How do the LACs rank in terms of nerdiness? Like where would you find the highest number of kids playing One Night Werewolf or Catan instead of partying? lol
Amherst
Carleton
Harvey Mudd
Haverford
Pomona
Swarthmore
Ranking them on a “nerdiest” scale, I’d say it goes something like:
- Harvey Mudd.
- The rest.
Added: From the school’s admissions blog, written by a tour guide:
The Settlers of Catan is a really popular game here on campus. In fact, the DoS Mucachos (the Dean of Students committee/group that’s responsible for Wednesday Nighters, movie nights, and lots of goofy relay races and competitions) had a Settlers of Catan tournament this past semester. Participants got a t-shirt that says “I settled” on the front (aside: this is not the shirt that you should wear when going out on a date! What you don’t see on a tour: Mudders playing games | Admission and Financial Aid Blog
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Too funny. I would totally pick Harvey Mudd for him myself. He thinks the core is too extensive, which it kind of is (and he has a slight preference for cooler weather). He even got a nerdy deck of cards from Harvey Mudd in the mail today. We toured Amherst this weekend, and it seemed a little sporty and “cool” to me? S22 thinks he might like Haverford the best, but I don’t know what the student vibe is. Are there nerds there?
If you dropped someone on Swats campus without driving in, they might never know the Blue Route is on the edge of campus. You can’t hear or see it from the developed part of campus, and to find it you’d have to hike through the woods and cross Crum Creek.
@groundhog74 - pound for pound…Swarthmore is nerdier than Haverford.
Edit - Here’s something I never really understood the excitement about at Swat… Ninja Grams
Primal Scream is also a major event on campus.
Last one…the McCabe Mile
Back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, Haverford held primal scream during customs week. And while Swat may be nerdier, at least until recently, Haverford had a housing option called “Nerd House,” and the newish, active maker space seems like nerd-heaven to this self-professed nerd. YMMV
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I think at any academically rigorous liberal arts college there are bound to be a percentage of nerdy kids and kids who aren’t into the stereotypical college partying scene, but I don’t know enough about life at the non-California schools to provide much beyond stereotypes. That said, I’m not surprised with your son’s impression of Amherst. My opinion may be outdated, but to me Haverford also has a “sporty” vibe, as do many liberal arts colleges. Any time you have a small student body and lots of athletic teams, this can happen.
Pomona has plenty of nerdy kids and very little of the East Coast cool vibe. The kids seem quite content in their nerdiness and many have no interest in the traditional college party experience, but it is not pointy-nerdy like Harvey Mudd. There is something about being a liberal arts school with 100% math and science majors that really brings out the best of nerdiness.
As for the Core at Harvey Mudd, your son may already know this, but the school is in the process of modifying the requirements, and starting next year there will be two less required courses.
I doubt it will sway your son, but my understanding is that the core curriculum is designed to prepare the students for success in graduate programs, as 2/3 of the students attend graduate school and over 40% of graduates are awarded Ph.D.s (the highest percentage of any school.)
While Brown has some streets dividing some parts of the campus (the most notable separation being the former Pembroke College campus), the whole setting on College Hill is that of a beautiful and historic neighborhood. And, central campus, which represents a good chunk of the total and contains almost all of what most people think of when they think of Brown (Van Wickle Gate, etc.) is quite contained - there’s literally a wrought iron gate surrounding it.
All in all, Brown’s campus has a remarkable feeling of being “removed” from heavy urban given its proximity to downtown Providence. Compare and contrast Penn, where you always feel the city no matter where you are on campus.
As a general matter, it is well known that LACs do quite well in producing PhDs, often better on a per capita basis than some of the big name research universities. My D graduated from a LAC, did a little more advanced math as a post bacc at another LAC, and didn’t have any problems whatsoever.
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Our very funny speaker during our Carleton tour described them as being nerdy before it was cool to be be nerdy. Love Carleton, and it is supposed to be very good for Sciences, and, I would assume, Math? One off the wall suggestion if you want a hardcore Math school would be Waterloo up in Canada. Extremely challenging and rigorous. Campus is self contained in a smaller city. Excels in Engineering, CS, Math, Actuarial Science. Nerd central.
Oops…just realized that Waterloo is far too big to be under consideration.
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I’m not really a fan of rankings/lists…but here’s one for 2022 Best General Mathematics Schools.
Not to be a nitpicker, but I’m going to be a nitpicker: College Factual has some of the most head-scratching ranking lists out there.
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So in general, how do Haverford, Swarthmore, and Pomona compare? They all have good math departments and are part of a consortium, but what would you say is unique to each of them? Or pros and cons? Thanks.
Here’s a post from @Corinthian discussing Pomona and Swarthmore, from a thread that discussed all three schools. It might be worth checking out the thread.
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In addition to my post from another thread that was just quoted by @mtmind, I have a comment about the 5C consortium vs the Quaker Consortium. My D said that because the 5C’s are all on one contiguous walkable “campus,” you see and interact with a lot more students all day, whether it’s at the library or dining halls, or joint social activities. You run into students from the other colleges all the time even if they’re not in your classes. That felt different to her than the Swat campus where she would just encounter a few Haverford or Bryn Mawr students. As a caveat, my D graduated in 2019 so her experience was all pre-pandemic and Covid restrictions may have affected the consortium experience.
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Thank you. That is helpful. What part of the country are you from? I know there is the East Coast vs West Coast vibe. S22 has always lived in the Midwest. Is Pomona a pretty campus? I’ve heard that Harvey Mudd is quite ugly.
We’re from AZ. The Pomona campus is quite pretty. I’m sure you can find lots of video tours. Harvey Mudd has some kind of ugly buildings. Each one of the 5C’s has a slightly different style of architecture. Here’s a couple articles from the student newspaper about it and if you click on the author’s name there’s one for each college: