What? That makes no sense… you are saying that BYU, Liberty, Pepperdine, Hope, etc. are never tagged as religious on CC? Dead wrong – in fact, I think Catholic schools get recommended more often to secular/non-religious kids than those I just listed. Not sure what you are thinking… but in any case, that is good info for the OP to have on Sewanee.
Lets get back on track, this guy is flying from Montana to look at New England liberal arts colleges. I don’t think he going to add a trip to Tennessee during this trip, or change his religious beliefs during the trip, although he might pray for the driving to be over soon. I am looking at almost the same colleges with my daughter, half over the same break. I would look at the trip as 5 Areas: Maine, Boston, Connecticut, Western Mass, Vermont.
Maine: Colby, Bates, Bowdoin
Boston: Wellesley, Olin (Brandis is close, is primarily a Jewish school)
Connecticut: Trinity, Welleslyan
Western Mass: Mount Holyoke, Hampshire, Smith, Amherst, U-mass, Williams. The first 5 you can see in 1.5 hours if you don’t tour. You WILL drive by Hampshire going from Mount Holyoke to Smith, You will be able to see U-Mass (where I went) from Amherst.
Vermont: Middlebury ( has a ski mountain right there), Saint Michaels.
I would suggest Maine, Western Mass and Vermont… If you have time add Boston, then Connecticut. I don’t think you will have time for New York, although many posters add St. Lawrence. I will have my ears open to hear if anyone from Montana is on our tour. Good luck.
Was this intended as a New England topic? The title states Northeast.
His first post listed colleges in New England and asked to help narrow down his list.
Way off the New England beaten path…but what about Rhodes?
I’m assuming they are flying into Boston? All you have to do is fly over a pond to get to England. I don’t think you can realistically add schools to their trip other than the Eastern part of upper state New York with them actually traveling there, unless they have a private Jet. I have driven about half what his route will be in the last month skiing, it’s A LOT of driving. And I will be driving the rest the same week as them, looking at the same schools, I was just trying to help them out. Adding schools in Philadelphia and New Jersey is beyond a stretch, and Tennessee, just stop.
I interpreting “any other suggestions are welcome,” combined with “Northeast” in the title, as implying an open-ended request for the best colleges possible in the entire region (considering all criteria). I see little value in traveling from Montana simply to see a group of schools based on anything other than their substantive attributes. Montana, as the OP would be aware, is larger than New England and New York combined. The clustered Maine schools, for example, may not all be good choices, but other, less-clustered options may be. Cutting off parts of the Northeast (such as Vermont, as has been indirectly suggested) based on travel considerations would be counter-productive.
I am wondering if the abbreviation “NE” for Northeast got confused with New England at some point in this thread?? Hopefully the OP will clarify
I can’t know what original poster is looking for. I have never felt there is that much difference between many of these schools. Sure, I loved Williams and loathed Amherst on my own junior year trip, but I am certain I would have loved Amherst had I been forced to go there. Maybe there are big differences that people can feel out over a 1/2 day visit, but I am not convinced.
I would recommend the kid pick a few things that really matter like area of study (strong chemistry is not necessarily in the same school as strong math) and EC ( River rafting or XC skiing or downhill skiing or a sport), and then pick the 3-6 schools that really fit those criteria. It is going to be personal. These are all great schools.
Why does anybody pick anything? If you are coming from Montana you are either seeking specific schools that have specific attributes or you are selecting the region. For example, why suggest Trinity? It’s in a bad neighborhood, there are dozens and dozens and dozens of other schools with similar selectivity and attributes in far better locations. But maybe there’s an off chance the Montana kid wants to live in that city. I suspect not. If not, no reason to go visit from Montana. There are others that make zero sense in my opinion from someone not from the region who is also looking at Colorado College and Whitman. That alone tells me alot about what the kiddo might be looking for.
If you look at the original list Colgate and St. Lawrence and maybe even Hobart are good suggestions to add if time but require the trek from Vermont into New York State. If they go to Vermont they should take a swing through Burlington. I “get” the list but some of the suggestions just seem out there. We drove east clipped Boston and did the Colby, then Bates and Bowdoin then flipped around drove to Vermont to see Dartmouth, Vermont and Middlebury, then swung down to Hobart and then up to St. Lawrence and home through Canada and that took almost a week. I wish we had dropped in at Colgate. Dropping down to Connecticut or PA doesn’t make sense. The family already has Amherst, Williams and Tufts, targeted in Mass which is a state I might have explored if one of the boys was interested and we added a couple days but they weren’t so we didn’t. Everything is close in the NE compared to the vast expanses in the upper midwest and western states and we tend to get in a car and drive long distances at the drop of a hat, but it’s difficult to get the timing down to match up to tour times, etc. and dropping south into other states doesn’t make any sense to me. If they do what they are thinking in Maine, Vermont and Massachusetts and add anything in upper New York state they will have a very nice list of colleges to contemplate along with the western ones they may be thinking about. Or at least that was our experience with the two older boys.
My apologies to OP for getting off topic. I should’ve limited my response to the question and geographic region at hand. I do feel compelled, however, to correct the misinformation given by @DoDEAMom18 about Sewanee. There is no “dress code requirement”, there is “class dress tradition” that is entirely voluntary. Aside from pledges, guys don’t usually wear a coat and tie. My D wears nice jeans to class half the time. She’s also not religious and never since she has been at Sewanee, nor on any occasions when I have visited, I have seen anything other than a church service (totally optional) involve prayer.
I may have misunderstood the geography the OP was considering. There is league, The New England Small College Athletic Conference that contains most of the schools that he listed. This made me think he didn’t want to venture further away for this particular trip. Sorry.
Re #31, St. Lawrence is another school with Mathematics and Statistics listed as one of its most popular majors.
St. Lawrence is probably too far to visit on this trip but I agree it’s a good place for an outdoorsy kid interested in NESCAC-like schools. They know they’re a bit remote and have a hard time getting potential applicants to visit. When we were there they offered my student an application fee waiver for having visited campus. My kids, who both ended up applying ED to Bates, also liked Dickinson, Hamilton, HWS, Wesleyan, and Conn College. One looked at Clark but didn’t love Worcester. Both looked at Wheaton but neither liked the gender imbalance (36% male, 64% female). My daughter was offended by some of the slightly sexist traditions held over from its time as an all-women’s college. OTOH it has a reputation as a school with a high acceptance rate for the academic quality it offers. Although they liked them less, Skidmore and Union were on our original lists as well.
The schools on your list all draw from a national applicant pool and offer good need-based aid, so although you will find a high percentage of kids who attended prep schools I don’t think it results in a snobby or entitled environment. In any case, frugal Yankee prep school families don’t tend to be showy with their money, and you’ll find a lot of kid with trust funds living on a tiny allowance or the money they can make themselves with an on-campus job.
I agree St Lawrence fits OP’s D requirement but it is a real trek to get there and I say this as someone who lives in Upstate NY. St Lawrence required a separate trip even for us. We did a spring vacation trip his junior year starting in Rochester (U of R, then Hobart, Syracuse, Ithaca, Hamilton, then Clark, and UNH.) S also did some SUNY schools on is own in fall of Senior year and did a late trip in Oct. to Bates - where he ended up attending. We had seen Bowdoin on a weekend wedding trip to Maine in his soph year and he has no interest in Colby. After the first few days of touring my S was already tired of it and tired of hearing the same things over and over and I was about to strangle him.
St. Lawrence was my son’s second choice and they offered him $30k/yr merit. He would have attended if he hadn’t gotten into Bates. Beautiful campus and very strong alum network when it’s time to get a job.
Layfayette for sure…also consider Case Western Reserve University or Carnegie Mellon
After Case Western Reserve, hit University of Chicago, Charleton, then North Dakota State, and then you will be almost home. :))
Case Western Reserve and Carnegie Mellon are solidly in Midwest- and an 8-10 hour drive (at least) away from many of the other schools on the OP’s list
I grew up a spit from Case Western…and I’m trying to picture where the OP’s daughter could easily do all of the outdoor activities she likes. Nearest skiing is a little molehill called Brandywine…but you would need a car to,get there. Cleveland is a great city…but not for outdoor activities.
Just going to add another vote to check out St. Lawrence. Seems like it might be the perfect fit.
@merc81 yep, St L does that: http://www.stlawu.edu/admissions/peakin-weekend
My kid is at Amherst and her friend group is very diverse. From all over, many races, very different SES. Prep kids are in the mix but so are poor and middle class kids and frankly they seem to me to mix well, by her account.
I agree Smith, Hampshire and Mt Holyoke might be worth looking at since they are SO close.
Well Amherst has an open curriculum too. Hampshire has a different personality but not in that respect.