<p>I am extremely interested in Trinity College, I visited the school and fell in love with it. The campus is beautiful and the students were all extremely friendly. All and all, I love the school. My only concern is that I worry, after reading about the school versus other schools at which I am considering (Bowdoin, Amherst, Williams), that Trinity is not as strong academically. If academic prestige played no role in the matter, Trinity would be my choice hands down for ED, but sadly it is often regarded as vastly inferior to the other schools I am considering. Any thoughts on this? Is a Trinity education on par with that of the higher ranked NESCACs?</p>
<p>Trinity is not on Bowdoin/Amherst/William level but if you love it, apply ED. Prestige isn’t everything. I’m speaking as someone who will be a freshman at Bowdoin in two weeks.</p>
<p>@collegebound752 will it hurt me in the future if I chose it over the other 3?</p>
<p>Trinity has a great faculty and is well respected among graduate schools. Trinity has often struggled with being the Avis “we try harder” college. Because of that, the education you receive may be as good if not better then the others. You will have a close relationship with your faculty and small classes. I only had one class that had more then 20 students in it. Sometimes you need to go with your gut feeling about a college. I chose Trinity College over The College of William & Mary and Yale. I may regret a bit not having the prestige that Yale would have provided, but I do not regret going to Trinity. Most people do not know, Bowdoin/Amherst/Williams any more then they know Trinity. </p>
<br>
<br>
<p>By whom? </p>
<p>Gallydon2, I have to ask- three days ago you were intent on applying ED to Middlebury and a month ago your absolute dream school was Tufts. Now you’re targeting Trinity, Bowdoin, Amherst and Williams. Are you sure you’re ready to apply ED? I ask not to be snarky, but out of concern that your feelings will have changed again by the spring. Why not leave yourself some flexibility?</p>
<p>People definitely know Bowdoin/Amherst/Williams more than they know Trinity @Marie1024. Those three schools are top 4 liberal arts schools. That doesn’t mean some people don’t also know of Trinity. I don’t think it’ll “hurt” OP to choose Trinity. Don’t worry about choices before you’ve gotten accepted, it’s not worth the stress. But you should RD to all if you’re that unsure. </p>
<p>I totally agree with @collegebound752, you do not sound like you are certain of your first choice. I would also put off the stress of which one to select until after you receive your acceptance letters. One major decision at a time! Good luck!</p>
<p>We visited Trinity last year (after seeing Williams, Middlebury, and Wesleyan the same week) and liked Trinity better hands down! He just liked the campus and people better. Also, he liked the idea of being in Hartford for internship opportunities. Lastly, Trinity has a very strong alumni network, particularly for Wall Street. Again, none of this is a knock on the other schools, this is just his view on some strong positives for Trinity.</p>
<p>@collegebound752 Amherst, Williams, and Bowdoin are “top 4” schools by a certain publication’s ranking, which you (nor anyone else) should take as fact. Sure, Trinity’s SAT average is lower, it’s endowment much smaller, but it provides a fine education. And no, the general public has not heard of Amherst any more than it has heard of Trinity. You tell a person on the street about Amherst, and they will ask how you about UMass Amherst. Tell them Bowdoin and they’ll give you a blank stare. Williams will probably be interpreted as William and Mary. And don’t get me started on Wesleyan or Haverford.</p>
<p>I can tell you as a parent of a recent grad that seniors coming out of Trinity are highly regarded and are getting the same jobs as all of the other NESCAC grads; they have a particularly strong record getting finance and Wall Street jobs due to their strong Econ major and alumni network. Additionally, Trinity is a top producer of Fulbright Scholars and does well getting students into grad schools. There are many, many opportunities at Trinity; as Londondad pointed out, Trinity has a strong internship program made rich by being in the state capital. Trinity also has a number of their own outstanding study abroad programs. The rankings have not been kind to Trinity recently, but that is no reason to overlook a strong and distinguished school. Anyone who falls in love with Trinity should follow their bliss. If they work hard and do well there, they will go far. </p>
<p>Hi there! As a current senior at Trinity, I can tell you that my education at Trinity has been top-notch! When I tell people that I am a student at Trinity, I get an overwhelmingly impressed vibe from adults and other students alike. What sets Trinity apart from other NESCAC schools is its location in a city environment. Students at Trinity take advantage of the many internship opportunities offered through the school in the city of Hartford to get that work experience that other NESCAC students are not getting before graduation. These opportunities, plus the intensively rigorous academic curriculum, set Trinity grads apart from other NESCAC grads when looking for jobs. </p>
<p>DD interviewed in August 2013. We had never visited and we were incredibly impressed. As someone up thread said, follow your bliss! To hell with what everyone else thinks.</p>
<p>“As good as?” A fair enough question. I’m sure Trinity is better than at least some NESCACs, in at least some ways, for at least some students. If you want to take points off the school for being easier to get in to, then Trinity would fall short of most of the other NESCACs. However, if the overall academic atmosphere at Trinity is excellent, then the relative positions of the Colleges are less relevant. So look as closely at the school as possible to determine whether it will match your expectations. </p>
<p>Btw, did USNWR (2015 edition) provide an accurate figure for Trinity’s freshman in the top 10% of their high school class? The figure, 23%, is substantially below that of other recent years.</p>
Would just like to add my two cents. My freshman year, a relative of mine set me up with an internship at US News and World Report. I am a science guy so it did not really fit in my plans but it was the only thing I could get at the time so I took it. When I got to the office in D.C. my boss said something to me that I will never forget. He asked me where I went to school and I told him Trinity and he was surprised the organization hired me as an intern. I asked him why and he told me that my school was on their blacklist. Apparently, there is something called the Annapolis Group which in 2007 published a letter asking the presidents of colleges not to participate in certain aspects of college rankings. The Annapolis Group is very critical of the process and believe the system is relatively corrupt and gives to much power to these publications. This ‘President’s Letter’ currently has the signatures of 130 colleges and Trinity is among them and all 130 of these schools are on US News and World Report’s hiring blacklist. I think this sort of reveals that the rankings should not be treated as Truth with a capital T and there are a lot of politics that go into these rankings and they are not to be entirely trusted. This was 3 years ago so there is a possibility things have changed, but I think OP should attend a school they like and take these rankings with a healthy grain of salt.
I’m doubtful that US News’s snit over the Annapolis group (or this particular editor’s) has much of an effect on the rankings. Every school in the USNWR top 30 liberal arts colleges, with the exception of #13 (US Naval Academy), #24 (US Military Academy) and #27 (US Air Force Academy) is a member of the Annapolis group.
http://annapolisgroup.org/member-colleges
http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-liberal-arts-colleges/page
What you say about every top liberal arts college being a member is untrue. Here’s the President’s Letter, which, as you can see at the bottom, Trinity signed, but plenty of top schools, such as Amherst, Bates and so on are missing:
http://www.educationconservancy.org/presidents_letter.html
With a few exceptions, such as Kenyon, Lafayette, and Holy Cross, every other signatory as you can see is less prestigious than Trinity.
I graduated from Trinity in 2010, and I clearly remember it being one spot removed from Oberlin back in 2004-2005 when I started looking at colleges.
A distinction should be made at this point between the Annapolis Group and the Presidents Letter referred to above. The Presidents Letter, though signed by many college presidents within the Annapolis Group, does not appear to be an official document of the Annapolis Group.
In effect, @queens2010, you have introduced something new to the discussion. But the basis for @Sue22’s comment is not “untrue.”
Might your boss have been mistaken? You were, after all, hired. Schools don’t like complying to those lists and they often minimize their importance-except when they are boasting on their web pages about being given a good ranking on those lists. No one list is the be all and end all. Look at the factors that are used to rank order. Look at different lists. Find those that judge the schools on factors that are important to you.
Compared to some of the others, and certainly compared to Williams, Trinity has a wealthy frat boy image. But that may be just its image. And if you fit that demographic, it may be a better fit for you then others.