<p>Of the following: Williams, Amherst, Middlebury and Bowdoin,
which would be the best to study history or english, play lacrosse, and have fun?</p>
<p>Which school takes their lacrosse most seriously?
Which school is most academically rigorous?
Which school is most fun for student athletes?</p>
<p>Is there any glaring difference in the student bodies or social scene at these schools?</p>
<p>Any responses would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!</p>
<p>Have you visited each school? Your questions are broad and answers will be based on personal opinion; I would think that visiting and getting a feel for each campus might help steer you in some direction.</p>
<p>I’ve visited Middlebury and Amherst. Both were beautiful. You’re right, most of my questions are broad and would be best answered by visiting the schools. I was just interested in getting other people’s opinions.</p>
<p>Middlebury is the only one of the four to win a National Championship in Men’s Lax. They’ve won three. Both Amherst and Midd have won in Women’s Lax. I think Middlebury probably has the strongest Lacrosse program in NESCAC. As a result it gets a lot of fans showing up at games. Search Midd Lacrosse (or Lax) on YouTube and you’ll find an “interesting” interpretation of lacrosse at Middlebury that demonstrates how big a deal it is there. </p>
<p>All four schools are about as academically rigorous as you can get. I doubt you’d find any significant difference among them. Middlebury is often ranked very high (higher than the other three) in Princeton Review’s “students study the most” rankings. Not sure what that says though. </p>
<p>I was not a student athlete, but many of my friends were and the sure seemed to be having a good time at Middlebury. (my $.02). </p>
<p>These schools are all very similar, but the differences will be most apparent from visits. You’re halfway there - just two more visits to go. Good luck.</p>
<p>You are splitting hairs over academically rigorous, tho Midd reportedly is one of the most academically challenging schools in the US, I can’t imagine the others you list are significantly less rigourous. </p>
<p>For fun, it depends on your teammates, I would think, so again-gotta visit, meet the coaches, and meet the “bros”.</p>
<p>For clarification purposes, I wanted to point out that Middlebury’s Women’s lacrosse team has won 5 national championships. So lacrosse accounts for 8 of the school’s NESCAC-leading 31 NCAA National Championships (all since 1995, when the NESCAC began allowing post-season play). Hockey, on the other hand, accounts for 11 of those NCAA National Championships. Oh, and did I mention that the ski team regularly (and when I say “regularly” I mean virtually ALWAYS) leads Division III in skiing, but the Skiing NCAA Championship has all schools, at all divisions, competing in one Championship. </p>
<p>Thanks for letting me boast about Midd’s athletic accomplishments.</p>
<p>"Oh, and did I mention that the ski team regularly (and when I say “regularly” I mean virtually ALWAYS) leads Division III in skiing, but the Skiing NCAA Championship has all schools, at all divisions, competing in one Championship. "</p>
<p>Urban… to be fair, and I am as supportive as any parent of Midd Athletics… their Ski Team can not be regarded as DIII. They recruit their athletes from the same ski academies as Dartmouth, UVM, and any of the other NE D1 teams skiing in the Carnival Circuit. That does not however diminish their accomplishments in anyway. In many ways they have more support than other D1 teams because of the proximity of the snow bowl. D1 schools such as Harvard aren’t anywhere near a ski mountain.</p>
<p>Point well taken Karate. I guess my only point is that if it weren’t for this unique exception in NCAA skiing, Middlebury would surely have handfuls more NCAA National Championships than it already does.</p>
<p>It’s also worth noting that while Midd recruits at those same academies, it cannot offer athletic scholarships like Utah, Denver, and UVM can.</p>
<p>As an FYI - the alpine and nordic ski teams compete at the D1 level, not D3. The same is true for a few other NESCAC schools, like Colby and Williams as well. All sports are D3 but ski racing.</p>
<p>Actually Konathedog, that’s not entirely true. By name, Middlebury competes at the D3 level, however, in practice that doesn’t mean much. All schools that compete on the NCAA interscholastic level at skiing (as opposed to club sport) compete at the same level. So you have D1 and D3 schools competing in the same events. They also hold only one Championship (I believe volleyball does the same thing). Middlebury competes along with those D1 schools (the Ivys, UVM, Colorado, Denver, Utah, etc.) and does so quite well (they almost always finish the year among the top 10 of all schools nationally, but they’re still considered a D3 ski program - but as you point out it, it doesn’t mean much, with the exception of being able to offer athletic scholarships. It is unlike Hockey and Lacrosse where there are some notable exceptions. For example, Colorado College plays Division III in every sport, but Hockey, where they play D1. Johns Hopkins plays D3 in all sports except Lacrosse where they’re quite competitive at the D1 level (and they’re able to offer athletic scholarships). The NESCAC skiing schools are not granted an exception to the D3 limitations, they maintain their D3 status, but happen to be VERY good, even when competing against D1 schools.</p>
<p>So, Urbanslaughter, if I understand you correctly, Middlebury and a few other NESCAC schools are still considered to be D3 for ski racing, but compete at the D1 level? My older D ski raced for one of the other NESCACs and I always thought, and was told by other individuals involved in ski racing, that they were D1, and not D3, hence the reason for my other post.</p>
<p>Yes, Kona. I was under the same impression for years as well. One of my best friends at Midd was on the ski team and the way it’s set up makes it very confusing. But as I understand it, these skiers, including your daughter, are D1 quality athletes and, while they are competing at a D1 level, they are, technically speaking, D3 athletes. For all intents and purposes it’s a semantics argument.</p>