<p>lindsay78 - no. not at all. Dartmouth just kind of popped out of nowhere. were you being sarcastic when you said it was near a "city"?</p>
<p>I'll have to second Middlebury. Very similar feel to Williams and Dartmouth.</p>
<p>Swarthmore, Haverford would work.</p>
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...though, because...
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<p>With these words, you are implying that Amherst and the LACs lack these traits? That the students of Amherst lack school spirit and are snobs, that there is no party scene on campus? That Amherst is -not- prestigious, and it does -not- have one of the most gorgeous college campuses? And, you're looking for an LAC in a "city?" Are you serious?</p>
<p>Don't bother applying to any LACs. Stick with Dartmouth and Brown.</p>
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The key thing is that Wesleyan has a network of fraternities, "literary societies" and a sizable student neighborhood adjacent to campus that offers a fairly active and urbane social life. It is also a member of NESCAC wherein it forms a venerable "conference within a conference" with Little Three Little Three - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia cohorts Amherst and Williams.
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<p>I feel that Wesleyan has fallen in stature in this decade compared to prior periods and has less in common with Williams and Amherst than it used to. When I was applying, I considered Wesleyan a better school and harder to get into than Bowdoin and Middlebury and now this no longer seems to be the case. I guess this could be an example of a successful implementation of an SAT-optional policy, although get the impression that, at least, Bowdoin may have been doing this long before I was applying to colleges.</p>
<p>Oh, don't be such a USNews groupie. Of course, Wesleyan has less in common with Amherst and Williams than it "used to": it's better known outside the Northeast than it "used to", has a better alumni network in the arts and humanities than it "used to" (apologies to the Williams art museum mafia), and overall has had a greater impact on the culture of the country than the other two put together.</p>
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Wesleyan... overall has had a greater impact on the culture of the country
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<p>You're darn right it has.</p>
<p>You wouldn't believe how many people I know who tell me their favorite movie is "Transformers." :3</p>
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With these words, you are implying that Amherst and the LACs lack these traits? That the students of Amherst lack school spirit and are snobs, that there is no party scene on campus? That Amherst is -not- prestigious, and it does -not- have one of the most gorgeous college campuses? And, you're looking for an LAC in a "city?" Are you serious?
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<p>No, I'm not saying any of that. I'm just saying that Dartmouth is my first choice because it has everything that I'm looking for and if I don't get into Dartmouth I want to know the LAC's most similar that have everything that I"m looking for as well. Calm down.</p>
<p>Trinity U in San Antonio not an LAC but a "Masters U" w/ a total LAC feel which fits your criteria.</p>
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Oh, don't be such a USNews groupie.
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<p>It's has nothing to do with USNWR rankings. It has to do with relative class profiles vs what they were in the '90s. Recent stats on Wesleyan show it actually has a higher acceptance rate and less students in the top 10% of their hs class than even Colgate. This was certainly not the case in the last decade.</p>
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I'm just saying that Dartmouth is my first choice because it has everything that I'm looking for and if I don't get into Dartmouth I want to know the LAC's most similar that have everything that I"m looking for as well.
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<p>Having also had Dartmouth as a top choice, I would say the LACs that are most similar are Williams, Bowdoin, Colgate, Middlebury, Washington & Lee, Colby, Bucknell, Union, Lafayette.</p>
<p>gellino, is Amherst similar as well?</p>
<p>Gellino - your freshman year memories are getting cloudy. Wesleyan and Colgate have <em>always</em> been within a few points of each other in terms of raw acceptance rates:</p>
<p>Fall 1997 - Colgate -36%, Wesleyan - 36% </p>
<p>Fall 2007 - 28% - Colgate, Wesleyan - 28%</p>
<p>However, that being said, I still think Wesleyan's applicant pool is stronger. All of the schools you mention (Dartmouth, Williams, Bowdoin, Colgate, Middlebury, Washington & Lee, Colby, Bucknell, Union, Lafayette) have reputations for heavy drinking, emphasis on athletics and the general homogeneity of their student bodies. Perhaps, that has all changed within the last ten years, but, for some significant portions of America those are still turn-offs.</p>
<p>My impression of the main difference between Wesleyan and Colgate is a cultural one in that Wesleyan is exceedingly liberal and attracts a lot of gays, lesbians, radicals, and liberals fightng for a cause whereas Colgate is ultra conservative and everyone is heading to wall street or medical or law school.</p>
<p>I think this is one reason why so many of the works produced by Wesleyan graduates have to do with quirky underdogs who must team together, often to overcome great odds ("Toy Story", "A Series of Unfortunate Events", "A Perfect Storm", "Will & Grace", "American Pie 1,2,3", "The School of Rock", AND, [drum roll] "Transformers").</p>
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Gellino - your freshman year memories are getting cloudy. Wesleyan and Colgate have <em>always</em> been within a few points of each other in terms of raw acceptance rates:</p>
<p>Fall 1997 - Colgate -36%, Wesleyan - 36% </p>
<p>Fall 2007 - 28% - Colgate, Wesleyan - 28%</p>
<p>However, that being said, I still think Wesleyan's applicant pool is stronger. All of the schools you mention (Dartmouth, Williams, Bowdoin, Colgate, Middlebury, Washington & Lee, Colby, Bucknell, Union, Lafayette) have reputations for heavy drinking, emphasis on athletics and the general homogeneity of their student bodies. Perhaps, that has all changed within the last ten years, but, for some significant portions of America those are still turn-offs.
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<p>Sadly, my Freshman year was before Fall 1997, but maybe the spread was narrower than I thought as I certainly knew very little about Wesleyan back then. Second, I guess I had seen seen the stats for the most recent class where Colgate was 25.6% acceptance rate and Wesleyan was 27.4% acceptance rate.</p>
<p>I mentioned those schools because she asked what schools were similar to Dartmouth.</p>
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gellino, is Amherst similar as well?
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<p>Having known many Amherst grads, I would say there is certainly some overlap, although Amherst is smaller than all those schools (except maybe Bowdoin), less rural and less of a general party reputation.</p>
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My impression of the main difference between Wesleyan and Colgate is a cultural one in that Wesleyan is exceedingly liberal and attracts a lot of gays, lesbians, radicals, and liberals fightng for a cause whereas Colgate is ultra conservative and everyone is heading to wall street or medical or law school.
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<p>Colgate is certainly more conservative than Wesleyan (just about every school would be) but is hardly ultra conservative.</p>
<p>^^^how many Northeastern American LACs would you describe as active politically -- whether conservative or liberal?</p>
<p>It depends what you mean by active. There probably aren't any LACs in the northeast where people care about politics as much as Wesleyan. I envision Vassar, Sarah Lawrence, Bard, Bates, Connecticut College to have certain elements of it more than most of the other schools. Besides just general stereotypes and reputations, though, I don't really have that great of feel of how much more politically active Bowdoin would be than Hamilton, say.</p>
<p>Also, how do you have the acceptance rates for Fall '97 so readily available? Do you have admissions stats, class profiles going back longer ago than that?</p>
<p>I have quite a few of the old USNews college editions as well as a number of "Yale Daily News Insiders Guides" going back a few years. :)</p>
<p>pomona, williams, amherst, bowdoin, university of liberality.</p>
<p>Lafayette College fits. I was an Econ. major with a concentration in Business, and also obtained a minor in Government & Law (PoliSci). Its football team is usually good or better.</p>