Williams vs. Carleton vs. Middlebury vs Pomona vs Swarthmore

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:These are all wonderful schools.

Where does she want to live? Glorious weather but car-dependent? Pomona. College town? Carleton. Suburb with easy access to a real city? Swarthmore. The sticks? Middlebury or Williams.

Or by vibe: Carleton is quirky; Williams is preppy; as is Middlebury (although not quite so preppy as Williams); Swarthmore is intellectual; Pomona is balanced.

Carleton might be the tightest fit with what you've shared about her, but really, any of these places would offer what she needs (and then some).

She is enamored about the idea of going to California for college, like a lot of college kids on the east coast. I guess she wasn't counting on getting into Pomona since it's the most selective on her list, but the weather and proximity to LA is a big pull for her. But she also has concerns- that Pomona may not be well-known on the East Coast, and that she'll be so far away from family (extends a bit to Carleton too, but it's closer). Ultimately though, she has said the location is just one factor, and not her most important. By far her biggest thing is- which school will give her the best education possible and open doors for her to go to graduate school? But it seems all these schools offer distinguished academics.

She's interested in attending fully funded graduate schools, and since most of the top programs in psych and cognitive science are on the East Coast, one of her thoughts is to go to Pomona or Carleton for a new experience and then hopefully to an Ivy or comparable U for graduate school for yet another experience. I told her she could also go to great U's on the west coast, like Berkeley, UCLA (regarded #1 for psych), and Stanford, and that the Northeast experience could be very different and interesting for her too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Middlebury has a great psych program, great acapella scene, and very well developed study abroad programs.

+1 and the grads all seem to love their school so much.

I'm PP and graduated a little over a decade ago. Yes. LOVED it.

Graduated nearly 25 years ago (yikes) and loved it. Would send my kids there in a heartbeat. BUT, it is not a place for everyone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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

She's waiting on Amherst too, they just haven't released decisions yet! I'll keep this thread posted.

In that case...choose Amherst if she gets in. Williamstown is pretty remote. Much more happening in the town of Amherst and the Pioneer Valley in general.

If her life goal is to be a professor, consider Swarthmore. Don't go there if you want to have fun.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These are all wonderful schools.

Where does she want to live? Glorious weather but car-dependent? Pomona. College town? Carleton. Suburb with easy access to a real city? Swarthmore. The sticks? Middlebury or Williams.

Or by vibe: Carleton is quirky; Williams is preppy; as is Middlebury (although not quite so preppy as Williams); Swarthmore is intellectual; Pomona is balanced.

Carleton might be the tightest fit with what you've shared about her, but really, any of these places would offer what she needs (and then some).

She is enamored about the idea of going to California for college, like a lot of college kids on the east coast. I guess she wasn't counting on getting into Pomona since it's the most selective on her list, but the weather and proximity to LA is a big pull for her. But she also has concerns- that Pomona may not be well-known on the East Coast, and that she'll be so far away from family (extends a bit to Carleton too, but it's closer). Ultimately though, she has said the location is just one factor, and not her most important. By far her biggest thing is- which school will give her the best education possible and open doors for her to go to graduate school? But it seems all these schools offer distinguished academics.

She's interested in attending fully funded graduate schools, and since most of the top programs in psych and cognitive science are on the East Coast, one of her thoughts is to go to Pomona or Carleton for a new experience and then hopefully to an Ivy or comparable U for graduate school for yet another experience. I told her she could also go to great U's on the west coast, like Berkeley, UCLA (regarded #1 for psych), and Stanford, and that the Northeast experience could be very different and interesting for her too.

Go west, young woman! Pomona is as well known (and as well regarded) as any of the other (wonderful) schools on this list -- by top-flight grad programs, which is all that really matters in this context. No time like the present to spread those wings: Take the new experience now rather than "saving it for later," I say!

[Anonymous]

My child felt Williams was too remote and ended up at Swarthmore. Hey 14:22, he had fun at Swarthmore!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:She sounds just like my DDin 11th. Congrats! Please let us know what she chooses from her many great options. If she's willing to share her stats/EC, that would be helpful. She should be very proud!

Thanks! I've been advising her throughout the college process but I haven't been to a lot of these schools myself, so I thought it'd be great to ask this board.

She got a 1520 on the New SAT and goes to a private school which doesn't rank, but does put a grade distribution, and she's on the highest end in terms of GPA. Her unweighted is a 3.96. She is an accomplished writer who has won Scholastic Keys and other writing competition prizes, is part of a regionally acclaimed a capella group, and did the TASP program last summer. She has created a psychology club at her school and has worked to connect students to the vast world of careers, learning, and opportunities related to Psychology. She also did a learning experience at a local university with a cognitive science professor, which she didn't have exposure of before but really enjoyed. She's a national merit finalist and a national AP scholar. I think her essays were glowing. For her Williams supplement, she talked about having a conversation with Sigmund Freud about the scientific vs human approaches to psychology. For her Pomona supplement, she did the diving into a Wikipedia article topic about how she discovered her psychology interest by leaping from page to page, even though her school only offers AP Psych.

She could have attended Harvard, Yale, Stanford, or any Ivy with those impressive state and accomplishments (TASP and Scholastic Medal, and Choral Music helped my son into Harvard). Congratulations to you.

[Anonymous]

Forgot to mention that my son also had the National AP award by 11th grade. We should set them up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:She could have attended Harvard, Yale, Stanford, or any Ivy with those impressive state and accomplishments (TASP and Scholastic Medal, and Choral Music helped my son into Harvard). Congratulations to you.

I'm sure she would have been a strong candidate for admissions. She just really desired the tight-knit LAC atmosphere and didn't want to have the Ivy status defining her among the family. She actually likes that small LACs are not known. Though it's ironic because that's where she's aiming for graduate school . Congratulations to your son too. Harvard is a magical place.

[Anonymous]

If she wants to do a PhD, Swarthmore, hands down. I absolutely loved it--and I am now a professor. I would say half of my friends who also loved Swat have PhDs and are professors today. Don't believe the rep about the place being a total grind; its very much a self-selecting place, if someone didn't enjoy academics, she wouldn't have applied in the first place, much less be accepted

[Anonymous]

I actually thought I wanted to be a professor until I went to Swarthmore. I found it soul-sucking. This was the era of "anywhere else it would have been an A" t-shirts and something called "misery poker" where we all tried to one-up each other about how much work we had to do.

[Anonymous]

Ummmmm she got wait listed at Colby and Bowdoin???

[Anonymous]

Williams fro east coast - best ever.
Pomona fro west coast - so great.

[Anonymous]

I went to Swarthmore and loved my time there. Op - if your daughter is a masochist and loves studying all day then she should choose Swarthmore. If she's sporty choose Williams.

[Anonymous]

Pomona! No question.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ummmmm she got wait listed at Colby and Bowdoin???

Bowdoin WL is understandable. Colby is now 3-4 years into the thick of playing games to rise in the US News rankings. They have gotten rid of their extra essays as part of their application and just about halved their application fee as a way to get more kids to apply so they can then reject more, be considered more selective and climb the ranking. Around 2012 they were ranked somewhere in the 30s, in 2014 in the 20s and now #12, with record numbers of HS seniors applying last year and this. My DS, with perfect SAT scores from very competitive private HS was also just waitlisted at Colby but accepted by much "better" schools. Actually kind of pissed that he applied there in retrospect, playing right into their scheme.