WashU vs. Bates vs. UW-Madison [Chinese, economics, maybe German, no debt]

College Search & Selection
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I’ve been lucky enough to get into some of my top choices. Now I’m just trying to decide between WashU vs. Bates vs. UW-Madison. Any advice?

For context: I want to study Chinese and economics (maybe German as well?). I wouldn’t have to take out loans for any of these options. I want to prioritize personal and academic growth during the next four years.

WashU:

Pros:

  • Most prestigious option (not sure if this is even important tbh)
  • One of the best residential experiences in the nation
  • Collaborative/Non-competitive student culture
  • Great student life with proximity to the city and Forest Park
  • Known for academic flexibility
  • Diverse

Cons:

  • Located in MO (I have a strong desire to leave the Midwest eventually)
  • The level of wealth at this school is insane, and I’m not sure if I would feel comfortable socially
  • Seems overly-invested in Pre-Med studies
  • Lack of access to real wilderness/nature

Bates:

Pros:

  • Strong sense of community and inclusion (seems impossible not to form amazing relationships with professors + students)
  • Love, love the location (I’m really outdoorsy, so the Maine location is perfect)
  • I vibe with the student culture
  • I would love to live in New England long-term, so a Bates degree would make that easier I suspect
  • Great career center that helps you find PURPOSEFUL work

Cons:

  • Lack of name recognition outside of New England (?) + lack of strength in economics and Chinese
  • Size of the school might be oppressively small - could seem like a similar experience to high school
  • Lack of diversity (racial + socioeconomic + geographic)
  • Limited research opportunities

UW-Madison

Pros:

  • Madison is an awesome college town
  • I would have tons of incoming credits so I would have a high degree of academic flexibility
  • I already have a ton of friends that go there
  • Convenient distance from home
  • Endless opportunities to get involved
  • Easier to shine

Cons:

  • So, so big + lack of community
  • Excessive party culture
  • Classes are HUGE and TAs teach undergrads quite often
  • Have to compete for research opportunities with grad students
  • Regional
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Wow - amazing your list could include three insanely different options like these.

What is your outcome - i.e. do you want to work? If so, in Chinese, go to the campus you want!!

As for leaving the MW, where you go to school will not define where you end up. I live in TN - and have been in CT, CA, and now TN .

You clearly want Bates - and I would argue that Bates has just as big a name as WUSTL nationally. WUSTL is a great school but like a Rice or Emory it’s not universally known - like a Vandy or a Duke. Bates is very well known.

It’s clearly your top choice - and you have to be there four years day after day after day - and that’s where you should be.

You just need to read your chance me to know this.

You may check with each school though for language flexibility since you want two.

UW by the way - fine school - but do you really think 99% of the world thinks it’s any different than Nebraska, TN, Oklahoma, WVU or Colorado??

They don’t…

Again, you have to be there day after day - for four years.

Bates is a fantastic name, fantastic school, and you were giddy in your description - so that’s where you should be.

btw - TAs - you know many of them are better teachers than Profs…but at a Bates, you’re more likely to have strong profs.

Good luck…but honestly, easy decision based on your writing.

It amazes me that people choose schools to apply to but then dismiss them. Bates needs no dismissal - big time name.

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I only know Bates through a friend’s child and it seems odd and inflexible to me. A student cannot minor in English or pursue English as a double major. I would take a hard look at their majors and minors and make sure you can pursue what you want. The roommate is transitioning to another gender.

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Regarding Bates, it’s one only 11 LACs to appear in this list of “best colleges for Chinese”:

Note that the University of Wisconsin also appears.

These sites will help you evaluate these schools’ economics departments:

https://ideas.repec.org/top/top.uslacecon.html

https://ideas.repec.org/top/top.usecondept.html

Based on what you have posted so far, I’d recommend Bates from your group.

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Bates is very well known - similar to Bowdoin I’d say - but there are many schools frankly that aren’t well known - and that includes WUSTL which is listed here. It doesn’t make them any less great or less known by those that need to know.

But frankly, all of that is less important is you are not happy. And at least on paper, Bates works best for this student.

My former VP of Sales was a Bates grad and RPI for grad school…it’s just known…and not just in New England…sorry you don’t.

Not sure about the English major - can’t tell you why one can’t double or a minor but it looks very robust on its own - and perhaps that’s why. But the student isn’t studying English. Many of their subjects are major only but there’s a reason i’m sure.

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My point (which seems to have been lost) was that they may not be able to major in Chinese and minor in Econ or German and I would advise pinning that type of information down before committing. Looks to me like Economics is not a minor.

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That’s fair and I would hope OP has done his homework. This is their majors and minors. I’d assume that one can study across disciplines - and frankly, minors (on resumes) mean little.

Academics | Bates College

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For anyone that has any knowledge of the US higher education system, yes. UW has been one of the top schools in the world for Economics for over a 100 years.

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Note that Bates appears in this U.S. News list of colleges recognized for their opportunities in research/creative projects: https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/undergrad-research-programs.

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If you are concerned about the large number of students from wealthy families at WUSTL, it does need to be pointed out that the situation at Bates is not meaningfully any different; it might even be more visible because Bates draws so heavily from the northeast/NYC private/boarding high-wealth corridor.

You could make the same observation about just about all of the most highly regarded private colleges and LACs, and of course there is plenty of wealth at elite publics.

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To add to this, if you do not already have knowledge of the language, a major in that language and literature can require a rather high volume of course work (even more so for a language like Chinese that is among the more difficult ones for English users to learn), leaving less schedule space for additional majors, minors, or elective courses.

Now, if you already have substantial skill in Chinese and/or German so that you can skip the lower level language courses, doing the intended study in those languages and literatures as well as economics may be more doable.

But also note that if you want to go on to PhD study in economics, you probably also want to add some additional advanced math and statistics courses like real analysis and probability theory.

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But most see a state flagship. Most people don’t stidy this like we do. With a few exceptions a state flagship is a state flagship.

When u apply for a job nobody says …oh Wisconsin. Sorry. That’s reality. If it’s recruited at that’s one thing but in general terms.

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That just isn’t true. All state flagships are not the same. You really think people don’t see a difference between U of Michigan and U of Wyoming?

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With respect to the OP’s academic interests, I don’t think I’ve seen any college graduate more foreign language majors than Wisconsin:

https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/?q=Wisconsin&s=all&id=240444#programs

For comparison, here are the figures for Bates and WUSL:

https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/?q=Bates&s=all&id=160977#programs

https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/?q=Washington+University&s=all&pg=2&id=179867#programs

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Note I said with few exceptions.

But. Wyoming to Wisconsin. …ehhhhh. Yea it’s a good school but most companies don’t note your school. Y an ASU Cleans up in tech or SJSU. Or my son at Bama world side by side with Ga Texh.

The discussion is about OP and 3 schools and I’m simply noting that he dismisses the one he likes based on name recognition and I’m noting that Wisconsin isn’t Harvard. Or to your analogy Michigan.

Most companies recruit locally. Or to an execs preference. The big ones hace target but get their postings out to most.

And today, more than ever, they are even having most apply on line. And even the kid at Alabama (my son) gets lots of calls.

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Since this isn’t a debate forum, I will be done with this after this post. If you want to call the #8 school in R&D expenditures (H is #9) and a place that doesn’t have to give massive scholarships to OOS students to attract them run of the mill, that is your prerogative.

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We are talking about two different things. You are talking about desirability for students.

I’m talking about when people see two resumes in the real world.