<p>Right I am just so excited. I was accepted to Amherst, Williams, Haverford, Swarthmore, and Dartmouth. I am just confused where to go. I have visited all of their campuses and stayed overnight everywhere except Williams. I have plans to go on and earn a MBA at a top biz school such as Wharton and Stanford. I want to major in History or Philosophy. I am also looking at law school too. </p>
<p>Please give me any comments regarding all of them. Every comment will be appreciated.</p>
<p>It's a "pick 'um". I'd go check the archives. The faculty (especially in history and philosophy) all come from the same places, and the students the same. Some are bigger, some are smaller; some are rural, some suburban; some with lots of sports, some with less; and etc. We will all have our personal favorites and whipping-boys, but ultimately the only one that matters is your own.</p>
<p>welcome to CC.</p>
<p>They are all great schools and you will get a wonderful education as far as going from point A to point b (MBA -program).</p>
<p>I think in the end that it is all going to be a matter of personal preference because there are similarities and differences in all of them. last year my daughter applied and was admitted to Amherst, Williams and Dartmouth and decided to attend Dartmouth and is extremely happy there.</p>
<p>Williams was my favorite school and this time last year I was almost heart broken when she chose not to attend. Amherst was one of the first colleges that she fell in love with.</p>
<p>As parents check in on the threads, you will find parents like Mattsmom, Jrpar and Momsrath are some of the parents who have kids at Williams and are loving it.</p>
<p>Interesteddad, Achat and Momofthree are some of the parents who have kids at Swat, and their kids are really enjoying their experience. You already know at Swarthmore, you can take classes at Haverford and Brwn Mawr through the tri-college.</p>
<p>Because everyone is different it will be about what it is you want and need in a college environment. There is probably more drinking going on at Amherst, Williams and Dartmouth than there is at Haverford and Swarthmore. Williams and Dartmouth are really into sports and Dartmouth is the only one out of these choices that has a big greek presence. These things may be positives or negatives to you.</p>
<p>Haverford and Swarthmore are a short ride to Philly whereas Dartmouth and Williams are really rural, beautiful scenery but still rural. How important is that to you. I think the ruralness is a positve at Dartmouth because they have an amazing sense of community and the students are really happy there. Dartmouth runs on the D-plan which is a quarter system . This means you must be on campus your first and last years as well as sophmore summer (are you okay with mandatory summer school). Williams has something like a january term. If money is going to be an issue, Williams beleives in no hidden cost and from our experience gave a fantastic aid package. </p>
<p>Since you haven't been to Williams, my advice is to attend their admitted student days. Then decide as to which will best suit your needs. No matter where you end up it will be a good choice for you.</p>
<p>All the best</p>
<p>I think Sybbie's post sums it up. There is not one answer for everyone. I know kids who have picked one over the other in every combo. For my son, Dartmouth and Williams were his favorites. I hapen to like Amherst, Williams, Haverford and Swarthmore in that order, as Dartmouth is a little bit too far north for me, and I do love the smaller LACs. </p>
<p>Congratulations for having such great choices! You cannot lose, no matter which one you pick.</p>
<p>Those are all excellent schools. I think you have to look at factors like:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Location (do you prefer to be near a city or out in the sticks? What will travel to and from home be like?)</p></li>
<li><p>Drinking (are you comfortable around a lot? a little?)</p></li>
<li><p>Fraternities and sororities (love 'em or leave 'em?)</p></li>
<li><p>Sports (are you a varsity athlete?)</p></li>
<li><p>Diversity (if you are a minority, do you prefer a campus with more segregation -- "theme houses" -- less segregation?)</p></li>
<li><p>What kind of kid are you? What kind of kids do you like to hang around with?</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Getting into a good biz school from any of those colleges is no problem. So that's really not an issue.</p>
<p>BTW, if I were to establish some sort of ordering along a continuum of campus cultures, it would probably go something like this:</p>
<p>Swarthmore - Haverford - Amherst - Williams - Dartmouth</p>
<p>I think that continuum would hold for a number of campus life issues including location, drinking, frat/party scene, frats, geekiness, sports, ad hoc segregation, etc.</p>
<p>[Miami, seeing as you have spamed this question all-over I thought I would post the same post all over]</p>
<p>They are all great and all different. I have loved them all at one time or another (are you sure you are not me?).</p>
<p>Ultimately, I chose Dartmouth ed. I posted some pictures on the dartmouth forum--take a good look and you will see why dartmouth ultimately won my heart.</p>
<p>Good luck, you can't go wrong with any of them!</p>
<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com...ead.php?t=43909%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com...ead.php?t=43909</a>
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com...ead.php?t=43392%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com...ead.php?t=43392</a></p>
<p>[interestedad does not sound disinterested with his wink and a nod questions: "near a city or out in the sticks?" sticks huh? "Sports (are you a varsity athlete?)" do you need to be a varsity athlete to like sports? That's ok though, I love swat too.]</p>
<p>(notice he didn't talk about music, art, or theater ;) That's okay - we're both Ephs, and both of us would choose Swat over Billsville if we had the choice today.) (there's a higher percentage of varsity athletes at Swat than at Dart. - just no one to watch 'em!)</p>
<p>Well, if a tree falls in a forest...</p>
<p>Anecdotal - My stepdaughter went to Williams and had good friends at Swat and Amherst. She loved Williams, her friends had a great time at Amherst, the ones at Swat complained about the workload and didn't have as much fun. When she visited, she thought the vibe was kinda gloomy.</p>
<p>What great choices you have! Definitely go visit Williams; revisiting the others (if you can fit this in) is probably a good idea too. I do think it comes down to personal preference - none of us can really advise you on this. Go see these schools again and see if you can picture yourself there.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Sports (are you a varsity athlete?)" do you need to be a varsity athlete to like sports?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Sheesh. I was trying to give examples of the kinds of questions he should ask himself. If he is a varsity athlete, then he's probably going to like the schools that place the most emphasis on varsity athletics. If he's interested in being a museum curator, then he is going to lean towards the schools that have the biggest art history departments. This ain't rocket science.</p>
<p>I thought my questions were reasonably representative. Some of the schools he mentioned don't have enough of a "party scene" or drinking for some kids, so that's something to think about. Some minority kids prefer to live in a dorm with other kids from similar backgrounds, so if the school doesn't offer that, it would a reason to choose one of the others. If you want to join a fraternity, then it probably makes sense to consider one of the schools that HAS fraternities, right?</p>
<p>As for "out in the sticks", I've spent enough time in Williamstown and New Hampshire to qualify as a judge. I love both areas very much. Pick whatever expressions you prefer, but these are both very isolated locations. I honestly couldn't come up with a word. "Rural" doesn't really convey the locations of Williamstown or Hanover very well -- particularly to a kid from Florida. It's not like they are just out in farm country.</p>
<p>Anyway, back to the original poster. I offered no suggestions whatsoever. How could I? I have no earthly idea what kind of kid he is or what kind of school he would like. It is totally unreasonable for any of us to propose one school over another without a bit more specific information as to his likes and dislikes, etc. All we know is that he wants to get into a top MBA like Wharton or Stanford. That doesn't really narrow things down very much when you are talking above five excellent colleges or universities that all have thriving chapters of the "Future I-Bankers of America"!</p>
<p>"I thought my questions were reasonably representative...I honestly couldn't come up with a word"</p>
<p> ..the gentleman doth protest too much methinks..........</p>
<p>How about, stuck in the godforsaken suburbs for the rest of your life while trying to get around the volvo in front of you at the next traffic light?</p>
<p>or, </p>
<p>go spend four of your allotted years, out of the 80 or so you will live out in a cookie cutter suburb, at a place many people would view as a holiday resort; or even better, like Thoreau or Solzinitsyn, a person who knows they would find a deeper meaning to life near nature than they would next to a Costco. </p>
<p>On the other hand, you could let the frustrated intensity begin! Your career is waiting for you...and the traffic light ahead of you is just about to change and Costco will be closed in 15 minutes!</p>
<p>Trust me, there are plenty of Volvos to get stuck behind in the wilds of New Hampshire...and I'm pretty sure I've been stuck behind most of them!</p>
<p>You are preaching to the choir on rural New England. I've spent most of my adult life living in rural New England and currently live in a small New England town of 4,000 people that is virtually all woods or open farmland, with one flashing yellow traffic light and not a single operating gasoline pump. I love rural New England.</p>
<p>I'm was just trying to point out that, when comparing five excellent schools like Swarthmore, Haverford, Amherst, Williams, and Dartmouth, location is a primary distinction representing three very different environments, each with distinct pros and cons that will appeal to different students.</p>
<p>For example, if the student is an avid rock climber or snowboarder, then some locations will clearly be preferable. On the other hand, a student who enjoys going to hear contemporary music, be it alternative rock clubs or large venue arena tours, will find other locations more suited to his or her interests. As part of location are three very different gradations of climate, which may or may not be important to a particular individual.</p>
<p>The point I'm trying to make, unsuccessfully it seems, is that, with so little to choose from academically among those five excellent schools, issues of individual student's interests and personality will probably be the deciding factor.</p>
<p>But there actually is a HUGE amount to choose from academically at these five schools, if you choose to look. There are major differences in numbers of majors, kinds of majors, and in some cases, depths of majors. There are really serious quality differences in foreign language offerings (and some don't even offer certain languages.) There are robust differences, as noted, in art, music, theater, and dance, and I'm talking about what exists ON campus, not half an hour or 3 1/2 hours away. These last differences will also impact the kinds of students one is likely to find on the campus itself.</p>
<p>None of these may make a hill of beans worth of difference to any particular applicant, of course. But the last difference, for example, may make for as much campus cultural difference as athletics will. Or, you might not care about either in the least.</p>
<p>Speaking personally, the isolation thing and the athletics thing would have made more difference for me than anything else. But for others, such as my d., foreign languages and music, art, theatre would have been the primary differences (which is the major reason why she chose "none of the above".)</p>
<p>It's not only about knowing the differences, but knowing what's important to you.</p>
<p>hm! i would order them Dartmouth, Amherst & Williams!</p>
<p>Klc,</p>
<p>Dartmouth is, of course, obvious. Enough said. </p>
<p>The difficulty is the other 4 (5, if, in honor of minis daughter, we add Smith--though I doubt the OP will be able to pull off a Tootsie or Ms Doubtfire for four clad-in-black years).</p>
<p>In any case, you were bold and decisive in your selections and I will be no different.</p>
<p>Dartmouth
Swat
Smith (...with the above recognized provisos)
Haverford
Williams
and
Amherst (only if you must)</p>
<p>
[quote]
But there actually is a HUGE amount to choose from academically at these five schools, if you choose to look. There are major differences in numbers of majors, kinds of majors, and in some cases, depths of majors.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>This is true for some college students, depending on their interests. But, this particular college student stated that he plans to major in history or philosophy and go on to a "good" MBA program or law school. In my opinion, for those majors and those career paths, any of these five schools could suffice quite nicely. We are talking "bread, eggs, and milk" staples at any of these upper-crust schools, not whether the international aisle stocks masa harina or a good selection of Thai fish sauces.</p>
<p>Any differences in such a standard academic path would be buried in the noise relative to much larger issues of campus culture, location, athletics, fraternities, party scene, and so on and so forth. In other words, the meaningful difference between, for example, Wiliams and Swarthmore for a pre-MBA history major has nothing whatsoever to do with the quality of the history professors!</p>
<p>I could tell him that only one of the colleges on his list is in the top ten in per capita production of History PhDs. Or is the top school in the United States in per capita production of PhDs in Econ and Poli Sci. But, do I think that is going to really mean anything to a history/MBA career path? No.</p>
<p>The only academic argument that would seem valid to me in this particular case would be the fairly obvious differences between a small college and a reasearch university (class size, TAs, etc.). These differences should be pretty apparent to any applicant with an "Ivy-league caliber" intellect who has researched colleges. Whether these issues are important is a different question.</p>
<p>InterestedDad:</p>
<p>I don't think there are TAs in any of the schools the OP listed, are there?</p>
<p>miamiboy,</p>
<p>Wow, congrats on the bunch of great acceptances! It will be a hard choice for you. I have heard some comments from those at Swat that business may be less favored as a career choice . . .some students have been aware of an anti-business attitude. Nevertheless, it is a place where the core curriculum will provide you with a wonderful base of knowledge for business, law, or whatever you seek to do. (People do frequently change their minds once college begins.) </p>
<p>If you would like to read of Swat's effort to demonstrate its value to the world of business, (and about its potential bias) read the following article from the June, 2004, issue of the Alumni Bulletin. <a href="http://www.swarthmore.edu/bulletin/index.php?id=118%5B/url%5D">http://www.swarthmore.edu/bulletin/index.php?id=118</a></p>