What are the academic programs each WASP is known for?

[Anonymous]

What are the strength of Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore, Pomona? Much is talked about culturally different between the two, but not what they academically offer. On an earlier thread people mentioned the difference between “Pomona math and Williams math” but what is that difference?

[Anonymous]

Amherst is known for its law jurisprudence and social thought (LJST) major, and as a result it is a feeder to top law schools.

[Anonymous]

Williams- economics

[Anonymous]

Pomona: premed, feeder to tippy top medical schools
Williams: pipeline to wall street
Swarthmore: engineering
Amherst: prelaw, feeder to tippy top law schools

Each is strong in additional areas other than the above mentioned area. Many more.

[Anonymous]

In terms of particular programs at two of these colleges, Williams is notable for art history and Amherst is notable for neuroscience. Both offer national-level economics programs.

[Anonymous]

Williams: Math, Economics, Art History
Pomona: Math, Neuroscience, Computer Science
Amherst: LJST, political science, English, History
Swarthmore: Biology, Engineering, Computer Science

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In terms of particular programs at two of these colleges, Williams is notable for art history and Amherst is notable for neuroscience. Both offernational-level economics programs.

What does that mean? Amherst also seems to have very few permanent faculty and dedicated faculty to neuroscience.

[Anonymous]

Williams => Econ
Amherst => Humanities
Swarthmore => Engineering
Pomona => Premed (Bio, Chem, Neuroscience)

[Anonymous]

The lack of humanities focus at these colleges is quite sad

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In terms of particular programs at two of these colleges, Williams is notable for art history and Amherst is notable for neuroscience. Both offer national-level economics programs.

I’d switch out Amherst with Pomona for neuroscience. Amherst is pretty notable for pre-law.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In terms of particular programs at two of these colleges, Williams is notable for art history and Amherst is notable for neuroscience. Both offernational-level economics programs.

What does that mean? Amherst also seems to have very few permanent faculty and dedicated faculty to neuroscience.

Amherst established the first neuroscience major in the country and it is considered one of the most rigorous academic majors at the college. Amherst is also known for pre-med. It's historically had the highest acceptance rate of SLACS. Pomona is close.

https://www.collegevine.com/schools/best-colleges-for-pre-med

https://www.collegetransitions.com/blog/from-pre-med-to-md-understanding-the-pathways-to-medical-school/


True that Williams is by far the strongest program in art history. Also well known for econ and math.

Swarthmore is unique in having engineering.

I think of Pomona for CS these days. Huge advantage of access to Harvey Mudd classes as well.

Bowdoin solid and well-rounded in its offerings.

I think they're all pretty equally strong in the humanities (outside of art history). Some differences in the social and hard sciences.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The lack of humanities focus at these colleges is quite sad

I think these posters are overstating things. These are first of all liberal arts colleges (without graduate level programs) and people are magnifying the differences.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In terms of particular programs at two of these colleges, Williams is notable for art history and Amherst is notable for neuroscience. Both offernational-level economics programs.

What does that mean? Amherst also seems to have very few permanent faculty and dedicated faculty to neuroscience.

Amherst established the first neuroscience major in the country and it is considered one of the most rigorous academic majors at the college. Amherst is also known for pre-med. It's historically had the highest acceptance rate of SLACS. Pomona is close.

https://www.collegevine.com/schools/best-colleges-for-pre-med

https://www.collegetransitions.com/blog/from-pre-med-to-md-understanding-the-pathways-to-medical-school/


True that Williams is by far the strongest program in art history. Also well known for econ and math.

Swarthmore is unique in having engineering.

I think of Pomona for CS these days. Huge advantage of access to Harvey Mudd classes as well.

Bowdoin solid and well-rounded in its offerings.

I think they're all pretty equally strong in the humanities (outside of art history). Some differences in the social and hard sciences.

Yes but this didn’t answer the fact that Amherst has very few faculty and opportunities in Neuro (I hate source debating but Pomona consistently shows a higher premed acceptance rate than Amherst (https://www.shemmassianconsulting.com/blog/best-liberal-arts-colleges-for-medical-school). Premed has actually been artificially reduced at Pomona by the admissions team because there were so many premeds at one point. It’s cool that Amherst was the first neuro department, but if a student wants options, they’re better suited with Pomona- especially when you add in access to neuro professors at Department of Natural Sciences and now Integrated Sciences at CMC.

Also Pomona is way past its peak CS days. It used to have a lot of aid from Laszlo Bock, and students still do great in CS, but it’s not really a part of the best departments: Math, Neuro, and Chemistry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In terms of particular programs at two of these colleges, Williams is notable for art history and Amherst is notable for neuroscience. Both offernational-level economics programs.

What does that mean? Amherst also seems to have very few permanent faculty and dedicated faculty to neuroscience.

Amherst established the first neuroscience major in the country and it is considered one of the most rigorous academic majors at the college.

Why would that matter?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The lack of humanities focus at these colleges is quite sad

I think these posters are overstating things. These are first of all liberal arts colleges (without graduate level programs) and people are magnifying the differences.

Every top SLAC is seeing a massive decline in humanities students, and now faculty.