@merc81 - Be careful, your reasoning does not hold for capital equipment where the notion of “critical mass” comes into play. Capital equipment is more important for research in the hard sciences than other liberal arts disciplines because it tends to make up a larger portion of the research budget…
Also, Clark has more graduating Physics majors than Chem majors, (13 vs.9) which is unusual. Wooster has 4 times as many Chem majors (5 vs. 20). Interestingly, Muhlenberg has a similar ratio as Clark (10 vs. 7).
@scarednjdad1- “well rounded” is a somewhat subjective term.
Based on graduation data, Muhlenberg has a 3x larger pool of business majors, a 2x larger pool of journalism majors and a 5x larger pool of drama majors.
Clark has a 2x larger pool of history majors, a 2x larger pool of environmental science majors, and a 2x larger pool of social science majors.
Muhlenberg has a football team, Clark does not. Both are ranked toward the bottom of division 3 with regards to the Directors Cup.
Clark has small Phd/research programs, Muhlenberg does not. Muhlenberg appears to have smaller class sizes on average, but that will not matter much in physics where the pool of majors is so small.
Clark is a top feeder school for the Peace Corps and has a strong community service orientation.
All in all, I would say that Clark’s culture probably skews more toward the “academic” side and Muhlenberg skews more toward the Pre-Professional/Athletic side, which would be consistent with your perception of a more competitive culture at Muhlenberg.
As far as which is more “balanced” - that is a matter of taste.
From my experience, Clark tends not to attract the “more athletic types”. The one hard-core athlete that I know that went there ended up transferring out. The others were happy. The only person I know who went to Muhlenberg was a hard core athlete - I have not heard back how he likes it.
Not everyone is comfortable with the area around Clark (it depends on your background), but the area is improving. The general feeling among my cohort is that if Clark had a better location, it would be much more selective.
The average net price of Clark is about $10K less than Muhlenberg and they have the “fifth year free” program for getting a Masters degree.
For the right type of person, Clark represents a very compelling value.