Maybe Wes isn’t quite as far left overall as most think (many mention it in the same breath as Brown U and Vassar… especially Vassar).
I remember several posters (through the years on CC) mentioning the lack of greek life at Midd. However, they then say that there is plenty of partying at Midd… so while it’s not a Greek party scene – it is still a “healthy” scene.
Wesleyan University, Amherst, Williams, Bowdoin and Trinity were the least apologetically all-male of the NESCACs until 1969 when they gradually began admitting women. But, for whatever reason, the Amherst, Williams and Wesleyan teams took their athletic rivalries to another level and the thrall in which their sacred stomping grounds (including in some cases, their fraternities) hold them, persists to this very day. I once had the pleasure of sitting next to a man in his late sixties at a football game during a Wesleyan Homecoming and during half-time he pulled from his backpack an old photograph of himself in uniform catching a pass. It had been published in his hometown paper. These guys don’t forget.
I think the frat-killing makes permanent enemies out of the alumni who were members. I don’t know a single person who was in a fraternity who would not be pissed at their school for blowing it up.
Always appreciate your historical perspective of these very old relationships.
I don’t think it is. But I think openly embracing the elite is a more palatable thing at Midd than it is at Wes.
And I think Midd would feel more bro than Wes to the average kid. It’s not overwhelming, but it’s there IMHO.
It certainly wasn’t an inspiring or thought-provoking post.
Since the changes recently announced by U.S. News with respect to its methods appear to align with the recent priorities of Amherst College, Amherst’s rank may go up, at least in relation to Williams.
It’s widely assumed that Colby designed its 1950s-era campus to look like Dartmouth’s.
Intent aside, Colby’s Georgian style of architecture — which emphasizes symmetry, brick and small windows — would be likely to converge in appearance with that of any college campus designed in a similar style.
Perhaps!
That being said…I was waaaay more impressed with Williams and Middlebury. I attended these campuses with a dozen prospective students, and none of these applicants preferred Amherst.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
I note according to Parchment’s “revealed preference” tool, when choosing between Amherst and Williams something like 26-47% choose Amherst (I am using their 95% confidence interval, not their much more dubious central estimate), between Amherst and Middlebury 50-78% choose Amherst, and between Middlebury and Williams, 8-23% choose Middlebury.
I very much caution against thinking this means an individual student should “follow the herd” and choose whichever school gets a higher percentage of cross-admits. What this is really saying is different individuals prefer different schools.
Still, this definitely does not suggest no one prefers Amherst among this set. And it actually suggests Amherst is between Williams and Middlebury in terms of “revealed preferences”, not below both. But again, really everyone should understand that all this shows is any of these schools might be a given individual’s favorite.
And yet, I think there is some value in hearing a personal view, fresh off the college tour circuit. After all, there’s an entire thread devoted to just such quick, amusing, first impressions called, “Colleges Crossed Off List or Moved Up After Visiting”, that I believe is approaching its 7,000th post. Clearly, one of the phenomena @Dawkins324 is alluding to is the waxing and waning of tastes in college architecture, the classic “red-brick” or Colonial Revival look in particular. Merc81 may have inadvertently put his finger on it when he stated it looks like “any college campus designed in a similar style.” One would think that, historically speaking, eleven colleges each sharing a nineteenth century legacy of smallness, human-scale and an almost carriage trade approach to education, would themselves look pretty much alike. The surprising thing is how much they don’t.
Not an assumption. The same architect (Jens Fredrick Larson) designed both Dartmouth’s Baker Library and Colby’s Miller Library. Both buildings, which are the centerpieces of their respective campuses, were heavily influenced by Independence Hall in Philly.
I definitely was not trying to discourage personal opinions! I agree sharing those can be quite valuable.
And nor for that matter was I discouraging reporting what others might have said, but on that specific matter I think it is also useful to look at things like broader revealed preference studies. Obviously any given tour group, say, is not necessarily large enough to be a representative sample, not everyone might have spoken up to disagree with an opinion being voiced, some specific thing that happened on a tour might have discouraged people, and so on.
So I think it is important to be cautious about over-generalizing whatever we might personally think, or hear others say they think. But of course it is fine to convey that information for others to consider.
That’s good of you to say so. But I’d be much more interested in your own personal opinion on the subject of NESCAC architecture. Any thoughts?
Personally, I am pretty open-minded about campus architecture. I was a college debater in the northeast way back in the day, and did a lot of weekend trips all over (including to a lot of the NESCAC schools), and rarely did I actually have a negative reaction to a campus (in fact, none really come to mind).
Of course now what matters is how my S24 feels, and we are about to go on our first serious trips. I will be interested to see what he thinks. His private HS very much has a traditional LAC vibe with a campus that has some older Georgian-style buildings, and then some more modern buildings designed to fit that style. I think a lot of the colleges he is currently looking at (and that we will be visiting over the next couple weeks) are going to feel similar, but some less so than others, and I will be interested to see if there is any apparent pattern in how he reacts.
I do think he tends to respond to at least some sort of “traditional” feel. But if, say, he ends up liking collegiate Gothic more than collegiate Georgian, or maybe a mix over a more consistent style, that could lead to a different way of narrowing his list. We shall see!
The main hall looks pretty similar.
But the campus doesn’t have as much white paint – or is it just me? Half the Dartmouth buildings, it seems, are painted white. Half the campus disappears during the winter, only to miraculously reappear when the snow melts.
Dartmouth has been a tutorial in how small colleges must and should adjust to expanding enrollments over time by changing the campus center of gravity. Largely sidelined in the picture postcards we see today featuring Baker Library are the founding buildings that shaped Dartmouth’s early years as a colonial college. They were wooden, clapboard buildings that were painted white and the perfect stage for Daniel Webster’s ode to small colleges everywhere, “It’s a small college, but there are those of us who love it.” A couple of them were burned to the ground in the late 19th century, giving rise to a move to memorialize all of them in whitewashed, but fire-resistant brick. That was Dartmouth’s College Row for nearly two centuries until the pedagogical and enrollment requirements of the 20th century began to impinge upon it, necessitating additional buildings facing in a totally different direction. The decision to design the newer buildings, including Baker, in the Georgian style was in deference to what was popular among the eastern men’s colleges during the Jazz Age.
Closed for review. This thread dates from Jan 2020.