Williams vs. Carleton vs. Middlebury vs Pomona vs Swarthmore

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I like reading the posts about Williams. I turned it down for Princeton years ago primarily because it was so remote and it felt almost impossible at the time to turn Princeton down, but it seemed like the epitome of a SLAC experience to me (had no other connection to the school and only visited it once, so most of what I knew about Williams came from guides and from one alumni interviewer who was fantastic). Often wondered what it would have been like to go there and happy to hear many who did go there had the type of positive experience I’ve always imagined.

BRAG POST

Right? Not even a VBA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To 00:38 sorry for late response, I am not on here to frequently. Differences between Bowdoin and Middlebury. 1st the student bodies are different Middlebury has a much larger percentage of international students. Next the setting is different. Middlebury really is in the middle of no where isolated. Some feel that the isolation can lead to a stronger sense of community bonding. Bowdoin is in a quaint small town with more resources. We found the Bowdoin campus more compact and Middlebury spread out. If you trust all the survey's the food at Bowdoin is the best in the country. Also Middlebury had a January requirement I think. These are the basic "factual" differences in my view. But in the end it all boils down to feel. Any student can get a world class education at either school. I cannot emphasize this enough. I graduated from Williams in 1982. Being from Missouri nobody had ever heard of Williams. However when I applied to medical school every single school knew of Williams and were impressed. The University of Missouri was impressed, Cornell, Washington University, University of Penn, Northwestern all felt that Williams was great. That is all that mattered to me. I have to assume the same is still true today. Go where you are going to have the best time. I believe every graduate program will look at a student with same grades and same test scores the same if one is from Bowdoin and another is from Penn.

Sorry, but this is total bs. How would you know this ?

Medical schools do not care where one attended undergraduate school; medical schools care about an applicant's GPA, MCAT score, interview, and involvement in & exposure to the practice of medicine.

Not strictly true. Med schools love high-achieving humanities majors too. They are admitted at an equal rate, and don't necessarily have much "involvement in the practice of medicine."

Not sure when this became a discussion about humanities v. other majors.

Two family members were heads of med schools. One med school at a major university, the other was primarily regional. If you don't think that demonstrated exposure to, and demonstrated interest in, the practice of medicine is an important admissions factor then you are wrong.

Again, only you brought up the humanities major issue. Humanities is fine IF one's MCAT score is within the acceptable range. Nevertheless, I feel confident that you are unfamiliar with medical school admissions.

I feel confident you don't know as much as you think you do. Elite LAC students benefit from close relationships with professors and the research opportunities afforded there (whether humanities, STEM, or cross-disciplinary majors--common at LACs). They're not competing with grad students for professors' time. Of course the MCAT must be stellar, but SLACs do very very well with med school admissions. Med schools 100% care about the quality of one's education and the same schools, whether Ivy or SLAC, are most successful with admissions. A kid at a low-ranked school does not have the same opportunities to work with brilliant faculty and produce high-level research.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went to Amherst and I would choose Williams in a heartbeat.

I went to Williams and would also choose Williams in a heartbeat!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I like reading the posts about Williams. I turned it down for Princeton years ago primarily because it was so remote and it felt almost impossible at the time to turn Princeton down, but it seemed like the epitome of a SLAC experience to me (had no other connection to the school and only visited it once, so most of what I knew about Williams came from guides and from one alumni interviewer who was fantastic). Often wondered what it would have been like to go there and happy to hear many who did go there had the type of positive experience I’ve always imagined.

BRAG POST

Nah, if it were a brag post I would have dropped the names of the other schools I turned down.

Just like reading more posts about the experiences folks or their kids have had at Williams.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a close relative deciding between these three schools as of now. She got admitted to Williams/Carleton yesterday and Pomona/Swarthmore/Middlebury last week. She only applied to LACs and not universities (beside her safety/match schools). She didn't apply for aid, so costs are similar.

Does anyone have experience with these five colleges and deciding between them (or a number of them) so I can pass the information to her?

(for those curious, Bowdoin and Colby waitlisted her....weird admissions process, I know).

How can you apply to multiple schools prior to regular admissions?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a close relative deciding between these three schools as of now. She got admitted to Williams/Carleton yesterday and Pomona/Swarthmore/Middlebury last week. She only applied to LACs and not universities (beside her safety/match schools). She didn't apply for aid, so costs are similar.

Does anyone have experience with these five colleges and deciding between them (or a number of them) so I can pass the information to her?

(for those curious, Bowdoin and Colby waitlisted her....weird admissions process, I know).

How can you apply to multiple schools prior to regular admissions?

Because OP from March 2017.

[Anonymous]

I am not a fan of Swarthmore. Kids seemed driven, in an unhealthy way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am not a fan of Swarthmore. Kids seemed driven, in an unhealthy way.

Swarthmore, Hopkins, and Chicago are similar that way. We visited all three and thought the kids seemed joyless compared to other elite campuses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I like reading the posts about Williams. I turned it down for Princeton years ago primarily because it was so remote and it felt almost impossible at the time to turn Princeton down, but it seemed like the epitome of a SLAC experience to me (had no other connection to the school and only visited it once, so most of what I knew about Williams came from guides and from one alumni interviewer who was fantastic). Often wondered what it would have been like to go there and happy to hear many who did go there had the type of positive experience I’ve always imagined.

Yeah, well, I got rejected from Williams and Princeton and ended up at Middlebury, so there