Best laugh of the day. Thanks, PP. |
For Pomona and CMC, the clear advantage is the 5Cs. The consortium and the physical proximity of the colleges make it so easy to take classes at any one of the 5Cs, thereby substantially expanding the philosophy offerings your DS can tap into. Look at the combined course catalog: https://portal.claremontmckenna.edu/ICS/Portal_Homepage.jnz?portlet=External_Content
Our DC did a ton of research into philosophy depts and the Claremont Colleges really rose to the top based on the offerings. Headed to Pomona in the fall; applied RD unhooked. |
Pomona and Williams are not worth it for ed. |
In the world of philosophy, Amherst’s name is worth gold. I don’t think grad schools even know what “Pamona” or Claremont men’s college are. Great maybe if you want to teach at cal poly or something. |
Are you kidding? A tenure track job at cal poly would be a great outcome for virtually any philosophy phd. The job prospects are abysmal. |
Agree on CMC. |
Huh. She said “visited each”. I’d add Brown or Dartmouth before Northwestern or JHU. |
If any of those four are ok with him and he has no true preference, I’d Ed to the one with the highest Ed acceptance rate. Not sure which that is—cmc? |
The ED admit rate for the class of ‘29: Williams 26%, Bowdoin 15% while historically, Pomona is 12% and CMC is about 25% (the last two haven’t released the data from this year’s admission’s cycle). |
OP: beware of bad advice here, the ED acceptance rate for Williams is more than twice that of Pomona. Clearly ED is an advantage there. Have your kid reach out to the Williams rep by email, and make sure he connects in person at a school visit or college fair. This person is the first reader of your kid’s college app — great if they can put a face with a name. |
I know 2 unhooked kids who got into Amherst ED this year. But all these LACs are very small and overrepresented with athletes in ED1. I'd definitely take a look at Brown. |
With these percentages, the order then appears like this: Hamilton CMC Amherst Pomona Wesleyan Middlebury Williams Bowdoin |
Since these are all excellent schools where your kid can get a top-notch education in philosophy, I’ll come at this from a different direction: where does your kid want to be geographically? What kind of weather does he like? Did he find the remote location of Williams appealing? Assuming he’s from the east coast, has he really considered what it means to go to school across the country?
I’d zero in on those questions to see if more clear preferences emerge. (Also, I have a kid at Wes who loves it. Happy to answer any questions as your kid mulls the ED2 decision.) |
Sounds like OP’s kid is (wisely) seeking to ED1 to a school that he likes, not just looking for a prestigious school he can get into. If the kid has visited and liked SLACs, then he’s correct in focusing his ED1 choices on those schools. |
No. OP said he has not visited. Right now he just has some vague ideas about a bunch of prestigious schools. He needs to have some contrast in getting perspective about slacs. OP is asking for ED choices. Some PPs correctly pointed out Wasb do not have ED advantages. |