Yes, I’ve heard a lot of the other NESCAC schools can have a similar feeling, and plan to tour some of them. Is it worth a shot with my stats/extracurriculars? I feel pretty good about my grades, but am worried I haven’t taken enough harder classes. My school doesn’t let us take them until junior year, and even then, there are still lots of requirements that make it harder to take more than 1 or 2. Additionally, I spend quite a bit of time in sports, but it’s unlikely I’ll be recruited by tons of places. This has made it so I don’t have much time for huge club involvement so I am worried that would be a weakness in my application too. Tons of kids from my school apply to the NESCAC-type schools (especially the ones up in Maine), but the only people I’ve heard of getting accepted are heavily recruited athletes.
This sounds a lot like Bates College, where my son attends. He actually applied to Middlebury ED1, didn’t get in, and applied to Bates ED2. It’s missing the super close proximity to mountains, but there are mountains not far away and a great Outing Club that does hiking canoeing, camping, climbing trips all over New England. Some good skiing nearby (although no Snow Bowl on campus, of course). Students are super friendly and inclusive - I think this is what Bates is most known for. My son also loves the food - he’s been to many of his friend’s colleges and sampled the food and says that Bates’ food is by far the best. Finally, the classes and academics have been really impressive.
That’s interesting about the percentiles. I’m not sure where I would find that information, but it is a little tricky to guess how common those grades are because most of my close friends are similar academically. My school does publish the semester 1 honor roll and the “high honors” typically has 10-12 kids.
I hadn’t heard of Gustavus Adolphus, but it looks interesting! Also, it doesn’t look like it’d be a bad drive if we were to visit MN and tour St Olaf/Carleton. That’s also nice to know about the cross-enrollment. I’ve been drawn to the smaller schools, but my parents have been a bit worried about how that could mean fewer course offerings.
I don’t think the south is somewhere I could see myself (TOO HOT!!), but thanks for the suggestion!
I don’t think a huge Greek scene is really my thing, especially because I’m really not a partier at all and don’t see that changing in college. However, if it’s more of a “whole bunch of friends living in one house doing community service” type of thing, I would totally be fine with it. What makes me nervous is the places that have a reputation for the Greek life being cliquey/toxic/just there to party.
Thanks for all the suggestions! I know being a recruited athlete can be a big push for some kids to get in, but could someone clarify for me what exactly it means to be a “hooked” applicant?
This means you have some very unique thing about you or your application. If you had this…I think you would already know.
Hooks include things like…
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Family donating tons of money to a college…tons.
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Having some special and unique thing…Olympic athlete, musician who has played with major orchestras, basically something the colleges don’t see very often.
Thanks for the suggestions! Does anyone have any insight about life in Washington and the general feeling it has? Coming from the east coast and never having visited, the only thing I know about Washington is that Seattle is rainy 
That was just Bucknell, not the others, but note even the most Greek of schools have more non Greek with some exception like W&L.
Oh, that’s so nice! That sounds like a really fun place to be! Does anyone have any insight into how the music conservatory changes the feeling on campus (other than lots of people playing instruments)? I played the flute for five years and never learned how to count, so I wouldn’t say music is my strongest area 
Is there a big divide between people who play music and those who don’t? Similar to an athlete/nonathlete divide at other schools? This is a total stereotype (sorry!! I know it doesn’t apply to everyone), but when I was in band in middle school most of the other kids were ones who like refused to go outside. They would skip recess to stay in the band room to practice their instruments. That experience just makes a little worried that I wouldn’t be able to “find my people”
Oh geez! Definitely not me Thanks for the clarification!
This is many, even most schools. Not just LACs. Some see it as pushing to other areas. Others are like oh bummer, I have to take classes in areas I don’t want to.
Food is something you should experience for your own. Go eat on campus. On Niche, Midd has a B+ rating. UVM a C. Bates A+.
In the Northeast, UMASS, Bates, Cornell, Roger Williams and Post College rate highest. Bowdoin, Wesleyan and Scranton also rate highly.
That’s directional but on visits eat in the cafeterias. Food is important…more than kids realize.
Generally speaking, “hooked” means that you’re fulfilling institutional priorities in some way (priorities could include athletic competitiveness, filling a spot in orchestra or band, funding, diversity – though SCOTUS has thrown a wrench into that one – etc.). Most candidates are not hooked. Those who are get a boost.
It’s going to be hard to find an exact doppelganger for Middlebury even within NESCAC; that sense of ample space in every direction is rare for a private college. You may want to look at some of the more rural state flagships like UConn-Storrs, VTech, Michigan, Penn State.
Absolutely!
We did a visit to Rochester and I was really impressed with the presentation on the curriculum structure, and then talking to our guide. I think their sort of approach may actually be my personal favorite, even more than totally open curriculums, because it seems so conducive to people ending up with cool combinations of minors/majors.
More importantly, my S24 was also favorable on it. Although he is pretty open-minded, he has both a strong science and a strong humanities interest, so it would be nice to be at a college where that was really valued.
In fact, Rochester has a specific merit scholarship program for people with broad interests, the Rush Rhees Scholarship. The example on the website is a Neuroscience major with minors in Psychology and Music. They also provide a lot of college-level support for non-STEM research, which I think really helps students fully explore their interests.
Finally, this is more non-academic, but Rochester is really big into the concept they call Meliora. It translates as something like ever better, but they interpret that these days in a way that is very consistent with the values of LACs:
I think some people roll their eyes at things like this, but Rochester as part of its application process has a Meliora essay prompt, and I think the kids who end up at Rochester are relatively likely to be the sort who actually embrace those sorts of values.
So long story short, yes, Rochester is one of those universities that definitely has quite a bit of an LAC vibe to it. But it is also a really strong STEM school and an R1 research university. So that’s a pretty attractive combination, although of course some people really just want the pure LAC experience, which is fine too.
If there are other reasons, besides weather, that you want to eliminate the south, that’s fine. But Asheville, NC is a 4-season kind of place, but winters are admittedly not harsh (note the mountains in the picture):
U. of the South is in Sewanee, TN and, again, may not be what you’re thinking of when you’re thinking the south. It’s a bit warmer than Asheville.
The University of the South is located in Sewanee, on top of the Cumberland Plateau (what the locals call “the Mountain”). The University’s property (the “domain”) covers more than 13,000 acres, most of which is forest. On our campus, you will find all of the locations for the conference, including meals. On the domain, you will find over 65 miles of hiking trails and opportunities for cycling, caving, camping, and climbing, along with beautiful mountain overlooks just steps from central campus. (source)
Anyway, in case the pictures and weather influence your thinking, wanted to make sure they were available for you.
That was just a reference to the fact that Vassar was once a women’s college. It long ago went co-ed, but my two cents is it has in some ways retained some of stronger aspects of that history.
I don’t have a super well developed sense of all this, but my understanding is one of the reasons why a lot of the “Seven Sisters” are pretty big, and of course academically strong, is back in the day these were the alternatives for women who could not go to the all-male Ivy League colleges, with in fact specific pairings–Vassar was paired with Yale. And to fulfill that mission they needed to be very good all-around colleges, of course.
That’s still true of the ones which remained women’s colleges–their mission requires both breadth and depth in academics. Radcliffe of course was absorbed by Harvard. But Vassar went co-ed, and I think you can still see in Vassar today the positive legacy of that history, just now made available to all genders.
So that is what I meant with the perhaps not-ideally-chosen word compromise–I just meant it has virtues I associate with the Seven Sisters colleges without being a women’s college.
Incidentally, Vassar is another one my S24 is strongly looking at, for reasons similar to why we looked at Rochester. It has an open curriculum, great variety of academics, encourages interesting combinations, and so on. In fact, Vassar rightly claims to be a pioneer in interdepartmental cooperation, and I think that spirit lives on today (this would be an example in my mind of Vassar carrying forward a strength from its pre-coed days that is just as relevant today). Again, bottom line is things like their academic page are just speaking directly to him and how he sees his college education:
https://www.vassar.edu/academics
And, of course, it doesn’t hurt it has a really nice campus and is located in the Hudson River Valley.
So I have spent time in both the Great Lakes and the Northeast, and there are definitely different culture/vibes. A lot of overlap too, but people interact a little differently, think about things a little differently, and so on.
Minnesota in particular is associated with a concept called Minnesota Nice, which is sometimes viewed negatively in fact. But I think of it mostly as positive.
In any event, I think if you were attuned to such things, Minnesota LACs like St Olaf, and Carleton and Macalester and so on, would feel a little different from Northeast LACs. Of course a lot of overlap too, including literally overlap in terms of where the students come from. But enough difference to be noticeable if you were paying attention.
Interestingly, I have no particular preference. I grew up in the Great Lakes so that feels sort of like home to me, but then I chose to go East and in many ways that choice shaped who I became. So I feel sort of like I have a foot in each culture. And I will be interested to see how my S24 reacts–we have visited Northeast colleges, not yet Minnesota, but it is on our list. And he reacted very positively to WUSTL–St Louis is yet another different culture/vibe, but I think it speaks to his potential openness as well.
If it helps, our HS sends a lot of kids to Northeast LACs, and while many are recruited athletes, many are not. Of those, a lot had sports as a main activity, they just ended up either not recruited at all, or not by the sorts of LACs they would want to attend.
Of course that is just our HS, and we have a pretty strong placement record generally. But my point is I definitely think these LACs are looking for academically-strong, and strong character, student-athletes, even if they are not recruited.
U. of the South (if you decide to consider it) does have a large percentage of students who go Greek, but I don’t know what that campus’s Greek life is like. I’ve been told that at many schools with really high percentages of Greek students that it’s actually more laidback and not all party-hardy, but I don’t personally known what it’s like at Sewanee.
Hmm, I think the way I explained that wasn’t specific enough, but I am having a hard time putting my finger on how exactly to say it! I’ll try again, and my apologies if it’s rambling!
The tour at Middlebury felt like you weren’t going to be taking classes within a requirement just to check the box. It felt like it would contribute meaningfully to your education as a whole and connect to other classes you were taking.
In contrast, the tour at Clarkson felt like you would be taking an English class as a freshman because the administration told you that you had to do that. I know Clarkson is more of a science/engineering school anyway so this probably contributed to that, but on the Middlebury tour, it seemed like even if you were a science major, your time in an English or history class would still be super valuable and you would get a lot out of it. Additionally, our Middlebury tour guide was a neuroscience major with art history and linguistics minors which I thought was really cool. It felt like they encouraged you to continue pursuing your interests even after you had completed the requirements.
Whitman in Walla Walla and University of Puget Sound in Tacoma have VERY different feels. Both campuses are charming and pretty.
Whitman felt a lot more midwestern. Walla Walla is in the less rainy, more snowy part of Washington. It is a small town with some cute shops and restaurants aimed at wine country tourists that are within walking distance of campus. It reminded me of Carleton, but Walla Walla is more remote than Northfield. Northfield is a short drive to Minneapolis, where Walla Walla is a short drive to Richland/Pasco/Kennewick (Tri-Cities), which is not the same. It is not far from beautiful mountains and rivers. The students came across as smart, friendly, and down-to-earth— many outdoorsy types, too.
University of Puget Sound is a Hogwarts-like campus tucked into an area of older homes in the heart of Tacoma, just blocks from gorgeous sweeping views of the sound and relatively close to downtown. It is also in the Seattle metro area. And, yes, it will rain.
The students came across as a bit more overtly driven and less cerebral than Whitman’s to me (bearing in mind I had limited sample size). It is a unique school, because it is a little larger than some other SLACs and offers some limited grad programs. It has a unique Business and Leadership program and a very strong music program.