic education, loved the campus, and the community. It is a very well run school and there is always stuff going on on campus. I am sure Wesleyan is similar.
If you are going to be playing sports all 4 years, then the culture of the team and the coach are probably the most important aspects to consider.
As far as reputation, Hamilton is very well regarded among wall street types.
3 Likes
This right here. I couldn’t agree more. When it’s good and working, it is an amazing life experience. When it’s not, it’s hell. We’ve been through both. I know this to be true.
1 Like
Congratulations on having two nice possibilities. Full disclosure: I am a parent of a student at a different NESCAC (Williams), who looked at both Hamilton and Wesleyan as two of his top five choices when choosing his college. So my knowledge is more limited than that of current students, parents, or alumni. In addition, my child is not a varsity athlete.
That said, I spent so much time studying and visiting each college that I will offer some thoughts FWIW!
First, as other posters have noted, your stated areas of interest are not majors at either college. While students at both colleges go on to careers in those areas, during college they major in intellectual, not practical, subjects. You can reach your career goals with a major in economics or biology or English or history or physics or music or classics or any other liberal arts subject. But does that type of learning interest you with the same passion with which your classmates will enjoy it? Spend some time studying the course catalog and make sure you are excited to attend one of the nation’s premier liberal arts colleges!
Second, rural vs. suburban? Wesleyan is suburban and a reasonably short weekend drive from NYC and very near Hartford. Hamilton is drop dead gorgeous in a beautiful rural area.
Both are liberal leaning. Wesleyan definitely more visibly so. As our tour guide made us chuckle by saying, “I will walk facing forward, not backward, because Wesleyan is a forward-facing college.”
Both have fairly relaxed distribution requirements. I think Wesleyan’s sound more open than they are: if you look at the requirements for graduating with honors in each major, you end with similar distribution needs to a college like Williams that has formal but not super-onerous distribution requirements. Hamilton has one of the nation’s very few truly “open” curricula— along with only Brown, Amherst, Grinnell, and Smith!
Wesleyan has stronger sciences than most LACs, an amazing film department with alumni including the writers of many major TV shows as well as the musical Hamilton, and cool interdisciplinary majors like the College of Social Studies.
Among its many other strengths, Hamilton emphasizes learning to write well.
Hamilton had what we thought was among the friendliest, warmest “feels” of any college we visited (and we visited over 20). It also felt like there was a variety of students there, as almost physically echoed in the “dark” (artsy) and “light” (athletic) parts of campus, formed by the long-ago merger of Kirkland and Hamilton colleges.
Both colleges have fraternities and sororities, but they involve fewer students and are not much of a presence at Wesleyan, whereas they are mostly definitely a part of Hamilton, although still a more muted presence than at many other colleges.
If you would value the opportunity to attend a small college with super-intelligent peers who love “the life of the mind” and small classes with professors dedicated to teaching, you can’t go wrong with either college.
Two great choices! Good luck.
5 Likes
Completely agree with your post @TheGreyKing . Especially about the beauty of Hamilton’s campus. It is a very nice campus.
1 Like
I ask also. What do you mean by transparent?
Dream on - Trinity is certainly not even close to Wesleyan in any respect, particularly academics