<p>Oy...I really want to go to Bowdoin! I respect Bowdoin to the fullest brimm. So just know that between us people, we know what a choice such as Bowdoin is....it changes your LIFE!! Enjoy Bowdoin for me okay? Hopefully until I get accepted.</p>
<p>The funny thing about everyone's arguement that Bowdoin doesn't have the prestige is such a laugh. Sure prestige is something, but I'm not that concerned about it. I believe that with my training and education at Bowdoin I can easily compete with those at HYP and AWS. After surveying their course catalogues, AWS don't offer any better curriculums in my field (as a matter of fact Bowdoin offers more courses in my field). Likewise, HYP curriculum for my field is no different from that of Bowdoin, so its hard to believe there is that much variation. Also its not true, that you can't get internships from Bowdoin, as matter of a fact I have an internship at a prestigous university this summer.</p>
<p>i never said you cant. and prestigious university doesnt mean anything. you can attend local community college and do research at princeton medical school (not existant). i just dont get why you guys have to be so defensive. i didnt choose bowdoin because no one has heard of it and no one has still. if ppl dont care then just accept that its a good education with little prestige outside a very small circle.</p>
<p>My dear friend, have fun coming to the southeast and getting people to distinguish AWS from Bowdoin. They won't have heard of any of those.</p>
<p>Please, Sling, no one has heard of your blessed AWS either. You're due for a rude shock if you actually believe that attending an AWS over Bowdoin (or anyone of a number of other excellent schools) is going to give you an advantage in life. The micro-distinctions among the top-tier schools is inconsequential in the real world.</p>
<p>what's AWS?</p>
<p>Apparently AWS stands for Amherst-Williams-Swarthmore.</p>
<p>people everywhere have heard of AWS, especially W</p>
<p>I know plenty of people who have not (and I'm from the northeast).
I totally agree with torasee, it just doesn't matter when camparing schools like "AWS" and Bowdoin. It matters how well you do when you are there. I think people like Sling being at "AWS" give us more of reason to not choose those over Bowdoin. But really, Bowdoin is very prestigious.</p>
<p>I can assure you that people everywhere have not heard of "W." That said, I think you are really overestimating the value of a name.</p>
<p>I recently saw someone with a Swarthmore T-shirt that said "Swarthmore" on the front and "We haven't heard of you either..." on the back.</p>
<p>well lets hope you guys get into my school before you start picking. :-D</p>
<p>I stand corrected.</p>
<p>The people familiar with all of AWS and not Bowdoin (or Midd or Wes) are few indeed. In fact, the people familiar with any of the above are not exactly numerous.</p>
<p>people have def not heard of AWS all over. i'm from ny and i was talking to some girl and her mother who go to a good school and i said i was applying to williams.. they said "oh where is that.. i've never herad of it." and i'm from NY which is very close to williams. and true, they've also not heard of bowdoin.</p>
<p>It pains me to hear Bowdoin people worrying about their reputation. I have no connection to Bowdoin, but I've visited and loved it--you can't beat the proximity to the sea. I have it way up on the list of schools I'd like my kids to attend. </p>
<p>I graduated from high school in suburban Boston a while back. I had an uncle who was a prominent athletic coach at Williams for 25 years, and I'd spent significant time hanging around Williamstown. So I was really sensitive to whether or not people were aware of Williams. People I knew went off to Harvard, Princeton, MIT, Colby, Bowdoin, and Brandeis, etc., but I never once heard anybody mention Williams in any context, and I never heard of anybody in that town who ever even applied to Williams. Bowdoin, however, was well known and highly respected. I know Williams is a great place, but from my experience, even in Eastern MASSACHUSETTS, Bowdoin was better known.</p>
<p>A couple months ago, in another thread, somebody was weighing the relative merits of Williams and Bowdoin. I follow colleges pretty closely, but I'd never heard of the whole AWS thing. I made a post saying that I considered Amherst, Williams, and Bowdoin to be the Harvard, Yale, Princeton of liberal arts colleges--Swarthmore is more of the MIT of LACs, as it's got engineering, a ridiculous workload, and is not in the same athletic conference as Williams and Amherst. A few people jumped in to defend Swarthmore's honor, but in my mind it's always been AWB (Longfellow and Hawthorne went to Bowdoin; Mike Dukakis went to Swarthmore...'nuff said).</p>
<p>TG: none of that speaks to the current state of the school. And just b/c people in eastern MA know about Bowdoin, doesn't mean people anywhere else do. (I'd say the same for all these schools). I think Bowdoin's a good school, I just don't think your post proves anything about Bowdoin one way or the other. I think school endowment may have a lot to do with school resources and where students are attracted, in which case AWS and Pomona are the richest by far. But there's a bunch of good schools at which students will have many opportunities to make it far through hard work, I'd say this is true of the top 20-30 LACs.</p>
<p>endowment matters. here's an old (but still relevant look at resources vs. ranking:</p>
<p>BUT--this is not always true. take a look at grinnell's endowment numbers, then look at its rank in U.S. News.</p>
<p>Yeah AWSB are all not very well known. But I think that Bowdoin is certainly just as well known as any of the others and maybe more so in the north east. Bowdoin is very old, it's history much more significant than AWS's-- and it has some very famous alumni. Yeah, but the name doesn't matter much when comparing schools like AWSB, or any other top 30, even, LACs. Getting into grad school or a getting a job has more to do with the applicant than the school the applicant attended for four years.</p>
<p>post 38,
Yet another reason why we shouldn't let US News tell us where to go to college. I think that guy's whole theory is a little bit far fetched, there really wasn't that much of a correlation in his graphing. I don't think endowment should be a factor in the rankings or in deciding which college to attend-- money, money, money... look what it has done.</p>