<p>I am fairly familiar with Wheaton and admittedly unfamiliar with Stonehill, except for a few posts I've read on these boards. From the posts, the schools sound like two peas in a pod: small LACs (Stonehill is a bit larger), pretty campuses, each located in a small town b/w Boston and Provid, students often described as preppie-jocks, SAT optional and pretty much equally selective admissions. </p>
<p>Are there any significant difference between the two schools? (I haven't gotten around to comparing the course catalogues, geneds, etc.) </p>
<p>And why does Stonehill seem to be off the radar (few of the parents in my circle are familiar with Stonehill)?</p>
<p>Why is Stonehill less well known? Probably because it is a Catholic college and thus attracts a more self-selected applicant pool? It has to compete with better known Catholic colleges located in MA: BC and Holy Cross. Stonehill is on the largist side for a LAC.
I don’t know enough about their academics to comment.</p>
<p>One obvious difference is that Stonehill is a Catholic college, while Wheaton is non-sectarian. Also, Stonehill is a bit larger, and has a more local market (nearly 50% of students are in-state, compared to just 29% for Wheaton). Speaking very roughly, you could say that Stonehill is a fallback option for kids applying to BC or Holy Cross, while Wheaton is a fallback option for kids applying to Skidmore or Connecticut College.</p>
<p>EDIT: I’m sorry, I don’t mean to imply for one second that there aren’t plenty of students who apply to both of these schools for their own sake–I was just trying to give a rough sense of what I perceive to be the characteristic differences between their applicant pools, in terms of schools that people may be more familiar with.</p>
<p>Stonehill is also a fairly new college, it just started classes in 1948, which is another reason people haven’t “heard” of it. I toured it with S’07 and was quite impressed. It was very student oriented, and they were in the midst of doing some building (I believe a new science building opened last year or the year before?)</p>
<p>I know several kids who go/went there and were quite happy. However I will say that we are less than 1 hour from Stonehill, and it does have a little bit of a “suitcase” reputation - that a fair number of kids do leave on weekends, probably because so many of them are local. However they did seem to have lots of activities and such scheduled and I don’t think that everyone goes home every weekend. I recall there being a very large and active “club” sports program, too.</p>
<p>Stonehill is reasonably priced, compared to BC, Holy Cross, and even Providence. They offered S their honors program and quite a bit of merit money. He decided he wanted to go further from home, so he turned it down.</p>
<p>Fun fact about Stonehill: It is located on the former Ames family estate. The Ames family made their fortune making/selling shovels. Stonehill boasts the only Shovel Museum in the country. Seriously. </p>
<p>Also, the tourguide told us the story of how Stonehill came to be on this estate. The Ames family was a fine old Protestant family, until one of the sons married a Catholic. This daughter-in-law never really felt accepted, and after enough people died and she inherited the property, she decided to “pay back” the Ames family by giving the estate to the Congregation of the Holy Cross, the Catholic group that runs both Notre Dame and, now, Stonehill.</p>
<p>Surprisingly, one of the few things I knew about Stonehill was the shovel museum (mention by a CC poster on one of the visit threads).</p>
<p>As for Stonehill being Catholic, do you mean to suggest that the student body and the admin are a bit more conservative than at a comp secular school, like Wheaton?</p>
<p>I live a mile from Stonehill and go there for lots of events. The campus is beautiful and the students seem happy and engaged. One thing to think about- Stonehill has a large number of required courses, including religion. I’d look over the requirements carefully and see if your student finds them appealing or suffocating.</p>
<p>My neighbor is a very happy senior at Stonehill. She is some sort of hard science major and has been able to obtain lots of research experience while at school. She stays on campus and usually only visits home during breaks even though she lives about 1 1/2 hours away. Her younger sibling is a hs senior, undecided liberal arts applicant and both Stonehill and Wheaton are high on her list.</p>