Question about NESCAC schools

[Anonymous]

Midwesterner here, curious which NESCAC schools offer the best vibe/fit for a student from a flyover state. We are looking for campuses that feel warm, welcoming, and collaborative rather than pretentious or dominated by private/boarding-school culture.

My daughter is pretty open academically, plays a varsity sport, and works as a stage manager for drama productions, so she’s well-rounded and tends to make friends easily.

Which NESCAC schools would likely be the best match for that environment, and which might be tougher fits?

[Anonymous]

I know a current student with a similar profile - check out Hamilton

[Anonymous]

Bates

[Anonymous]

Tufts is similar in some ways to Case, Wash U, and seems like a more open, diverse environment than Williams or Middlebury.

[Anonymous]

Connecticut College sounds like it might be a nice fit for her. I would call it the opposite of pretentious and it is very collegial. It has lots of sports teams… your daughter could reach out to the coach of the sport she plays to see if she could get recruited. I would suggest touring some of the schools to get a feel for them. I don’t know about the other NESCACs.

[Anonymous]

These impressions of some popular LACs, including several NESCACs, appeared in another forum in 2020:

Bates. Egalitarian founding principles still appear in student culture. Huge Fulbright producer in recent years. Former-mill-town Lewiston can be overlooked or embraced.

Colby. Classic LAC size. Relatively new president has added dynamism. Prominent and popular environmental studies programs. Central campus fairly far from Waterville. Winter cold suitable for the adventurous.

Middlebury. NESCAC in Grandma Moses country. Views of Adirondacks from Bicentennial Hall. Academically notable for environmental studies, languages, economics. Recent vandalism not inconsistent with an entitled segment among the student body.

Colgate. Beautiful campus, appealing small village. Beyond its popular social sciences programs, offers interesting course choices in physical sciences and humanities. Division I sports and residential Greek organizations.

Vassar. English major and performing arts veneer laid over a generally intellectual liberal arts college. New science building supports continuing academic ambitions.

Williams. Intellectually capable, academically engaged students. Noteworthy athletic presence. Excellent for visual arts. Perhaps too many economics majors. Mountains form backdrop that impressed Thoreau.

Amherst. Strong programs in areas such as literature and government, to name just two. Sufficienty deep to have changed its mascot. Consortium benefits, though with associated gender imbalances. Campus itself, excepting the new science building, might fall short of its rarefied academic rating.

Hamilton. Legacy of having been two colleges of complementary characteristics and emphases manifests in enhanced academic, social, architectural and spatial dimensions and balance. Beautiful campus, access to suburban amenities, proximity to Adirondacks. A writers’ college, for those who wish to enhance this skill.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Midwesterner here, curious which NESCAC schools offer the best vibe/fit for a student from a flyover state. We are looking for campuses that feel warm, welcoming, and collaborative rather than pretentious or dominated by private/boarding-school culture.

My daughter is pretty open academically, plays a varsity sport, and works as a stage manager for drama productions, so she’s well-rounded and tends to make friends easily.

Which NESCAC schools would likely be the best match for that environment, and which might be tougher fits?

Sounds more like a Holy Cross kid than a NESCAC kid…

[Anonymous]

Colby and Hamilton appear in this Princeton Review survey-based site of colleges with the "Friendliest-Students":

Friendliest Students | The Princeton Review https://www.princetonreview.com/college-rankings/?rankings=friendliest-students

[Anonymous]

NYer here with a kid set to go to a SLAC in a flyover state. The NESCAC (and similar) schools that he liked with similar vibes: Wesleyan, Tufts, Haverford, Lafayette, and Colgate.

[Anonymous]

Regarding stage management, Hamilton's theatre facilities may be the nicest of the NESCAC's:

Academic Spaces - Karen and Kevin Kennedy Center for Theatre and the Studio Arts - Hamilton College https://share.google/Xd5wpXr9ZvQbqRQVT

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Connecticut College sounds like it might be a nice fit for her. I would call it the opposite of pretentious and it is very collegial. It has lots of sports teams… your daughter could reach out to the coach of the sport she plays to see if she could get recruited. I would suggest touring some of the schools to get a feel for them. I don’t know about the other NESCACs.

+1

Conn College also has a great theater program.

[Anonymous]

Colby or Holy Cross might be good options. Probably more so because most NESCAC schools are magnets for Northeast prep school grads. Colby may be exception.

[Anonymous]

Avoid Colgate, Middlebury and Williams.

Look at Amherst, Hamilton.

Consider Davidson.

[Anonymous]

Too many prep school kids at NESCACs schools. Davidson, Holy Cross maybe Furman.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Midwesterner here, curious which NESCAC schools offer the best vibe/fit for a student from a flyover state. We are looking for campuses that feel warm, welcoming, and collaborative rather than pretentious or dominated by private/boarding-school culture.

My daughter is pretty open academically, plays a varsity sport, and works as a stage manager for drama productions, so she’s well-rounded and tends to make friends easily.

Which NESCAC schools would likely be the best match for that environment, and which might be tougher fits?

Sounds more like a Holy Cross kid than a NESCAC kid…

The HC booster is lurking this weekend. That said, HC is a great school but it’s not a top NESCAC.