I am currently looking to do Early Decision at 1 of the 5 schools listed above. I’ve toured all except for Bowdoin. I’m coming from a very preppy, jockey, and stuck up prep school from Florida and really want something completely different in terms of social atmosphere and academic competition. I want to be at a school where collaboration and small class size is a priority, and the professors know my name. Also, I’m not used to being around super artsy, hippy kids (eg Wesleyan), but I rather be around them over super preppy, pretentious New Englanders. I would say I fall on the “hipster” scale at my prep school, but on the “basic” side if I were to go to a Wesleyan or Reed. There are different things about each school I toured that I really liked. I loved the campus and vibe of Vassar and Middlebury (I toured Middlebury and Vassar during their spring break so I didn’t see any kids… Any comment on them?). The academic curriculum and freedom at Wesleyan is exactly what I am looking for. I haven’t seen Bowdoin yet but I feel like I should. And I loved the location of Tufts.
That being said, being in a good college town is very important to me, as well as kids that I can relate to. I want to be pretty socially active in college. I am looking to date and have a relationship in college, so I’m also wondering which school has the best selection of males. However, if they are in any way too fratty, preppy, or obnoxious, I’m not interested.
Looking for the best choice of school based upon what is very important to me:
Liberal mindset
Interdisplinary, small class size, and academic freedom
good looking and cultured students, not too fratty/preppy but not too out-there artsy
good college town/ close to a city (NY or Boston)
If you have any other school recommendations, please feel free to share.
I would never want to discourage anyone but this is a process where reality is very important because you really only get one shot, and being happy when you get an answer is the most important thing.
The Northeasten LACs have very small classes and need proportionately a lot of athletes, perhaps as high as 35% of the class. These kids will apply ED along with legacy students. This leaves about 300 seats and these schools have high yields so they don’t have to accept many kids. On top of that, with a few exceptions, acceptance rates for women are lower.
Your sweet spot is probably the Conn. College, Trinity, Holy Cross, Lafayette, Gettysburg, Franklin & Marshall, Dickinson, Bucknell grouping. Not the ones you listed or Bates, Hamilton, Colgate. Colby has a high female acceptance rate, that might make sense.
It’s always possible, but you need a sensible plan.
As noted, the ED acceptance rate at those LACs is higher because most recruited athletes are expected to apply ED. The recruit’s academic record has already been reviewed at that point (pre-reads begin over the summer before senior year), so that leads to a very high acceptance rate for recruited athletes because both sides know what they are getting. Schools also often tell legacy kids that, if they want a bump bc their parents went there, they need to apply ED and, at some LACs, those kids may get the courtesy of the Dean of Admissions reviewing their file, or meeting with them in advance, and the families have a good sense of whether they will get in.
That means that, while the acceptance rate at ED for non-athlete, non-legacy kids may be somewhat higher than the RD acceptance rate, when you subtract those “hooked applicants,” it is much less significant a bump than people expect. Rolling the dice on ED at a reach school is a gamble for an “un-hooked” students, especially if a school rejects rather than defers.
Other schools you might consider which would be less reachy would be Dickinson, Conn Coll, Skidmore, St Lawrence (big mix of outdoorsy, athlete and artsy, Viggo Mortenson went there, but it is closer to Montreal than anywhere else). Kenyon and Oberlin in Ohio.
It’s great that you have visited already and are thinking about this – keep educating yourself about what you like about specific schools, and then build your list by identifying safeties, matches and then reaches which meet your top criteria.
For curricular freedom, Grinnell, Smith, Hamilton Amherst and Brown are notable. You may be able to find an option here, especially since you seem yet to have found all your preferences together in any one of your current choices.
With your numbers, I would recommend Vassar ED. You probably want to shoot for a 2200+ to have a shot at the other 4 schools. I’d also focus more on LACs ranked in the 15-25 range, like Hamilton, Smith, Colby, Colgate, and Bates.
If Pennsylvania isn’t too far south for you, I recommend applying to both Haverford and Bryn Mawr. They are near one another in the Philadelphia suburbs.
2100 is right around the average SAT score of Haverford admits and somewhat higher than the BMC average – you’d probably be a low reach/high match to get into Haverford and a high match dipping into matchland for BMC. Both are definitely worth a shot from a selectivity standpoint, anyway.
The two schools are in a consortium which also includes UPenn and Swarthmore – a pretty sweet deal if you’d like to branch out and try a few classes on different soil, high-quality academic soil at that.
You may want to look beyond New York and New England for a broader selection of LACs.
Check out Bryn Mawr, Macalester, Colorado College, Reed, Pitzer, and Scripps.
These are in or near cities and seem to have the kind of vibe you want (with better admission chances than some of the NESCAC schools).
“With your numbers, I would recommend Vassar ED. You probably want to shoot for 2200+ for a shot at the the other 4 schools.” (#6)
Note that Vassar’s standardized scores (33rd nationally) have been higher recently than Wesleyan’s (40th) and considerably higher than Middlebury’s. (“50 Smartest Colleges,” Business Insider.)
“I’d also focus more on LACs in the 15-25 range, like Hamilton, Smith, Colby, Colgate and Bates.”
Note that two of these schools are ranked 14 by USNWR and that Hamilton’s standardized scores are higher than Wesleyan’s and Middlebury’s and that Colgate’s (44th nationally) are higher than Middlebury’s.