The Guide to WASP

[Anonymous]

Williams: The quintessential New England college. The most beautiful location. The campus oozes class. Preppy, relatively conservative students, many hoping to make a fortune in finance. Williams has been the US News champ for 20 years! What else needs to be said? Tied with Amherst for the most prestige.

Amherst: The college for progressive kids. Forward-thinking emphasis on student diversity and open curriculum. Highly intelligent students, many championing DEI causes. Great college town location. Good consortium with four other schools. Right on Williams's heels in US News. Tied for the most prestige.

Swarthmore: The college for intellectual kids. Difficult classes with heavy work loads. Students very liberal but too busy with coursework to do much politically. The best STEM in WASP. They have engineering! Maybe the hardest-working students, but prestige somewhat less than Williams or Amherst. Are the students considered too nerdy?

Pomona: The California lifestyle college. Students most similar to those at Swarthmore, but a bit less intense. Very casual environment, shorts worn year-round. Great consortium with Claremont. The hardest of WASP to get into because everyone wants that weather! But also the least prestige. How can we take them seriously with all that SoCal sunshine?

Those are my thoughts on these great schools. Please add your thoughts!

[Anonymous]

I am officially dumber for having read this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am officially dumber for having read this.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Williams: The quintessential New England college. The most beautiful location. The campus oozes class. Preppy, relatively conservative students, many hoping to make a fortune in finance. Williams has been the US News champ for 20 years! What else needs to be said? Tied with Amherst for the most prestige.

Amherst: The college for progressive kids. Forward-thinking emphasis on student diversity and open curriculum. Highly intelligent students, many championing DEI causes. Great college town location. Good consortium with four other schools. Right on Williams's heels in US News. Tied for the most prestige.

Swarthmore: The college for intellectual kids. Difficult classes with heavy work loads. Students very liberal but too busy with coursework to do much politically. The best STEM in WASP. They have engineering! Maybe the hardest-working students, but prestige somewhat less than Williams or Amherst. Are the students considered too nerdy?

Pomona: The California lifestyle college. Students most similar to those at Swarthmore, but a bit less intense. Very casual environment, shorts worn year-round. Great consortium with Claremont. The hardest of WASP to get into because everyone wants that weather! But also the least prestige. How can we take them seriously with all that SoCal sunshine?

Those are my thoughts on these great schools. Please add your thoughts!

are you the moderator trying to gin up interest? if so, wait until this season is over. the junior parents will be here by summer...and you'll be busy again.

[Anonymous]

Okay, maybe we missed something, but in what universe is Amherst in a great college town? Seriously, we couldn't find much town at all there. There were Amherst, U Mass Amherst, and then nothing nearby. That was my DD's chief concern. We asked where kids went off campus for fun and they mentioned buses to Boston, which is a bit of a hike. If we missed a great college town I'm happy to be proven wrong. Did we just look in the wrong place?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am officially dumber for having read this.

+1

+1 more

[Anonymous]

This is silly

It’s AWS

No need to go changing something that works

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is silly

It’s AWS

No need to go changing something that works

You're too late, my retrograde friend. It changed more than a decade ago. You'll just have to have suffer through typing that extra letter from now on.

[Anonymous]

And here we go.

Are you people finally bored with the Big pissing contest on the private board?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Okay, maybe we missed something, but in what universe is Amherst in a great college town? Seriously, we couldn't find much town at all there. There were Amherst, U Mass Amherst, and then nothing nearby. That was my DD's chief concern. We asked where kids went off campus for fun and they mentioned buses to Boston, which is a bit of a hike. If we missed a great college town I'm happy to be proven wrong. Did we just look in the wrong place?

Haha. Our kids refused to apply after visiting.

[Anonymous]

I'm very familiar with all these schools. They are more alike than different, and you'll get a great education at any of them.

No, Williams students are not "relatively conservative" and all 4 schools, not just Amherst, are for "progressive kids." They all draw from the same pool of applicants - Pomona being a little more California/Western-centric.

The main differences are
1. their curriculums - notably Amherst has an open curriculum, with no strict requirements; Williams has a selection of tutorial classes
2. locations - Williams very rural, Amherst less rural, Swat and Pomona suburban with easy access to major city
3. access to other colleges - Amherst, Swat and Pomona all allow students to take classes at other nearby colleges; Williams has a program with Oxford where students can spend their junior year

[Anonymous]

Chat GPT?

[Anonymous]

Here's my take on WASP:

Williams: Terrible, no good school that rejected my kid. May locusts devour their crops and their spouses become infertile.

Amherst: Kid didn't apply and so I don't know much about it except that it's definitely better than Williams.

Swarthmore: It's am amazing college that accepted my kid. All Swatties are good looking geniuses and who will probably win Nobel Prizes in the future.

Pomona: It's a mediocre school that waitlisted my kid. It has the potential to be great (waitlist pending), but it has some serious issues (like taking my kid off the waitlist).

[Anonymous]

If it might be relevant for your student:

Williams and Amherst: stopped requiring that students have the COVID vaccine a year ago.

Swarthmore and Pomona: still require students to have the COVID vaccine, at the moment, here in March 2024. Swat also requires a booster.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here's my take on WASP:

Williams: Terrible, no good school that rejected my kid. May locusts devour their crops and their spouses become infertile.

Amherst: Kid didn't apply and so I don't know much about it except that it's definitely better than Williams.

Swarthmore: It's am amazing college that accepted my kid. All Swatties are good looking geniuses and who will probably win Nobel Prizes in the future.

Pomona: It's a mediocre school that waitlisted my kid. It has the potential to be great (waitlist pending), but it has some serious issues (like taking my kid off the waitlist).

A rare honest response on this board, kudos.

Congrats on Swarthmore, your kid must have worked hard for that!