I’d go for Vassar!
These are all great schools. Tough choice! Can you do overnights to see where you feel most comfortable?
These are all schools with which I am quite familiar. If I were you, I would go to as many Admitted Students Days as you can, as this is a big decision and you have so many inviting options on the table!
My daughter (who is a junior) recently sat in on a philosophy class at Vassar College with Professor Jeffrey Seidman and thought it was quite a strong class. They were talking about Kant’s categorical imperative. Afterwards, we went to lunch in the dining hall and a student from that philosophy class asked her how she had enjoyed the class. We got to eat lunch with that student! The philosophy department seems to pride itself on the diversity of its offerings. It is also a breathtakingly beautiful campus, especially the library.
My husband was a philosophy major at Amherst…and though that was ages ago, we can see it is still a very strong department. He worked with Professor Jonathan Vogel, who is great and is still on the faculty. It’s a robust and diverse program. Also a very pretty campus, and I like the dorms!
We have toured Wesleyan with our daughter, though not sat in on any classes, so I can’t say as much about philosophy there. Definitely a very vibrant and creative community. (Lin-Manuel Miranda went there, which is pretty cool!)
F&M is a rival up the road from the college where I teach. I would say it has a more conventional vibe than the first three schools on your list, but it’s a great college academically as well.
It’s also worth noting that Amherst, Vassar, and Wesleyan are open curriculum to varying degrees. F&M has a more structured curriculum, though still with many choices. That may be worth thinking about.
Best wishes with your choice!
Choose Vassar over Wesleyan if you want to double major. Also, the BA in physics at Vassar prepared both S1 and S2 well for grad studies at a top engineering grad school.
@chemusic , what is your basis for saying chose Vassar over Wes if one wants to double major? Just curious. My D was all the way down to these two schools in the end, loved them both, but preferred different things about each of them over the other. With all that said, I’ve never heard the double major rationale for making the choice.
Also, while I would score Vassar and Wes as very similar schools across the board, with Vassar having its own particular strengths, similar cultures and campus vibes, etc., one area I would give Wes the nod over Vassar would be in the hard sciences, and Physics in particular has been an historical strength of Wesleyan’s. Any thoughts of combining it with Astronomy makes Wesleyan an even stronger choice.
@ImperialChimp , I recommend you do a little more research. Anyone would be hard pressed to find much fault with Amherst. It’s a great school. Same with Vassar. But you’re making some sweeping generalizations here that I don’t think are right or even an accurate statement of the rep. I know Wesleyan because I have a kid there … this idea that it’s all artsy is just off-base. I know the Film School generates a lot of buzz, but we knew about Wesleyan’s strengths in the sciences all the way out West, where LACs, especially those in the east, are generally less well known. There are other areas where Wesleyan stands out too.
Vassar has less distribution requirements so it is a bit easier to double major there than Wesleyan. Yes - I agree Wesleyan has excellent programs in the hard sciences. A strong LAC such as Wesleyan, Amherst, Williams, Vassar, etc. can prepare a science student for graduate school in engineering (without an engineering undergraduate major)especially if they get summer internships in engineering. That is how it worked out with S1 and S2.
Got it. I don’t know about the distribution requirements, but I do know that double majoring at Wes is challenging but also very very common.