<p>How does Wellesley compare academically to AWS? Is Wellesley comparable, or is it more comparable to Bowdoin, Wesleyan, etc? (next tier down)</p>
<p>You are splitting hairs here. AWS, Wellesley, Bowdoin, and Wesleyan are all excellent, selective LACs.</p>
<p>Ecape, aren't you at the University of Chicago? If you're concerned about reputation, Chicago is probably better known than any of the other schools you mentioned. Most people will know Chicago, but probably will stare blankly at you if you mention the other schools. Except maybe for Amherst.</p>
<p>Not quite sure how to answer that question, or what kind of answer you're looking for. For example, it's harder for a woman to get into Wesleyan than it would be for that same woman to get into Wellesley; that's just a statistical fact. Does that make Wesleyan more prestigious? I would say, it depends on the woman.</p>
<p>I'm interested in academic rigor at LACs, not big-name type prestige. I want a college that will push me to learn the best liberal-arts skills. (And no, I'm not at UChicago. I'm taking a semester off to decide what I want to do in terms of schools -because I realized very quickly at the beginning of the year that I hadn't thought the transfer out very well and not being a <em>superstar</em> student as interesteddad likes to say, I would probably do better at a LAC. I'm currently unenrolled at Smith and UChicago but I can go back to either, and if I go to Smith, UChicago will not appear on my transcript at all. I'm trying to chill out while maturing some. Maybe I'll try going back to Smith for 2 semesters to pull an awesome GPA. At the end of that period, I could probably transfer somewhere that would have more opportunities for my specific interests as a junior if I so chose. I'm just trying to rigorously weigh options while being more realistic this time about what I'm capable of and what would be good for me.)</p>