Middlebury
Hamilton
Colgate
Bowdoin
I know what you are all going to say…prestige doesn’t matter and all that stuff. However, I really like these schools and I want to apply to them so I need a way to convince my very asian parents that these schools are really good. Also, I think that comparing these LACs with traditional universities will be fun (:
Three of these schools appear in a statistically based (standardized scoring) ranking that combines LACs and universities (Bowdoin does not appear, either as a consequence of their test optional policy or as an oversight):
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-50-smartest-colleges-in-america-2016-10
Colgate (50) ties with Brandeis.
Middlebury (46) falls between CWRU (47) and UMichigan, Boston College and USC (tied at 43).
Hamilton (38) ranks a few places higher than UC-Berkeley (42).
When considering these two classes, I’d regard LACs as the more traditionally collegiate alternative.
OP, my husband is a foreigner and initally was not on board with our D attending a LAC. I finally convinced him by showing him LinkedIn profiles of various LACs, and by using the websites college measures and payscale. In terms of career opportunities, these colleges have no problem measuring up to or exceeding those of universities. Perhaps more importantly, LACs offer something larger universities mostly don’t, which is that classes are taught by professors, students are easily able to get to know their professors, there are smaller class sizes, plenty of research opportunties for undergrads, and a more intimate campus in which students get to know their classmates. You will not just be a face in a crowd.
Anyway, I will try, probably not very well, to compare.
Bowdoin, might be similar to Yale.
Hamilton, might be like Cornell.
Colgate might be like Georgetown.
Middlebury might be like Tufts.
All four of those colleges are great, you won’t go wrong with any of them.
Totally guessing. Need an expert. Calling @MYOS1634 , who is a font of knowledge.
Middlebury is similar to Georgetown (languages, politics, investment banking ;p)
Hamilton would be Princeton (distinguished, writing /research)
Colgate would be Cornell (rural, lots of preprofessional students)
Bowdoin would be Northwestern??? (smart athletes?)
Not sure of your career goals, but this might help as a general source of info on success in grad school admission for LAC graduates:
https://www.reed.edu/ir/phd.html
It is on the Reed website, and in fact I don’t see much representation from your list of schools. But the basic idea that an LAC is great preparation for grad school is the point.
How about comparing Fulbright scholars? LACs, given their small size, are heavily represented in scholarships awarded. Harvard recieved 31, for 139 applications. Tiny Pitzer college received 21, out of 86 applications. My daughter’s LAC recieved 18 out of 50. These colleges have less than 2000 students, yet are nearly on par with the big boys that have much larger student populations. If that doesn’t impress your parents, nothing will. https://us.fulbrightonline.org/uploads/files/top_producing/2015-16/BA.pdf
Prestige is a loaded term, especially when comparing LACs and research universities. Also, lay prestige is different than how grad schools and employers view a school. Plus, you are comparing top schools vs. top schools, so prestige should not be as important – all great schools. But I’ll take a subjective stab (not looking at any test scores):
Middlebury and Bowdoin – Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth, Wash. U, Vanderbilt, Georgetown, Emory, Carnegie Mellon, USC, Notre Dame, Johns Hopkins, Rice
Hamilton – similar to above, maybe a tick below in name recognition depending on where you live, but great outcomes for grad schools
Colgate – a tick below Hamilton, but great alumni network (this school seems to be less like the other three with D1 sports and more of a fraternity culture)
definitely interested in business, but i do sort of want to poke around in the government/physics classes maybe
yeah I have heard that colgate have gpa deflation…so its good that theres a strong alumni network
Hamilton is great, but it’s no princeton. Just sayin’
It has writing and research and again it’s a fine school, but I’d place it more on the rank of . . . UVA? NYU? Also excellent schools, but not quite princeton level.
What do you need your net costs to be? Your parents earn ~$75k/year, right? Run the Net Price Calculator on each school to make sure it’s affordable.
@austinmshauri I don’t worry about the cost on these schools, since they give great financial aid from what Ive heard/seen online. I ran a calculator before with 75k and each one came out as around 10k-15k, which is only a little more than what my sister paid for columbia
just for the fun of it…
what about amherst, williams, pomona, vassar?
Those would be HYP + Stanford.
As for equivalencies, I was talking in terms of “vibe”, not rankings…
If you want rankings, I’d say Middlebury, Bowdoin: Penn, JHU; Hamilton: Dartmouth, Brown; Colgate: Vanderbilt, Emory.
I do not think one could directly compare top LACs and top Universities in terms of prestige. For example one could say that amherst, williams, pomona, vassar are the HYPS equivalents of LACs, but saying that amherst, williams, pomona, vassar have the same level of prestige in absolute terms as HYPS is not true at all.
I’m not so sure that’s the case . . . effectively speaking, I believe that most people realize that top students at top LACs are virtually as highly accomplished as those at top unis. Some top students prefer LACs for undergrad and don’t even look at a uni. Likewise some of the top state schools. Because of financing at top state schools, such as Berkeley, people know that some of the students are on par with the top private unis.
The schools you have asked about (as well others mentioned in this thread) tend to overlap with those once noted in the Preppy Handbook under “The College of Your Choice”:
The Top Ten
Princeton
Hamilton
UVa
St. Lawrence
Hampden-Sydney
Lake Forest
Babson
Sweet Briar
Hollins
Pine Manor
The Runners Up
Amherst
Reed
Williams
Georgetown
Colorado College
Trinity (Ct.)
Colby
Vassar
Connecticut College
Wheaton (MA)
Really, about Vassar? I am not an expert, but I would put Carleton and Colby above Vassar. Maybe Washington and Lee and Davidson too.
With historical perspective, it would seem that a shuffling in prestige (or at least identifiable academic standards) can occur across time:
SAT Tiers (circa 1960)
Amherst/Williams ~= Columbia, Harvard, Princeton, Yale
Hamilton ~= Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth, Stanford
Bowdoin/Middlebury ~= Duke, UMichigan, Northwestern, UPenn, Tufts, UC-Berkeley
Colgate ~= UColorado