<p>How would you rank the schools in the NESCAC?</p>
<h2>The New England Small College Athletics Conference</h2>
<p>Amherst College<br>
Bates College<br>
Bowdoin College<br>
Colby College<br>
Connecticut College<br>
Hamilton College<br>
Middlebury College<br>
Trinity College
Tufts University<br>
Wesleyan University<br>
Williams College</p>
<p>Also, ever wonder why Tufts is in this group? Not exactly your LAC</p>
<p>Because it is a small college in New England w/ D3 sports and a commitment to academics, like the rest of the NESCAC schools. Having a grad program and a med school doesn't really change that (med students don't exactly play the sports).</p>
<p>And what are we ranking? Athletic teams? Academics? Difficulty of admittance? Preference?</p>
<p>Amherst, Williams, Bowdoin, Middlebury, Bates woud be my top five--I think Wesleyan's atmosphere is so different from the others that it is hard to assign it a ranking; for some it might be the third best, for others it just might not work at all. I would probably rank Colby right below Bates and Hamilton below that and maybe below the some of the rest as well--have not visited CC, Trinity, and Tufts so can't gauge them though I would think they are probably in the lower section of the group and yes, Tufts is a bit of an anomaly. They are all good schools though, with each one suiting the needs of different students and having varying of national as opposed to regional recognition.</p>
<p>Tufts is a doctoral university with 8,000 students, more comprable to Boston College than any of theses. I know sports wise, their probably on par with the rest (probably below Williams, Amherst, and Colby). And I know there is not much school spirit for Jumbo the elephant. It just seemed odd in the group, not being a LAC and all.</p>
<p>I was just wondering how people would rank these schools overall, the same way you'd rank Ivies.</p>
<p>Um, less than 5,000 of those are undergrad, and many of the students are spread out (for medicine, dental, & vet) over two other campuses.</p>
<p>Tufts doesn't have a large grad programme - certainly, they have it, but, for the most part, it's undergrads and the various professional/specialty grads (med, dental, vet, Fletcher, nutrition, Sackler).</p>
<p>It is an anomoly compared with the other schools, in that it is suburban/urban and larger than many of them. </p>
<p>There is school spirit for Jumbo! (Says the alumna who travelled to campus this week to put a penny on Jumbo's trunk.) :)</p>
<p>My ranking would go:</p>
<ol>
<li>Amherst</li>
<li>Williams</li>
<li>Middlebury</li>
<li>Bowdoin</li>
<li>Wesleyan</li>
<li>Tufts</li>
<li>Bates</li>
<li>Colby</li>
<li>Hamilton</li>
<li>Trinity</li>
<li>Conn College</li>
</ol>
<p>Very small difference between 1 and 2;
Very small difference between 3, 4, and 5.</p>
<p>Mine would be:
1) Williams (liked it better on days-on-campus, ice cream party was awesome)
2) Amherst (lots of sweet courses and campus is pretty lively)
3) Middlebury
4) Wesleyan
5) Tufts</p>
<p>I don't know enough about the other ones.</p>
<p>You can't do wrong with Williams Amherst or Middlebury, and probably the other ones, because they are all great schools.
Isn't Tufts much, much larger than the others?</p>
<p>Williams
Amherst
Middlebury
Wesleyan
Tufts
Bowdoin
Hamilton
Trinity
Bates
Colby
Conn College</p>
<p>This is, of course, IMHO.</p>
<ol>
<li>Williams</li>
<li>Amherst</li>
<li>Wesleyan</li>
<li>Middlebury</li>
<li>Bowdoin</li>
<li>Tufts</li>
<li>Bates</li>
<li>Hamilton</li>
<li>Colby</li>
<li>Trinity</li>
<li>Connecticut College</li>
</ol>
<p>I'm sorry, but after visiting 8 of the 11, I just couldn't tell the difference anymore.</p>
<p>RaboK, you do have a point. IMHO, Bowdoin, Bates, Hamilton, Colby, Trinity and ConnCollege are all interchangeable in most areas like campus, student body, style & spirit. Williams, Amherst, Middlebury, Wesleyan and Tufts are all distinctive (again IMHO) -- although some have said that Williams & Wesleyan bear a similarity, at least in look of buildings and campus layout.</p>
<p>How are Williams, Amherst, and Middlebuty different?
Thanks</p>
<p>They are more similar than different. Williams and Midd are in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by mountains, while Amherst, while still near mountains, is outside of the larger town of Northhampton, and is part of a consortium of five very different schools. All three have a strong athletic commitment, but Williams has the most to show for it, with 34% of the student body on varsity teams and nine out of the past ten D3 Sears cups. Midd is known for its famous summer foriegn language and English programs, and this is reflected into their focus during the school year. It also owns its own ski slope, so if you are really into skiing that may be a plus (the people I know there say that they rarely ski). Williams is known for its art history department and on-campus art museum. Amherst and Williams are marginally harder to get into, and thus marginally more prestigious (or is it the other way around?).</p>
<p>Here's my opinion on rankings:
1. Williams
2. Amherst
3. Bowdoin
4. Middlebury
5. Wesleyan
6. Tufts
7. Colby
8. Bates
9. Hamilton
10. Trinity
11. Conn College</p>
<p>
Are you sure you mean Williams and Wesleyan? Although they're both great schools, I don't see any similarity whatsoever in their physical layout, surrounding areas, architecture, environment.</p>
<p>Cre8tive, what sort of ranking are you actually looking for? There is a fairly wide range of ambience and culture at these schools. Rank would depend on what you're seeking.</p>
<p>Momrath, in my visits to both Williams and Wesleyan, I found that the streetscape layout of both campuses to have a marked similarity. Both have state highways and town roads running through them and the buildings are a juxaposition of the once-residential-but-now-converted-to-academic-use, the Gilded-Era-institutional-but-still-grandiose and the post-modern-experimental-but-now-tired-in-appearance all lined up next to and across from each other, either like dancing partners about to do a Virginia reel or about to face each other in hand-to-hand combat. The campuses are drawn out and extended by their adherence to the town road & highway configurations and for the most part lack a central or unifying area such as a quadrangle. Wesleyan appears to be centralized around Foss Hill & Andrus Field; Williams the area around Chapin Hall Drive. Outside of that, both campuses are politically at polar opposites -- and the campus culture of both at marked odds. All of this is, of course, IMHO.</p>
<p>Collegeparent - that's about as accurate a comparison as I've seen, especially once you add the current building craze consisting of Psuedo Old Fashioned With A Modern Twist which will shortly sweep the Wesleyan campus. :)</p>
<p>I'm ranking according to whether or not I'd want to go. :p</p>
<p>Bates College
Trinity College
Bowdoin College
Connecticut College
Wesleyan University
Colby College
Middlebury College
Hamilton College
Williams College
Tufts University</p>
<p>The last four were kinda hard to rank. I'm definitely applying to Bates and Trinity, and possibly applying to the next three.</p>
<p>I'm also in the "Why is Tufts in?" camp. Glad to see I'm not the only one. I've also never understood how Hamilton worked its way into a conference for New England colleges. ;)</p>
<p>you forgot Amherst</p>
<p>So I did! It would probably be between Colby and Middlebury. Maybe ahead of Colby, but I'm not sure.</p>
<p>I think it's a little unfair to have Tufts in the same category as all of the other LAC's and then to try to rank Tufts against the LAC's. It's difficult, although Tufts size wise is small like other LAC's Tufts has so much more which makes it totally different from these schools.
For example it would be pretty hard to compare all rank UMich against Pomona College. Yes geographically they're totally different but this was just a hyperbolic reference to demonstrate the differences in universities; sometimes some are oddballs (not in a bad way) and this makes them hard to put in a category, particularly the NECSAC category with Tufts.</p>