@westcoastfam - that’s wonderful. Bates’ endowment is so much less than its peers and I would love to see some significant fundraising - I honestly don’t understand how they’ve built so many new buildings with a relatively small endowment
According to the most recent CDS (22-23) for both schools:
Bates:
ED acceptance rate - 47.8% (314/657)
RD acceptance rate - 10.8% (823/7616)
Midd:
ED rate - 42.3% (439/1039)
RD rate - 10.1% (1205/11913)
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It is definitely less than Colby and Bowdoin - although I think with last year’s fundraising it may be $500 million now (hard to find current numbers). I know Colby and Bowdoin were founded much earlier, and were all male until the 1970s, so bigger pockets and more alums in general? Not sure – maybe someone else knows more about fundraising/endowments for SLACs.
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Pretty darn similar.
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This is just one applicant’s experience (in 2020, so pre-pandemic and before most schools were test-optional) but I thought it might be worth sharing. My unhooked DC from an overrepresented city and region applied ED1 to Midd and was deferred. They declined to apply anywhere ED2. In RD, they were accepted to Midd and WL’d at Bates. They indicated that they were only interested in Fall admission on their Midd application. Her other results reminded us that holistic admissions are inconsistent and often unpredictable, e.g., she was accepted at Williams and Vassar, denied at Bowdoin and Wesleyan. My best advice to OP is that her daughter should ED to her true first choice, and if she feels equally strongly about Bates and Midd, and knows that she wants to be done by Jan if possible, apply to Bates.
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Hello…another Bates parent here (and we definitely echo the above sentiment about President Jenkins); son is a sophomore and had very similar GPA to OP’s D, but he was a recruited athlete and was accepted ED1. He is very happy at Bates and notes that Lewiston for him is a draw and that he did not see himself at some of the more rural LAC’s he looked at, although Middlebury was not one of the schools he visited. He was able to get into 3 of the 4 classes he wanted both terms his first year, and found it much easier in his sophomore year as he was able to get into classes higher level classes that are in his major.
He and his friends have managed to spend some time in Acadaia National Park and have also made trips to Portland and Freeport as well.
Both schools are excellent, and I would advise OP’s D to apply ED to the school she likes best, but also to recognize that there is no wrong choice here as they are both wonderful schools.
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I agree with this. My DD applied to ED1 Bowdoin, deferred, and accepted regular (she completed letter of continued interest). Bowdoin was her first choice. We had a difficult time deciding to ED2 to another LAC (and didn’t). She was accepted at many LACs regular decision.
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President Jenkins and Smith’s new president, Sarah Willie-Lebreton, are both Haverford alumni who served as members of the Board of Managers and Alumni Council with distinction. I would have been thrilled if either had been named president of our alma mater a few years ago.
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Unfortunately, that really is too little data for any conclusions.
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Naviance is very useful, but to protect privacy, a high school may not always provide stats on how many students applied if there are too few. So when my kid applied to Bates, there was no information about other applicants from the high school.
The most significant thing about ED is that’s when the largest number of athletes apply. Also, at Bates at least, there is probably a bit more money in the pot available ED for financial aid, so I suspect strong applicants with financial need are more likely to be accepted then. That’s just a theory on my part.
Your comment about financial aid reminded me of one difference between the two schools: Bates is need aware and Middlebury is need blind. I have no idea if this is significant for OP or in ED decisions but thought it was worth noting.
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Thanks for the additional thoughts - I really appreciate it. @Lindagaf , I don’t think that’s the case at her HS but who knows. We do know that a kid got off the waitlist for Bates last spring, and that’s not indicated on the scattergram. @gotham_mom - yes, Middlebury has way deeper pockets which does matter to me as a parent in terms of opportunities on campus, but we will be paying full-ride, so financial aid isn’t a consideration. Where did your daughter end up? That’s quite the roller coaster!
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My sense has also been that ED was also when legacies got their biggest boost. In general, I would expect that any students with a “hook” is much more likely to be accepted ED, especially in colleges with yields of less than 50%.
Just a comment - Middlebury takes 3 Posses (LA, NYC, and Chicago), and all Posse finalists submit applications during ED1, and have around 50% admission rate. Middlebury has also started working with Questbridge, but it’s not clear what the acceptance rate for QB is (for any college, there are only statistics for all QB applicants, and no statistics regarding how many colleges each applicant applied to).
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My daughter chose Williams, but I’m sure she would have been happy at Middlebury or Bates. We didn’t think about the difference that being at a school with a big endowment would make even for those students who aren’t getting financial aid, but the number of opportunities for things like grants for internships and research regardless of need and the resources for numerous events and activities is impressive. Best of luck to your daughter.
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I think one reason why my D was deferred ED1 from Midd was that two classmates were accepted ED1 as Posse scholars. It would have been unprecedented for them to accept 3 students ED1 from her school.
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@gotham_mom - exactly re: funding. I’m a professor at SLAC (not a NESCAC but top 25) and I’m stunned at the opportunities my students have - they get funded to present research at conferences, get college funding for summer internships - obviously you can make do without these opportunities, but you have to be scrappier and potential have parental support, which can lead to inequities among students. I’ve asked about student support on every college tour because I’m so familiar with generous funding.
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Generous funding is pretty prevalent at many SLACs, even those outside the Top 25. We found funding for summer research, internships, conference funding at SLACs into the 100s.
Not trying to change your list, just wanted to let people reading this thread know that generous funding for ‘extras’ is a feature at many, many SLACs.
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I totally agree. And Bates has a smaller endowment than other top LACs schools, but is still very well funded.
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Posse finalists submit their applications with ED1, but the applications are not processed with the other ED applications. The Scholars are selected from the Finalists by a a couple of Posse people and the Posse mentor at the college. The Scholars are seen in the context of their Posse and their Posse City. Once they have been nominated, their high school is no longer relevant. For the College partner, all that they care is that they are getting the 10 or 11 Posse Scholars from that Posse City partner.
The Posse is selected based on how well they work with each other, not based on how these students individually fit into the class that the AOs are trying to put together.
So the fact that there were two kids from your kid’s school were selected as Posse Scholars would not likely have affected other ED1 admissions from your kid’s school.
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Thanks for the explanation. I clearly hadn’t a clue about the Posse process.
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