What are the Best Nescacs?

College Search & Selection
41

Business Insider lists the following nescacs among their top 24 LACs:
2. Amherst College
5. Williams College
6. Bowdoin College
7. Middlebury College
14. Hamilton College
16. Wesleyan University
19. Bates College
21. Colby College

LinkedIn’s list of 25 Wall Street feeders only includes Amherst and Middlebury.

42

Source, @Burgermeister? This appears to be Business Insider’s current order, based on standardized scoring:

  1. Williams
  2. Amherst
  3. Bowdoin*
  4. Hamilton
  5. Wesleyan*
  6. Middlebury
  7. Bates*
  8. Colby*
  • Footnoted schools
43

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-50-best-colleges-in-america-2015-2015-7

44

@Burgermeister : Sorry, Business Insider, I’ve just learned, has more than one analysis.

45

^
21 Amherst
30 Tufts (tie)
30 Williams (tie)
33 Bowdoin
38 Middlebury

That’s it for the top 50 which obviously includes universities.

46

Tuck lists these schools as “core” feeders:

Amherst*
Bates*
Bowdoin*
Brown
Colby*
Colgate
Dartmouth
Duke
Georgetown
Hamilton*
Harvard
Haverford
Middlebury*
Mount Holyoke
Princeton
Smith
Stanford
Swarthmore
Trinity*
Tufts*
Vanderbilt
Wesleyan*
Williams*
Yale

47

If someone really wants to do some work, rank the LAC’s using the Forbes 30 Under 30.

48

Rankings are always subjective… To that end, it seems that Athletic rankings are a bit more tangible given the historical performance of each school’s teams in their respective sports and number of NESCAC championships. As for “Academics” - it seems to me that the rankings so far used reflect national college surveys and estimates based on our perceived notion of reputation. One element not discussed so far is the uniqueness of the curriculum and the depth of courses offered. The larger two NESCAC schools, Tufts and Wesleyan can offer higher level graduate courses and Amherst also because of the 5 college consortium. So in terms of Academic offerings these three NESCAC schools can offer the prospective applicant a more in depth and higher academic achievement (MA+BA for instance). Again, just another subjective element to consider when discussing Academic opportunities at these schools.

49

merci81-- Yes one of BI’s lists is based on SATs. Another is based on a readers’ poll. I like the readers’ poll because I imagine the readers are in positions to hire new grads such my kids.