Looking for advice on LACs to visit

Parents Forum
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<p>Just another talking point: On the same visit S loved Vassar; D hated it. Same tour, same tour guide, same everything. Different people.</p>

<p>I was in the love, love category.</p>

<p>D also nixed Smith, immediately. I loved it too.</p>

<p>She didn't want to get out of the car at Mt. Holyoke, Said the Gothic architecture scared her.</p>

<p>I guess she's a tough customer. She loved Barnard, Bard and Brown. Destined to go to a school with a B. (Our last name begins with B.)(Well, to be honest, she also liked Sarah Lawrence.)</p>

<p>S was indifferent to Bard and Brown. Loved Williams, Vassar and UChicago.</p>

<p>No consistency is there? We were lucky they both had choices among these three. Our girl at Barnard, our boy at Williams. Priceless.</p>

<p>I must admit I loved every one. Well, I am a college professor.</p>

<p>Since they are only two years a part, we toured together, and had such differing reactions one same day.</p>

62

<p>I just want to reiterate what others have said. Nothing seems to nail down the climate of a LAC but a visit. Schools my D loved on paper she hated on visiting. Schools she was luke warm about on paper she loved on visiting. You have to visit if you can.</p>

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<p>martharap,
My DS1 came to the same conclusion about needing graduate level classes in his field by junior year. Kind of broke his heart, as he loved the LACs. He really liked Reed a lot. </p>

<p>DS2 (a soph) is inclined towards the LACs, though he's not sure what he'll major in. (Heck, he's 15.) Loved Reed when we visited, wants to see Bowdoin. He likes to ski and play football (he bemoans that Reed doesn't have a team), loves history, polisci and environmental science. We may be trekking along Bethie's tour next year! </p>

<p>OP, if you are trekking to Carleton, perhaps a stop at St. Olaf might be in order. The schools are nearby but offer different perspectives.</p>

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<p>Counting, A kid who "likes to ski and play football, loves history, polisci and environmental science" should take a look at Williams, Hamilton and Middlebury.</p>

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<p>You guys are amazing; what a wealth of info and perspectives on this bd. Looks like we'll just have to start visiting and be open to whatever.
Thanks to all
Alison</p>

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<p>Would like to say Williams, but I think Amherst and Middlebury are better choices at the moment.</p>

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<p>While you are in the Amherst area, I would suggest visiting Mount Holyoke and Smith. While at Swarthmore, Bryn Mawr and Haverford (coed). Women's colleges are often overlooked or nixed before they are give a chance. They can provide wonderful opportunities.</p>

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<p>The LACs my son and I visited were Pomona, Occidental, Lewis & Clark, Amherst and Williams. (We also visited some small univ's, but he was all about going to a small LAC.) I would have loved to visit more, especially Carleton and Grinnell, but we did what we could manage.</p>

<p>He really liked all of them, but was a little less interested in Lewis & Clark at first sight. He said it looked too much like a wildlife reserve for his tastes. ??? (weird kid)</p>

<p>After considering the specific features of each he opted to apply ED to Amherst, and he got accepted. (Yea!) But I think he would have been happy at any of them, to be honest.</p>

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<p>momrath,
Yeah, one of my older son's friends went to Middlebury and she was an enviro person. That was one I had in the back of my mind.</p>

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<p>counting, one of my son's closest friends was deeply involved in environmental issues at Williams. As there's no shortage of interaction with nature, he had a field day (pun intended) :) The Berkshires in general are a very "green" community.</p>

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<p>Williams has the oldest environmental studies program in the country. It has not progressed to a full-fledged major, but can be a contract major.</p>

<p>DS took AP environmental in HS so he came to Williams with knowledge and interest. He has attended every meeting of the environmental club. His life was changed by a college visit of Michael Pollan (OMNIVORE'S DILEMMA) sponsored by the environmental club and he went to the top of Mt Jiminy with the club to see the wind turbines.</p>

<p>Williams has been cited on lists of "green colleges" and there is a competition, "Do it in the Dark" for which is the greenest dorm.</p>

<p>I am not advocating, here for a particular college. Just adding info to the mix.</p>

<p>So many of the LAC's are just such wonderful environments that you really have to see them and make a list that works for each student.</p>

<p>That said, the responses of the kids can seem pretty irrational. From my own stable:</p>

<p>Williams: enthusiastic yes, I want to go to
Amherst: meh, I go if I had to.</p>

<p>Barnard: enthusiastic yes I want to go to
Smith: -- they baby you and they're snobs
Mt. Holyoke: Gothic architecture is scary and the interviewer asked stupid questions.</p>

<p>Each would have gone to any of these schools, but I am just showing the variety and seeming nonsensicalness of responses.</p>

<p>Both loved Bard and were accepted.
One loved, one hated Vassar.
Both hated Wesleyan.</p>

<p>Apologies to all who revere the dissed schools. I thought all were wonderful. These were kids talking, so I am just preparing OP for what may occur. Of course your D may be way more rational than my two.</p>

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<p>I guess I'll add one more voice to this excellent discussion of such wonderful LACs. I'm a parent of three kids -one just graduated, one in college, and one just accepted (ED), all at LACs from your list. We visited all these schools except Hamilton, and I would have loved to have gone to any one. I think it amazing that schools with such similar, enthusiastic smart kids all have their own identities, but this is very true. Nevertheless, I would be careful not to stereotype them too much, and it's doubtful that if the same kid somehow could go, lets say, to both Swarthmore and Williams, she wouldn't love both places (even though these two are probably at opposite extremes of the stereotype). Please, please try and get your daughter an overnight in a dorm when you visit. You may only be able to do this at a couple places on your whirlwind visit, but this is the best way for your daughter to experience the school. Our kids stayed both on official visits thru admissions, but also by finding students via friends of friends, etc. This is much less awkward than it may seem, the students are naturally friendly, and the schools seem very safe. We even contacted students on CC who were very willing (enthusiastic) about hosting.</p>

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<p>A friend of mine told me her own funny story about how different people perceive these LACs differently. In talking about herself and her daughter she said, "Daughter got into her third choice school, Vassar, and loved it. I got into my first choice school, Vassar, and hated it." Ha!</p>

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<p>Just got back from seeing S at Williams. Went for two visit; I'm off, and he has only one class, winter study.</p>

<p>Visit revolved around his instrument practice, Tempest rehearsals, and broom ball game. Probably only last sounds like stereotype of Williams. He also elected to spend his time with us at the Clark Museum where he fell in love with an antique piano decorated with the name of the muses in Greek and statues depicting various scenes in Greco-Roman mythology. I fell in love with the Sargents.</p>

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<p>I agree with mythmom that reactions to LAC visits are very individual. My son did not like Williams at all (for reasons I do not understand to this day), and my daughter loved it.
Now, my 12 year old daughter visited Mystic Seaport and Williams is #1 on her list. She wants to be a blacksmith when she grows up.</p>

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<p>My son liked Williams when we visited, but --here's his quirky thing-- he didn't like that that road (is it Rt2 ?) cut through it. ;)</p>

<p>Kids pick up on the weirdest stuff. Actually, now that I think of it there was another school we visited much earlier with a public road that went through it and he mentioned not liking it then either.</p>

<p>He also didn't really encounter much friendliness at Williams. Not that people were specifically UNfriendly, just that the people he talked to seemed a little remote or something. I know what he meant, I felt it too. But I know it's one of those things that just depends on who you happen to make contact with on that day, and is not representative of the school. S understood this, and knows he probably would have been happy there, too.</p>

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<p>I actually like that Rte. 2 runs through it. Feels more like a town than a LAC bubble, but that's just my bias. It makes me feel less claustrophobic. Heck, Broadway runs through D's campus. I like that it's laid out like a town, not clustered buildings. But again, personal preference.</p>

<p>The remote thing? I think there may be something to that. S is reserved until you get to know him. Then he's a hoot. I think a lot of the kids at Williams are somewhat laid back, a bit modest, just like the school. It's not flamboyant -- that's Vassar. It's not social -- that's Colgate. It's not extroverted -- that's Dartmouth, and it's not activist -- that's Wesleyan. It doesn't even wear itself and its philosophy strongly on its sleeve -- that Amherst.</p>

<p>So I know what you mean 'rentof2. But oddly, that's just what S likes, a place where others and preconceptions don't overwhelm him, that he can quietly reveal himself and be taken for who he is and he can make deep and abiding friendships. He is helpful but probably too shy to seem extremely friendly to a stranger, and I can definitely see why a kid visiting would want more. My S didn't, but D did. (Well, she wanted more town, and that's another story.)</p>

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<p>I think you're right about the difference with the road going through it being more town-like and less of a LAC bubble, and my son was really drawn the idea of a LAC bubble. If it was me, I'd probably go for more town-like, but he is right about himself. A LAC bubble is exactly true to something about him.</p>

<p>As to the "remoteness" of people, our contact was pretty limited. Mostly to the people in the admissions office and our student tour guide, a couple other people, too, but that was it. S and I talked about how you couldn't judge the personality of the school based on that, and we didn't. It was just one thing that added to the overall... if you know what I mean. But that's not to say we weren't really impressed by Williams. We certainly were. It's like choosing between two really good homemade soups, y'know?</p>

<p>When we were at Amherst it all just fell out a little differently. For example, we had some time to kill before our tour and S and I were wandering around with a campus map trying to navigate ourselves around, looking at this and that. It was early in the morning, and after a l-o-n-g day of traveling the day before. A student walked past us (not too many people were out and about yet) and after he got a few steps past us he turned around and came back and asked if he could help in anyway. And it was just a visit sprinkled with little acts like that; a very warm friendly lady in the admissions office that treated all the visitors like they were doing the school a great favor by coming, rather than like they probably won't get in anyway, which is the feeling we got in a couple other places.</p>

<p>The same nice things could have happened at Williams or Pomona, but they didn't at the times we were there, as it turned out.</p>

<p>And it's like that with college visits. It's lots of little things, partly subjective, partly objective, partly happenstance. And then there's considerations about areas of study and strengths of one school over another in the ones your kid is interested in, and location, finances, campus activities and all the rest. </p>

<p>It's one reason I kept reminding S not to put too much emphasis on the particulars of a visit, but to just soak it all up without a lot of snap judgements, and then we'd talk it all over for days and weeks afterward, and take a while to process the strengths and shortcomings of each place. In the end, although he did get into his first choice school, he and I both felt like a number of the schools (including Williams!) would certainly have been places where he would have been happy.</p>

<p>And, I think you're right about Amherst being very open and vocal about its philosophy, but in our case it's a philosophy that feels so well-suited to us that it was another piece of what made it appealing, I suppose.</p>

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<p>It is so individual and does depend so much upon the day. Amherst was the only school my daughter and I visited where we could not find a table in the cafeteria where students were willing to sit and chat with us. We moved several times and finally sat down with two very friendly girls, only to find that they were visiting students from Wellesley! </p>

<p>As for roads through campus, my son felt the same way as 'rentof2's son. He didn't even like the small public road that ran through Wesleyan!</p>

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<p>If you're going to visit Amherst, definitely visit Smith as well, only 20 minutes away. Eclectic, energetic student body. Favorite intramural activity is arguing. Discussions carried on from classroom to dinner, Houses (dorms), etc. Terrific housing. Beautiful campus. Hip & artistic downtown a five minute walk from campus.</p>