NESCAC schools - how to find out about the 'culture' of each... are they so different?

[Anonymous]

We visited all of them.

Tufts: drab campus, 70s concrete brutalism, uninspiring neighborhood

Wesleyan: nice campus, ok neighborhood

Trinity: beautiful campus, appalling neighborhood, would never send my kid there (but you do you)

Conn College: drab campus, not nice neighborhood but not as bad as Trinity

Top choice among these would definitely be Wes. Our tour guide didn’t care about sports at all, if anything looked down on it.

However DS got in ED somewhere else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid was looking at NESCAC and from what I can tell through research and campus visit is that they all attract the same kind of applicants within varying degrees. It was almost like culture/student population was not a consideration in picking the school because it was same type of kids at each one.

Have to disagree with the post above as there are discernable differences among the NESCAC schools just as Ivy League schools differ.

Wes is woke to a higher degree than Trinity or Conn College or Tufts.

Tufts proximity to Boston activities gives Tufts a different vibe. Not much school spirit as the lack of isolation allows students to go their own ways as opposed to being forced into a small community due to a remote, isolated location.

Trinity College still has the preppy set & concerns for safety beyond the campus boundaries.

Conn College seems to be more feminine than the others. (I'm sure that this will not evoke any responses.)

Size & location influence each campus culture. More important to visit small schools than large universities due lack of significant options.

Conn started when Wes kicked women out. Perhaps that’s where the feminine energy comes from. There are still more women than men at Conn but that’s probably the case at Wes too now.

People just love to make shit up about Wes. It’s been around 52/48 percent gender balance since 2020 which is very strong for any selective school that is not 100% STEM forward. And to the other PPs, whenever you say a school is not “woke” all I hear is that white Christian nationalist culture is prioritized at the expense of any other marginalized culture or group. You can be there, but keep your feelings to yourself, especially when someone from the dominant culture says something ignorant and offensive. Hey, they were only joking!

"Wesleyan admitted a limited number of women starting in 1872. In 1909, coeducation succumbed to the pressure of male alumni, some of whom believed that it diminished Wesleyan’s standing in comparison with its academic peers. The last female students graduated in 1912. In 1911, some of Wesleyan’s alumnae founded the Connecticut College for Women in New London to help fill the void left when Wesleyan closed its doors to women." (https://www.wesleyan.edu/libr/sca/about/weshistory.html)

Not that part, jag. The passing comment about gender imbalance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid was looking at NESCAC and from what I can tell through research and campus visit is that they all attract the same kind of applicants within varying degrees. It was almost like culture/student population was not a consideration in picking the school because it was same type of kids at each one.

Have to disagree with the post above as there are discernable differences among the NESCAC schools just as Ivy League schools differ.

Wes is woke to a higher degree than Trinity or Conn College or Tufts.

Tufts proximity to Boston activities gives Tufts a different vibe. Not much school spirit as the lack of isolation allows students to go their own ways as opposed to being forced into a small community due to a remote, isolated location.

Trinity College still has the preppy set & concerns for safety beyond the campus boundaries.

Conn College seems to be more feminine than the others. (I'm sure that this will not evoke any responses.)

Size & location influence each campus culture. More important to visit small schools than large universities due lack of significant options.

Conn started when Wes kicked women out. Perhaps that’s where the feminine energy comes from. There are still more women than men at Conn but that’s probably the case at Wes too now.

People just love to make shit up about Wes. It’s been around 52/48 percent gender balance since 2020 which is very strong for any selective school that is not 100% STEM forward. And to the other PPs, whenever you say a school is not “woke” all I hear is that white Christian nationalist culture is prioritized at the expense of any other marginalized culture or group. You can be there, but keep your feelings to yourself, especially when someone from the dominant culture says something ignorant and offensive. Hey, they were only joking!

"Wesleyan admitted a limited number of women starting in 1872. In 1909, coeducation succumbed to the pressure of male alumni, some of whom believed that it diminished Wesleyan’s standing in comparison with its academic peers. The last female students graduated in 1912. In 1911, some of Wesleyan’s alumnae founded the Connecticut College for Women in New London to help fill the void left when Wesleyan closed its doors to women." (https://www.wesleyan.edu/libr/sca/about/weshistory.html)

Not that part, jag. The passing comment about gender imbalance.

The contributor wasn't wrong about that. Wesleyan's class of 2024 was 60% female, for example.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid was looking at NESCAC and from what I can tell through research and campus visit is that they all attract the same kind of applicants within varying degrees. It was almost like culture/student population was not a consideration in picking the school because it was same type of kids at each one.

Have to disagree with the post above as there are discernable differences among the NESCAC schools just as Ivy League schools differ.

Wes is woke to a higher degree than Trinity or Conn College or Tufts.

Tufts proximity to Boston activities gives Tufts a different vibe. Not much school spirit as the lack of isolation allows students to go their own ways as opposed to being forced into a small community due to a remote, isolated location.

Trinity College still has the preppy set & concerns for safety beyond the campus boundaries.

Conn College seems to be more feminine than the others. (I'm sure that this will not evoke any responses.)

Size & location influence each campus culture. More important to visit small schools than large universities due lack of significant options.

Conn started when Wes kicked women out. Perhaps that’s where the feminine energy comes from. There are still more women than men at Conn but that’s probably the case at Wes too now.

People just love to make shit up about Wes. It’s been around 52/48 percent gender balance since 2020 which is very strong for any selective school that is not 100% STEM forward. And to the other PPs, whenever you say a school is not “woke” all I hear is that white Christian nationalist culture is prioritized at the expense of any other marginalized culture or group. You can be there, but keep your feelings to yourself, especially when someone from the dominant culture says something ignorant and offensive. Hey, they were only joking!

"Wesleyan admitted a limited number of women starting in 1872. In 1909, coeducation succumbed to the pressure of male alumni, some of whom believed that it diminished Wesleyan’s standing in comparison with its academic peers. The last female students graduated in 1912. In 1911, some of Wesleyan’s alumnae founded the Connecticut College for Women in New London to help fill the void left when Wesleyan closed its doors to women." (https://www.wesleyan.edu/libr/sca/about/weshistory.html)

Not that part, jag. The passing comment about gender imbalance.

The contributor wasn't wrong about that. Wesleyan's class of 2024 was 60% female, for example.

Are you the same poster who makes tired point every time this issue comes up? Class of 2024 was the COVID year. If you look at Wes’s reported data for that year they even say it should be viewed in that context. It’s also an aberration in contrast to subsequent years, as I previously said. Like I said, people just love to make shit up about Wes to fit their narrative. No offense to Vassar, but it’s not Vassar.

[Anonymous]

Wesleyan's entering classes have been majority female for at least the last five years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We visited all of them.

Tufts: drab campus, 70s concrete brutalism, uninspiring neighborhood

Wesleyan: nice campus, ok neighborhood

Trinity: beautiful campus, appalling neighborhood, would never send my kid there (but you do you)

Conn College: drab campus, not nice neighborhood but not as bad as Trinity

Top choice among these would definitely be Wes. Our tour guide didn’t care about sports at all, if anything looked down on it.

However DS got in ED somewhere else.

This would be a hard no for us then.

We visited Wes. Dc thought it was ‘ok’

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Tufts is super woke now. You can live in dorms divided by identity.

Wesleyan has always been woke but also artsy. The campus is divided out a little that way. Although kids are generally happy there.

Trinity is much less woke, but not totally conservative anymore. They just built a huge new sports/wellness center that is gorgeous. The sports fields are right on campus, which is very fun for all the kids whether you're playing or not. They are also starting to invest more in the dorms. Definitely going to put it on more people's radar. The surrounding neighborhood isn't great, but it's not really an issue and West Hartford is like Scarsdale. Lots of interning opps.

Conn College is a notch below the others, but is probably coming up as well.

I think Trinity appeals to a kid who wants a LAC environment/education but with out as much of the ‘woke’ culture. And for anyone offended by that, it doesn’t mean a kid is MAGA, just that they don’t want their college experience defined by identity politics. I went to a woke SLAC and I found it annoying myself

[Anonymous]

I have a freshman at Tufts. Loves everything about it and we’ve been thrilled about the experience so far. Great friends, proximity to Boston, nice campus … I’m so puzzled by the negativity about Tufts here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a freshman at Tufts. Loves everything about it and we’ve been thrilled about the experience so far. Great friends, proximity to Boston, nice campus … I’m so puzzled by the negativity about Tufts here.

Girl or boy? What major? Are you from the dmv?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a freshman at Tufts. Loves everything about it and we’ve been thrilled about the experience so far. Great friends, proximity to Boston, nice campus … I’m so puzzled by the negativity about Tufts here.

Girl or boy? What major? Are you from the dmv?

Boy, IR, just south

[Anonymous]

Tufts is very unappealing and like Wesleyan woke. Trinity is more moderate but in a horrible neighborhood.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We visited all of them.

Tufts: drab campus, 70s concrete brutalism, uninspiring neighborhood

Wesleyan: nice campus, ok neighborhood

Trinity: beautiful campus, appalling neighborhood, would never send my kid there (but you do you)

Conn College: drab campus, not nice neighborhood but not as bad as Trinity

Top choice among these would definitely be Wes. Our tour guide didn’t care about sports at all, if anything looked down on it.

However DS got in ED somewhere else.

Conn College has a beautiful campus. One of the best in NESCAC.

[Anonymous]

Tufts: smart students, lacks a real personality though

Trinity: more of a preppy vibe

Wesleyan: the most balanced of the bunch; artsy/crunchy elements but also plenty of sporty students

Conn: sweet, quiet, lots of personal attention

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid was looking at NESCAC and from what I can tell through research and campus visit is that they all attract the same kind of applicants within varying degrees. It was almost like culture/student population was not a consideration in picking the school because it was same type of kids at each one.

Have to disagree with the post above as there are discernable differences among the NESCAC schools just as Ivy League schools differ.

Wes is woke to a higher degree than Trinity or Conn College or Tufts.

Tufts proximity to Boston activities gives Tufts a different vibe. Not much school spirit as the lack of isolation allows students to go their own ways as opposed to being forced into a small community due to a remote, isolated location.

Trinity College still has the preppy set & concerns for safety beyond the campus boundaries.

Conn College seems to be more feminine than the others. (I'm sure that this will not evoke any responses.)

Size & location influence each campus culture. More important to visit small schools than large universities due lack of significant options.

These are really boring unimportant differences.