Swarthmore/Wes VS Williams/Bowdoin

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wesleyan's admit rate is higher, although all of these schools are reaches by definition since they admit less than 20% of applicants. I think Wes also has more of an artsy scene.

Make sure you read this thread for ideas of safeties and matches: https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1027917.page

And consider looking at some LACs outside the Northeast where your kid might have some geographic advantage (or at least not a geographic disadvantage!)

Not true any more. Wesleyan is extremely hard to get into now, as are most of the others on the list.

What about Bates? Colby? Hamilton? Colgate? They are all fine schools and they are in cold areas.

Colby, Colgate, and Hamilton are comparably competitive to Wesleyan. In fact, I think the Colby admit rate is nearly half that of Wesleyan for the last two years.

Yes, Colby's admit rate is half of Wesleyan - but Colby also has no application fee and no supplemental essays which drives up applications. Colby actually gets nearly 2x as many applications as Bowdoin (the power of a free application and no supplements).

The rest of these schools have similar admit rates
Bates: 14.1% (2020), 17.3% (2021)
Colgate: 27.5% (2020), 17% (2021) - got to be story behind the significant decrease in Colgate's acceptance rate - increase apps due to test-optional? kids applying more places?
Hamilton: 18.4% (2020), 14% (2021)
Wesleyan: 20.9% (2020), 19.3% (2021)

Actually, Bates and Wesleyan (and Middlebury) also don't have any supplemental essays, and Hamilton's and Colgate's very short supplemental essays are optional.

Yes, that's why I said no application fee AND no supplemental essays. Many schools have no supplemental essays but few have no application fee. Colby has both. Its the combination that likely helps increase Colby's application numbers. Apparently their applications increased significantly when they stopped charging a fee. They make a big deal out of it - must have said "no application fee" ten times during our information session.

[Anonymous]

Parent of a first year student at Bowdoin who is loving it. Working hard but also maintaining a nice balance of extracurriculars and building a diverse group of friends. Brunswick is a cute little town with super easy access to Portland (train station on edge of campus). Have been super impressed by how school has navigated COVID and like the school leadership (nice to see diversity at higher levels there, too). One of the things my son kept hearing about the school prior to arrival (never stepped into campus until moving into his dorm) was how collaborative, friendly and supportive it was. Honestly, it sounded a bit too good to be true but so far it has absolutely lived up to that and during his winter break he noted how many of his high school classmates attending similar stat schools and Ivies reported struggles with the cut-throat feel on their campuses and challenge of making strong connections in their first semester. And definitely feel like Bowdoin is moving in a positive direction in terms of diversity. Our mixed race family loved the mix of families we met at move-in and during parents weekend. Great school.