<p>How elite/prestigious are schools like Middlebury and Bowdoin?</p>
<p>Middlebury - very elite
Bowdoin - elite-ish (or simply not elite)</p>
<p>The two schools are nearly identical in selectivity and US News rank.
In fact, they come one right after the other in the rankings (M tied for 4, B at 6).
They are very similar in setting and academic programs, too.</p>
<p>Whether you consider a top 10 LAC “elite” is very subjective.
Both schools reject about 80% of applicants.</p>
<p>They are considered elite by those who know about them.</p>
<p>I would consider them both to be elite, but I suppose “elite” can be subjective…like tk mentioned, they both have considerably low acceptance rates, and are both very good schools</p>
<p>That’s a good point, analgin. Anyone who knows anything about LACs knows those two schools. But unfortunately nobody knows about LACs.</p>
<p>That’s silly, bzva74 – graduate school admissions and many employers certainly know LACs, including these two good schools. And that’s what counts, not whether some 19 year old knows of them or not.</p>
<p>I think some would say that Bowdoin is more elite than Middlebury. And that Middlebury is more “recently elite.”</p>
<p>Both are top LACs. Not as prestigious as Amherst/Swarthmore/Williams but just a slight step under those.</p>