Amherst vs Bowdoin

[Anonymous]

If he likes Bowdoin more, Bowdoin. Maybe Amherst is slightly better, but it’s pretty negligible .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The PP who responded with the phrase "preserving optionality" doesn't have sufficient command of the English language to contribute meaningfully.

Maybe I don't either! But honestly I don't think the prestige gap is significant at this stage of the game. Both great schools, with great reputations and serious academics. Unless there's a specific advantage - a major offered by one but not the other - your kid should go whereever they think they will be happiest.

I have a kid at another Maine SLAC who loves it there. Maine has been a big part of his experience, somewhat unexpectedly - and in a very positive way.

This isn't a thread about your kid. Why do you continue to post about her when it is not relevant to the question asked ?

OP has a difficult decision. Both are outstanding schools with great reputations. More varied life at Amherst due to the 5 college consortium; more relaxed intimate environment at Bowdoin due to being a small school in a small community.

OP: Where would you prefer to spend the next 4 winters ? Isolated at comfy Bowdoin or involved in a thriving college town fed by 5 local schools ?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Both Amherst and Bowdoin are great schools and neither are Ivy-reject schools as one poster stated (Ivies are very different from SLACs). Fit is most important but everything being equal, I would choose Amherst.

Amherst is more of an Ivy reject school than is Bowdoin judging by their respective overlap schools.

Dartmouth College is a Bowdoin overlap, but Dartmouth is more like a very large LAC than an Ivy League school.

Amherst overlaps include Yale, Brown, & Princeton. For those accepted to Amherst and at least one of Yale, Brown, or Princeton, Amherst does not do well according to Parchment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Both Amherst and Bowdoin are great schools and neither are Ivy-reject schools as one poster stated (Ivies are very different from SLACs). Fit is most important but everything being equal, I would choose Amherst.

Amherst is more of an Ivy reject school than is Bowdoin judging by their respective overlap schools.

Dartmouth College is a Bowdoin overlap, but Dartmouth is more like a very large LAC than an Ivy League school.

Amherst overlaps include Yale, Brown, & Princeton. For those accepted to Amherst and at least one of Yale, Brown, or Princeton, Amherst does not do well according to Parchment.

Do you have any facts to back this up as it just sounds like made up crap? You do realize that SLACs are very different from Ivies so it is very unlikely they are "Ivy reject" schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Both Amherst and Bowdoin are great schools and neither are Ivy-reject schools as one poster stated (Ivies are very different from SLACs). Fit is most important but everything being equal, I would choose Amherst.

Amherst is more of an Ivy reject school than is Bowdoin judging by their respective overlap schools.

Dartmouth College is a Bowdoin overlap, but Dartmouth is more like a very large LAC than an Ivy League school.

Amherst overlaps include Yale, Brown, & Princeton. For those accepted to Amherst and at least one of Yale, Brown, or Princeton, Amherst does not do well according to Parchment.

Do you have any facts to back this up as it just sounds like made up crap? You do realize that SLACs are very different from Ivies so it is very unlikely they are "Ivy reject" schools.

You seem very young & inexperienced based on your posts. No need to be so impolite.

Yes, these overlap schools are "facts" provided by Amherst College and Bowdoin College to publications like Fiske Guide To Colleges.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP: Where would you prefer to spend the next 4 winters ? Isolated at comfy Bowdoin or involved in a thriving college town fed by 5 local schools ?

OP's kid: Where you you prefer to spend the next 4 years of your life? Unhappy and alone at the Amherst dining hall table or living in a welcoming and thriving college community in vacationland?

(That's what you get for biased, leading questions.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP: Where would you prefer to spend the next 4 winters ? Isolated at comfy Bowdoin or involved in a thriving college town fed by 5 local schools ?

OP's kid: Where you you prefer to spend the next 4 years of your life? Unhappy and alone at the Amherst dining hall table or living in a welcoming and thriving college community in vacationland?

(That's what you get for biased, leading questions.)

Wtf? This makes absolutely no sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Both Amherst and Bowdoin are great schools and neither are Ivy-reject schools as one poster stated (Ivies are very different from SLACs). Fit is most important but everything being equal, I would choose Amherst.

Amherst is more of an Ivy reject school than is Bowdoin judging by their respective overlap schools.

Dartmouth College is a Bowdoin overlap, but Dartmouth is more like a very large LAC than an Ivy League school.

Amherst overlaps include Yale, Brown, & Princeton. For those accepted to Amherst and at least one of Yale, Brown, or Princeton, Amherst does not do well according to Parchment.

Do you have any facts to back this up as it just sounds like made up crap? You do realize that SLACs are very different from Ivies so it is very unlikely they are "Ivy reject" schools.

You seem very young & inexperienced based on your posts. No need to be so impolite.

Yes, these overlap schools are "facts" provided by Amherst College and Bowdoin College to publications like Fiske Guide To Colleges.

Overlap schools by Fiske means that those schools share similar traits, NOT that students apply to those very schools. You need to do better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is a clown question bro. Amherst on another level

+1

[Anonymous]

(DP) Quoted from the Fiske guide--“Most colleges and universities operate within fairly defined “niche markets”. That is, they compete for students against other institutions with whom they share important characteristics, such as academic quality, size, geographic location, and the overall tone and style of campus life.” Students who apply to a particular school also tend to apply to its peer institutions.

The Fiske Guide To College staff asked each school included in the guide to give “the names of the colleges or universities that they consider to be their closest peer institutions and those with which they share the most…applications, and these are listed in the “Overlaps” section at the end of each write-up”.

So yes, the overlap schools listed in the Fiske guide do tend to share applicant pools. Also (for many but not all schools), the self-identified "Peer Institutions" in the IPEDS database tend to share applicant pools. The overlap schools for Bowdoin and Amherst are somewhat different, the applicant pools are somewhat different, and this explains why they differ in certain critical metrics like yield rate when their overall ranking (in e.g. USNWR) is so similar.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:(DP) Quoted from the Fiske guide--“Most colleges and universities operate within fairly defined “niche markets”. That is, they compete for students against other institutions with whom they share important characteristics, such as academic quality, size, geographic location, and the overall tone and style of campus life.” Students who apply to a particular school also tend to apply to its peer institutions.

The Fiske Guide To College staff asked each school included in the guide to give “the names of the colleges or universities that they consider to be their closest peer institutions and those with which they share the most…applications, and these are listed in the “Overlaps” section at the end of each write-up”.

So yes, the overlap schools listed in the Fiske guide do tend to share applicant pools. Also (for many but not all schools), the self-identified "Peer Institutions" in the IPEDS database tend to share applicant pools. The overlap schools for Bowdoin and Amherst are somewhat different, the applicant pools are somewhat different, and this explains why they differ in certain critical metrics like yield rate when their overall ranking (in e.g. USNWR) is so similar.

Of course top schools share applicants - that should be self-evident. It should also be evident that Amherst and Bowdoin are very different schools from the Ivies and, in my opinion, offer a better undergraduate education than the Ivies.

[Anonymous]

what did DC decide?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP: Where would you prefer to spend the next 4 winters ? Isolated at comfy Bowdoin or involved in a thriving college town fed by 5 local schools ?

OP's kid: Where you you prefer to spend the next 4 years of your life? Unhappy and alone at the Amherst dining hall table or living in a welcoming and thriving college community in vacationland?

(That's what you get for biased, leading questions.)

+1

Exactly what I felt. Why did the original PP assume the students at Bowdoin are not involved or thriving?

[Anonymous]

Bowdoin. What a great place to be!

[Anonymous]

I went to Williams (similar to Amherst in prestige) and grew up in Maine. I would hands down go with Amherst. Bowdoin is a great school but I find Brunswick to be kind of depressing. There is a lot more going on in Amherst and I get more of a college vibe. Although Amherst is a big rival of Williams (so I am loathe to boost it) it's a better school than Bowdoin in the rankings and probably IRL too.