<p>Hey people! my friend from China has applied to all three of these top LACs as well as HYPS. I think she has a very good chance in gaining admission to at least all three of these LACs cos' she's got truly amazing stats, ECs plus she's an Olympic gymnast representing China. Since she does not have access to the internet (due to the recent earthquake in Tai Wan), she would like me to ask you all how the prestige factor varies among these three LACs, because she has a feeling that although HYPS are internationally famed, she would personally much prefer a smaller school for college, since she will definitely go to a grad school 4 years later any way.</p>
<p>I for one would say Wellesley's the best of these 3, plus it's more well known in Asia compared to Williams and Amherst. But maybe the all-women factor is holding her back a bit. What do you guys say?</p>
<p>All 3 have equal prestige, I'd say. I don't know how you came to the conclusion that Wellesley is the best out of the 3; Amherst and Williams are amazing schools as well. I'm surprised that you say Wellesley is more well-known in Asia. In my experience Amherst is the most well-known. Anyway, prestige difference between these 3 colleges shouldn't matter at all since they're all selective and highly prestigious. The all-women factor should NOT hold her back at all. From a social perspective, Wellesley students have lots of opportunities to interact with the opposite sex (due to the proximity to Harvard and MIT and the whole city of Boston). Academics-wise, Wellesley women are so diverse that she would really not be missing out on different perspectives in the classroom due to a lack of boys.</p>
<p>All three of the LACs are phenomenal academic environments. If all other factors are equal, your friend will need to decide which social environment she would prefer.</p>
<p>A women's college is not for everybody. Wellesley is not for everybody. From my own experience, however, its single-sex atmosphere never felt unusual to me until I left. For those four years, I almost never looked around and thought, "Yikes, we're all women!" The students came from such diverse cultures, academic fields, socio-economic strata, states, countries, and political backgrounds that our physiological gender was one of the few things we all shared.</p>
<p>Although single-sex education differs from coed education, it shouldn't discourage her from giving Wellesley serious consideration.</p>
<p>Thanks for the comments so far.
As to the reason why I said Wellesley is more well-known in Asia compared to the other 2, it's because world-famous women like Madam Chiang Kai-Shek Madelein Albright and Hilary Clinton went there. that's why my friend told me that Wellesley is so well known in Asia. I guess Wellesley is most well-known among Chinese and Koreans in particular, though i never said that Wellesley's the best among the 3, it's just my personal preference.</p>
<p>Anyway, is it true that Williams and Amherst are considered slightly more prestigious, since their acceptance rates are 18-19% while Wellesley's is 34%?</p>
<p>My parents are from Asia and I heard about most colleges from them.</p>
<p>I've known of Wellesley since I was about 7 (when I first started hearing of colleges)
I heard of Amherst when I was around 13 and I heard of Williams when I was 16.</p>
<p>Amherst and Williams might have lower acceptance rates, but that doesn't guarantee more prestige. I'm pretty sure that MIT has a lower acceptance rate than Harvard and Yale, but that doesn't mean that they are less prestigious than MIT.</p>
<p>Hm... plus, maybe, the self-selective factor? I mean, Wellesley's admission rate is very, very low compared to most other all-women's colleges.
I don't know about Asia, but where I'm from (Europe) people are most likely to have heard of Wellesley (Mona Lisa Smile, Hillary Clinton), but really, that doesn't matter... when your friend applies to grad school, those schools will naturally know about all of these schools, as will important employers later. She really should just choose the school where she thinks she would be happiest.</p>
<p>Zanna, this is utterly irrelevant and pointless but MIT has a higher acceptance rate than Harvard (9% last year) and Yale (8% last year)...whatever, statistics :)</p>
<p>haha really?
The statistics I saw said that MIT was like...7%
Anyway.
Welllll then, does that mean Yale is more prestigious than Harvard? ;]</p>