I am very conflicted over which of these schools I most want to go to. I want to major in the sciences ( Neuroscience) and study Arabic and I like the feel of small liberal arts schools. I am a westcoaster and i’m passionate about the environment and social justice. I’m looking for a quirky school that I can get a great education from and also enjoy life while i’m there.
I love Pitzer’s location and quirky/laidback students. I’m a little concerned that there might not be a lot of opportunities for research and that I would have to take Arabic at one of the other cc’s. Or that I’ll be one of the few science majors and have to study a lot more than some of my peers.
I like Oberlin because of its emphasis on social justice and it has a great neuro. depart. I generally like the vibe there but the location is a huge drawback for me. Also curious what social life looks like there…
Wesleyan was my initial favorite school. It seems really strong all around and has a super active student body. My concerns are that during my visit it seemed a bit cliquey, some girls were super fashion and looks focused and it had more of a sports emphasis than I might like.
I really like Bowdoin’s location and I know it is an incredible academic school. People seemed really friendly and like they had a healthy balance between school and life which I appreciate. The main deterrent for me here is the number of athletes and prevalence of sports culture on campus, and the preppy/rich/white kid stereotype.
Please let me know if you have any insights about these schools.
Are any better for study abroad opportunities or med school acceptance?
Knowledge of financial aid would be appreciated as well.
I think the best way to think of the Claremont colleges is as, essentially, a mid-sized university with separate admissions departments. In that sense, it shouldn’t be concerning that you may have to take courses at one of the other campuses; lots of the other 5C students will be taking art, music and humanities courses at Pitzer that their home campuses lack.
Wesleyan is a fairly large LAC and with 3,000 students, it should not be surprising that there will be a wide variety of different people, including, preppies, athletes, SJWs, paupers, poets, and STEM students, all thrown in together. That’s part of its appeal.
A lot of LACs strive for the same kind of appeal as Wesleyan and deserve credit for the number of URMs, first-gens and other kinds of diversity that it trailblazed, but they are hampered by their size. So long as they compete in round-robin competition in the same number of helmet sports, requiring large rosters of male students, they are always going to be a little more jockey than Wes.
You may also want to take a look at Vassar and Connecticut College, two fine eastern LACs without football teams.
Oh, and all have robust study abroad programs; similar med school outcomes and generous financial aid.
Bowdoin is the outlier here: While conventionally liberal in an East-Coast establishmentarian sort of way (e.g., the largest Christian student group was kicked off campus a few years ago for its adherence to biblical doctrine), it lacks the activist vibe that is prevalent at the other three schools on your list.
Like Bowdoin, Wesleyan is a NESCAC school that features a preppy, jocky history, but it also adds a substantial admixture of artists/hipsters and activists. Such diversity might also lend itself to the cliques that you noticed, as like seeks like among the student body. Both Bowdoin and Wesleyan are considered academically rigorous (particularly the former) and socially elite, and both serve as good conduits to graduate schools and Wall Street.
Oberlin, with its strong musical tradition, has the artists, hipsters, and activists of Wesleyan without the infusion of preppy jocks. It is probably the most “radical” of the four in terms of the centrality of a “SJW” sensibility to academic and social life, and the relative isolation of the campus perhaps encourages a navel-gazing focus on ideological purity that might become tiresome after a while.
Pitzer is the least academically rigorous of your schools, despite the fact that it has become incredibly selective in recent years. It is also more West-Coast hippy in atmosphere than the edgy/hip scene at Oberlin. However, enrolling at Pitzer would allow you to enjoy the incredible academic opportunities opened up by the Claremont Consortium, which is–all things considered–one of the best institutions for undergraduate education in the US.
@Delilah08 I would agree with @MrSamford2014 that Bowdoin is the least activist student body of this list. Though I completely disagree that there’s a “strong sports/jock culture” there. I’ve posted on this exact topic before so if you’re interested in an extremely detailed description and my basis for it just search my relatively recent posts. It actually covered the relative lack of activism as well. It’s still a very liberal college (for example, it sanctioned students for having a fiesta-themed party for offensive cultural appropriation), just not one where political activism has turned inward on the campus (as opposed to students participating in activism outside of the campus). For example, with the above incident there were letters to the school paper, not protests like you would have seen at Wesleyan. If that kind of activism appeals to you, it’s not the best choice on this list. But I wouldn’t worry about the jock culture – it’s just not a thing there like it is at some of it’s NESCAC peers.
Arabic is rarely offered at advanced levels at small colleges, so you have to kick the tires if you’re interested in Arabic. Keep in mind that it usually takes several years to master Arabic, whereas languages like French and Spanish can be learned much more quickly. Also note that Arabic has a variety of dialects, which differ to varying degrees (Levantine, Egyptian, Iraqi, Gulf, etc.). A handful of colleges offer courses in these dialects, but most don’t.
Wesleyan and Oberlin have only one non-tenured instructor in Arabic each, which is a huge red flag. Unsurprisingly, Oberlin doesn’t offer advanced Arabic, and Wesleyan likewise offers no courses in advanced Arabic next semester. Bowdoin isn’t much better, with one Arabic lecturer and a new postdoc, who presumably won’t be there in 2-3 years.
Among the Claremont colleges, only Claremont McKenna (2 Arabic instructors) offers Arabic – a good example of why the combination of the resources of 5 LACs does not necessarily equate to the resources of a university.
Take a look at the article “Oberlin Must Improve Arabic Program” (May 4, 2018) in the Oberlin Review.
Consider Middlebury. Tufts is worth a look too if you’re open to slightly larger schools (5500 undergrads).