<p>Nearly all the folks I know who had the choice, chose Swarthmore over Wesleyan, so that is a bit unusual. S is a bit better known, a bit better ranked, in a major city, and yet simiilar to W.</p>
<p>The schools that were on the list and declined tended to be Union, Hamilton, Oberlin, Kenyon, Grinnell, Dickinson, Gettysburg, any number of the smaller Catholic, former all female schools and liberal arts college that are not quite up there in ranking, recognition and reputation. Kid will tend to choose W over more schools than not. Really there are not that many schools that a kid will choose over W when money is not an issue. That list would be a heck of a lot shorter.</p>