<p>NoHo has 30,000 population. Middletown is probably about 2,000 and Northfield (without the 5,000 college students) is 12,000. 2 blocks from the Carleton campus, downtown Northfield has funky bookstores, restaurants, clothing shops, apartments over store fronts, coffee & deli shops with free wi-fi (non-franchise, altho' I hear a Caribou Coffee place is opening soon and there is a Quiznos and a Subway outside of the main downtown). Just like NoHo, the chain stores (Target in Northfield, Walmart in NoHo, and large grocery stores are 2 miles or so up the road - not right next to campus). At half the size, Northfield and it's relationship with Carleton students is a smaller, Midwest version of Smith & Northampton (my D lived at Smith for a month, and now at Carleton for 7 months).</p>
<p>Carleton is in a clean and quiet small town, Northfield, on a pleasant river - the old "down town" area near campus is about two blocks long. A few nice restaurants in town near the school, and a K-mart a couple of miles away. It offers maybe 1/6th the restaurants/shops that Northampton does.</p>
<p>Sorry, meant to say Target about 2 miles away from Carleton - they're all over Minnesota. BTW, Cabela's outlet store about 15 miles S (had to do something while D on overnight visit!)</p>
<p>i visited Wesleyan and been by Middletown a couple of times... it's not a bad town, but definitely does not compare with Noho...also, the students @ wesleyan say they hardly go into town...they spend most of their time on campus...</p>
<p>yes, i love noHO! i will be spending my next 4 years there</p>
<p>"Middletown is probably about 2,000"</p>
<p>The population of Middletown is over 40,000.</p>
<p>Per a quick check via Google "population Middletown Vermont", Middletown's population is listed at 4,605.</p>
<p>'Middletown is a mid-sized manufacturing city, pop. 43,000, situated along the Connecticut River in central Connecticut.'</p>
<p>from the website of Wesleyan.</p>
<p>middletown VT is a diff place.</p>
<p>Getting back to Smith vs. Wellesley... I know this is very broad, but what are some of the main differences in campus culture between the two? (anecdotal experiences are vastly preferred over USNews:)) I generally got the sense that Wellesley was more uptight and intense; seeing Smith this weekend.</p>
<p>D has Smith as her first choice women's college (it will either be Smith or Grinnell - with Carleton as a very dark horse co-ed candidate, mainly pushed by her guidance counselor). Here's her terse take on the women's colleges she investigated:</p>
<p>Wellsley - "too competitive"/cut throat. She choose not to apply based on this perception. The others below she applied/was accepted.
Mount Holyoke - "bleak." She really liked the people there but the campus was too spread out and the location too geographically isolated for her taste.
Bryn Mawr - "snooty." Had a bit of a rich kids feel to her.
Scripps - "nice." She really liked Scripps but has it second to Smith, largely for academic reputation reasons (plus she was offered STRIDE at Smith and Scripps doesn't have equivalent).</p>
<p>I checked with a business colleague who attended Wellsley to test D's perceptions. She confirmed competitive nature and chalked it up to the preprofessional nature of the students - many want to go on to law/business school and are working hard for grades/class rank. Interestingly, after describing my D and her personality/interests she advised not applying to Wellsley, but really talked up Mt. Holyoke. She REALLY didn't like Smith and pretty aggressively talked it down (I sensed a little Smith/Wellsley rivalry but didn't probe).</p>
<p>I've interviewed quite a few women's college graduates over the years for entry-level and higher positions, and generally its amazing how they do follow certain stereotypes of their schools. Wellesley graduates in my experience are certainly the most ambitious career-wise, closely followed by Bryn Mawr. Smith and Mt Holyoke students are more idealistic, generally more interested in nonprofit/volunteer/advocacy work than management or the professional track. They often strike me as sheltered and naive, but perhaps friendlier and certainly very bright/earnest. The difference is kind of like Wellesley's "conquer the world" to Smith/MHC's "save the world". Wellesley was definitely most represented of the group when I was in graduate school at Harvard.</p>
<p>I think there is something to these generalizations - with a caveat re. Mt Holyoke.</p>
<p>I work with a large well known mgt. consulting firm that recruits at the major business/law schools. I checked our employee base to see how many employees we have from various schools:</p>
<p>Smith - zero
Wellsley and Bryn Mawr - a couple apiece
Mt. Holyoke - five!</p>
<p>I have also heard that Goldman Sachs is quite an active recruiter at Mt. Holyoke.</p>
<p>I suspect this will change somewhat over time because of Smith's new emphasis on engineering. A portion of these folks will likely be siphoned off by business schools and be attractive candidates for consulting firms like mine.</p>
<p>BTW, my D is totally unmoved by these statistics, but then she's a very different person than me!</p>
<p>Smith has its oars in those waters...one of my D's friends just got a summer investment banking internship with CitiGroup.</p>
<p>D splits the difference between pre-professional and idealistic...wants to go into government or some form of public policy. My guess is that in 10 years she'll either be on a Capitol Hill staff or in a think tank or possibly a lobbyist on Democratic social issues.</p>