All else being equal: Boston College vs Colgate?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow
Colgate has a 17% acceptance rate
BC has a 27% acceptance rate

for 2022
according to Google
not what I was expecting

Huh. Me either. Thanks for sharing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow
Colgate has a 17% acceptance rate
BC has a 27% acceptance rate

for 2022
according to Google
not what I was expecting

Huh. Me either. Thanks for sharing.

That is old data

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow
Colgate has a 17% acceptance rate
BC has a 27% acceptance rate

for 2022
according to Google
not what I was expecting

Huh. Me either. Thanks for sharing.

That is old data

OK now I'm looking at their websites:
Colgate has a 12% acceptance rate
BC has a 16.7% acceptance rate

[Anonymous]

Go visit Colgate anytime between Nov and March and you'll see how bleak it would be to attend college in that environment. No culture. No city. No vibrancy. If any of that matters, Boston is far better. BC also has better name recognition and less of the jock-joke rep that Colgate has.

As far as acceptance rate, it's widely know that Colgate plays ranking games. With no required essays, Colgate has gotten a higher number of application over the last couple of year and that automatically drives down their acceptance % rate. A game. Also, a huge number of the class come from ED1 and ED2. When kids apply RD, the school pushes HARD for them to change to ED2. Plenty do it.

[Anonymous]

BC is snowy in the winter too, and in a boring, suburban part of Boston.

[Anonymous]

My DC had both on his list. Ended up not finishing the Colgate app after getting in EA to another school. Accepted at BC in RD. At least for DC, BC was a better choice as bd more appealing (although he went elsewhere).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:BC is snowy in the winter too, and in a boring, suburban part of Boston.

Then apply to BU

No a sole at BC ever called it boring....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The variables between them make this a personal decision. You can't crowd source this one. My DS only applied to small schools, for instance, so Colgate for him; but my friends DD only wanted a rah-rah football college, so BC for her.

I suppose if the focus is just "the odds," you are less likely to get into Colgate without ED, but you have more spots available to ED at BC so more likely to get in ED generally.

Also consider that if the kid is this up in the air about which of these very different schools is a better fit, is ED really a good idea?

This. Those schools are SO different. If a student EDs they need to be 110% sure that's what they want. Being torn between these two schools suggests your kid just doesn't know yet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The variables between them make this a personal decision. You can't crowd source this one. My DS only applied to small schools, for instance, so Colgate for him; but my friends DD only wanted a rah-rah football college, so BC for her.

I suppose if the focus is just "the odds," you are less likely to get into Colgate without ED, but you have more spots available to ED at BC so more likely to get in ED generally.

Also consider that if the kid is this up in the air about which of these very different schools is a better fit, is ED really a good idea?

This. Those schools are SO different. If a student EDs they need to be 110% sure that's what they want. Being torn between these two schools suggests your kid just doesn't know yet.

I do agree that BC & Colgate are quite different, but a particular student could be equally attracted to both schools. Colgate University reported its top 8 overlap schools as: Boston College, Middlebury College, Dartmouth College, Tufts University, Bowdoin College, Colby College, Bucknell University, and Hamilton College.

Personally, I view Bucknell University as the most similar to Colgate University. (Bucknell & Dartmouth list Colgate as their most common overlap school.)

Dartmouth & Middlebury also seem like easy to understand overlaps for Colgate. (However, BC, Middlebury, Tufts, Bowdoin, or Colby do not list Colgate as a top 8 overlap school.)

FWIW College of the Holy Cross lists BC & Colgate as its top 2 overlap schools.

Also, FWIW, I view Wake Forest University as somewhat similar to Colgate University.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:toss a coin

+1 flip a coin.

+1 I flipped a coin to decide between Harvard and Stanford Law School.

This is a proven technique--the trick is, to be aware of how you feel the very second you see the coin toss result. At that moment, your right brain is exposed before the left brain (logic, all the facts and "shoulds") takes over. You will have a millisecond of "YES!" or "hmm. Darn. Maybe two out of three" before your left brain covers those thoughts with all the judgment and analytics, leaving you confused again.

(I know "right" and "left" brain isn't quite accurate to describe this, but I forgot the names of the parts of the brain I am talking about)

Anyways it works! It's a peek at what you really want.

[Anonymous]

Interesting choice -- yes, very different schools in terms of location, but similar preppy vibe. I know two kids who transferred from each for the same reason -- they found the vibe too preppy and clubby. Also, the kid who transferred from BC found it very hard to get around the Boston area for social life and for internships without a car.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Interesting choice -- yes, very different schools in terms of location, but similar preppy vibe. I know two kids who transferred from each for the same reason -- they found the vibe too preppy and clubby. Also, the kid who transferred from BC found it very hard to get around the Boston area for social life and for internships without a car.

He didn't realize the T could take him places (and back again)? Heck, the "Boston College" stop is the end of the B line. Cabs and Uber are plentiful too. I'm not sure how much easier it gets.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting choice -- yes, very different schools in terms of location, but similar preppy vibe. I know two kids who transferred from each for the same reason -- they found the vibe too preppy and clubby. Also, the kid who transferred from BC found it very hard to get around the Boston area for social life and for internships without a car.

He didn't realize the T could take him places (and back again)? Heck, the "Boston College" stop is the end of the B line. Cabs and Uber are plentiful too. I'm not sure how much easier it gets.

That's a very long trip into Boston, and if you want to go to Cambridge, it's even longer. Also, I don't know if you've been to Boston in recent years, but the T is pretty awful these days.

[Anonymous]

What's the lowkey ED3 option for Colgate? Is it RD kids who are asked to change to ED2?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What's the lowkey ED3 option for Colgate? Is it RD kids who are asked to change to ED2?

It is when you have applied RD to Colgate, get rejected by your ED2 school in February, and switch your RD Colgate app to ED2 by their March 1st deadline.
Or, Virginia rejects you EA in February and, likewise, you switch your RD Colgate app to ED2. Nice option to have…