<p>Decision on Vassar and Swarthmore?
If you are going to spent that much cash out of pocket for a LAC… Haverford is the way to go. I would say give it some thoughts… Colby is a good school but it definitely is NO Haverford (Quality education, Namebrand, job recruitment, Grad school feeder etc.).
Best of luck to you.</p>
<p>^ … <em>facepalm</em></p>
<p>And Haverford is no Colby. The academics are pretty much the same, Colby has a strong ‘namebrand’ and strong job recruitment too (count on all those econ majors going to work in finance to keep the brand strong), and as is the case for top liberal arts colleges, Colby is a grad school feeder too.</p>
<p>I just don’t understand why people bash one liberal arts college at the favor of another when those two schools are pretty much the same academically. It doesn’t help anybody because in the end, you’re not comparing Colby to Yale or Brown. You are comparing it to Haverford, just another liberal arts college that has a different culture from that of Colby. </p>
<p>In any case, OP has already made a decision. No backsies.</p>
<p>Congrats on Colby. Great school and great location. </p>
<p>The best thing about Haverford is that when you say the name people think you are sayin “Harvard” the long way.</p>
<p>@ccco2018 Vassar never sent a financial aid package, which was kind of puzzling. Swarthmore rejected me. A fairly big factor in my decision was that I got into the Presidential Scholars program at Colby (no actual scholarship involved), so that could maybe make up for the differences in “namebrand recognition,” “job recruitment,” and “grad school feeding.” It entails being a paid research assistant starting as a freshman, getting first preference on classes, free music lessons as a freshman, etc. They supposedly offer help applying for a Rhodes or Fulbright if you want to (I looked it up, though, and Colby has only had 6 Rhode scholars ever), and also applying for jobs. At first when I heard about the PS program I thought it was a gimmick, which it kind of is, but in the end, getting in to it made it easier to choose Colby when, after visiting, I was already leaning toward anyway.</p>
<p>Interesting, my D1’s favorite thing about Colby when she visited was how much she liked the coach in her sport (not track). Maybe they make a point to hire nice coaches there. 
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