<p>I received almost the same amount of financial aid packages from the schools listed above. Personally, I am very fond of Brandeis but my parents prefer Middlebury as they think the latter is more renowned in the US. I am an international applicant so I donot really know how significant a role the fame of a college/univeristy plays in the college selection process. I would appreciate it very mucn if anybody can give me some suggestions. =p</p>
<p>In terms of prestige it would probably go:</p>
<p>Middlebury
Haverford
Vassar
Brandeis </p>
<p>It's usually not best to make a choice purely on prestige. What exactly are you looking for in a college? What kind of environment do you want? What kind of major might you be interested?</p>
<p>Think of your own quality of life and what you need to be happy. One thing to consider: are you a city lover? Middlebury is in the middle of nowhere, and Vassar does not have access to a big city either. Haverford's got Philadelphia and Brandeis has Boston. If you are the sort of person who needs a fix of "CITY city life" occasionally (crowds, concerts, sports, shopping) you might want to factor this into the equation. For some people, this is important.</p>
<p>Middlebury may be in a rural location, but it isn't in the "middle of nowhere." The town of Middlebury has 8,000 people, and is home to dozens of restaurants, bars, shops, a movie theater, and grocery stores. Burlington, Vermont's largest city, is 35 miles from campus. In Burlington, you'll find shopping malls and pretty much everything you'd need. For those desiring a big city experince, the closest large city is Montreal, which is 2.5 hours from campus.</p>
<p>One thing you might want to consider is the size of the student body. Middlebury, with 2,400 students, will have a different vibe than Haverford, with just under 1,200 students. Brandeis is the largest of the schools you're considering, with almost 3,300 students (three times the size of Haverford!). Vassar is the same size as Middlebury.</p>
<p>Sorry - I didn't know that Middlebury had a movie theater :-)</p>
<p>Oh yeah, they most certainly do! And it even shows first-run movies!</p>
<p>“I do not really know how significant a role the fame of a college/university plays in the college selection process.”</p>
<p>For most people, it is one factor but it shouldn’t and isn’t the deciding one. </p>
<p>I think all of these schools are great and, according to different people’s opinion, some may be preferred over others. However, it is you who will be going to college and not your parents. As such, it seems that Brandeis should be your choice as you have a clear fondness for it.</p>
<p>If you want to talk about prestige, make sure to not confuse it with “fad”. I don’t like to frame my arguments using such an ill-defined idea because “prestige” can be spun many different ways to favor each school you listed. For example, according to the “wisdom” of rankings, only one of those colleges (the smallest one at that) has 4 Nobel Prize winners while Brandeis is the only other one with a winner. Also, according to similar rankings I’ve seen on CC, that same tiny school also has a higher per student endowment than the others and seems to send a higher % of kids to elite professional schools and graduate schools. </p>
<p><a href="http://ir.wlu.edu/factbook/alumni/endoperstudent.htm%5B/url%5D">http://ir.wlu.edu/factbook/alumni/endoperstudent.htm</a>
<a href="http://www.wsjclassroomedition.com/pdfs/wsj_college_092503.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.wsjclassroomedition.com/pdfs/wsj_college_092503.pdf</a>
<a href="http://www.collegenews.org/prebuilt/daedalus/cech_article.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.collegenews.org/prebuilt/daedalus/cech_article.pdf</a></p>
<p>Are these differences significant? Personally, I think the answer is no (whether you have 5 hairs on your head or 10, you’re still bald), especially when overshadowed by the importance of campus culture and fit as arcadia and vfrog pointed out. However, if the “prestige ranking game” is to be played, it should be done with “instructions” and at least some type of foundation of "evidence" (however tenuous) to start.</p>
<p>middlebury by far</p>
<p>My preferences among those four would be would be Haverford or Vassar, largely for reasons of campus culture. Middlebury is more athletics and drinking oriented. Vassar leans a bit towards the artsy side. Haverford is probably a better choice for sciences.</p>
<p>One thing to keep in mind is the location and the logistics of getting there. Middlebury is literally in the middle of nowhere. For an international to get there, you would have to fly to Boston and then drive for three hours or connect to a flight to Burlington, Vermont. If you don't have a car, forget it, you better enjoy small town Vermont life and snow.</p>
<p>Haverford is located in one of the nicest, most expensive residential neighborhoods in the United States -- the so-called "mainline" of Philadelphia. The US OPEN golf tournment is scheduled for the Merion Club, one of the most exclusive golf clubs in the country, that adjoins Haverford's campus. There is a rail station near campus. 20 minutes to downtown Philadelphia, a major city of about 5 million people. You can take the train directly to the International airport terminal. You can also take the train (or $12 bus service connection the chinatown districts of the cities) to New York City or Washington, DC. in under two hours. There is also cheap airfare on several discount airlines serving Philadelphia. My daughter routinely flies Philly to Boston for $130 round trip. She's also gotten cheap airfares to Atlanta, Miami, etc. for vacations. If I were an international, trying to make the travel logistics work and figure out how to experience the United States without a car, this location would be a very high priority for me.</p>
<p>Vassar is located an hour or so north of NYC. It is accessible to New York by train, but not 20 minutes like Haverford. The area surrounding Vassar is nice, too, but it is hard to compare to Haverford's surrounding neighborhoods. To give you an idea, there's a Ferrari car dealership a couple miles down the road in Bryn Mawr.</p>
<p>Sorry, but I think it is a real stretch to say that the area around Vassar is nice. There is a small area just surrounding campus that houses a few stores and restaurants, but on our visit, we were surprised by the level of urban blight surrounding the school. We are still considering the school for our daughter, because of all the other really positive factors, but the state of the surrounding area is not one of them.</p>
<p>Haverford or Middlebury, definitely.
I like haverford, but it's super small. but then again so is middlebury. one thing to consider is location - one is very close to a large city and the is in the middle of nowhere and very isolated.</p>