NESCAC Opportunities?
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Anonymous
+100 |
Anonymous
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The received reputations of some of these schools are subject to question after the turmoil of the last 4 years and the flagrantly capricious nature of the USNWR rankings. Bowdoin has long had a better yield rate than any of its SLAC competitors. In the current round it is also more selective than Amherst, Williams, and Swarthmore (Pomona hasn't released their numbers yet). It is substantially more selective in ED, and yes that accounts for the fact that Bowdoin has two ED rounds while Amherst and Williams have only one. Now that Bowdoin reverted to reporting standardized test scores on the CDS the same way that most other schools do, it is apparent that the academic metrics for the student bodies of all of these schools are essentially identical. This is not to say that these schools are identical in other ways. They are all performing ikebana with their teenage applicants, and it is becoming clear that they may have different goals in mind. The race/ethnicity makeup of Williams and Bowdoin is closer to that of the background demographic than the other schools. Amherst, Swarthmore, and Pomona are overweighting applicants from minority backgrounds, and to some extent foreign applicants. In Bowdoin's case, this difference may be magnified by their "mandate" to take 10% of their class from Maine, which is mostly...white. There are also probably significant differences in the socioeconomic distribution of the students at these schools, but they don't come across as clearly in the data. At any rate, all these schools have large endowments and they are investing this money in their student bodies in different ways. While I would say they were all much of a muchness 10 years ago, it will be interesting to see how their trajectories diverge in the years ahead! |
Anonymous
You still haven't answered the question. On what criteria are you basing this? You mention "win rates" but don't provide any, nor a reason that would indicate it is "better" or has a better reputation. Should this kind of statement be based on some kind of measurement and verifiable statistic? Cohort comparisons? Something? Otherwise it's, like, just your opinion, man. Which is fine. My guess is you are just parroting USN rankings and claiming 9 is way lower than 2 and therefore it's not as good. |
Anonymous
| FWIW, Bowdoin has a lot of money now... on par with the other ones. So it's very resource rich. Endowment almost 2x Midd and it's a smaller school. |
Anonymous
Any school with an endowment over $1 billion has a lot of money. |
Anonymous
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Anonymous
Does it actually spend that money on its students or is it like Wellesley and just sits on the endowment for the USN ranking? Unfortunately a lot of the most elite SLACs are doing this. The dorms at Wellesley are gross. |
Anonymous
| Bowdoin has a better yield b/c they have ED2 and Amherst and Williams do not. |
Anonymous
| We visited Bates this weekend and were pleasantly surprised. In this forum people make Lewiston sound like Mogadishu. It’s nowhere near as bad as the hood around Trinity. |
Anonymous
Grinnell with merit over full pay Bates and Wesleyan makes sense. But otherwise my choice would be Wesleyan full pay unless the intended major is a STEM field in which case CWRU might be the best overall choice. |
Anonymous
All colleges are required to spend 4-5% of their endowments annually. So no school is really sitting on it. Wellesley is just choosing to spend it on things like financial aid versus infrastructure. |
Anonymous
Our student is at Bowdoin, and they seem to be very generous with their funds. Here's a student newspaper from 2019: https://bowdoinorient.com/2019/04/12/how-does-bowdoin-spend-its-money/ |
Anonymous
They are now spending more on infrastructure |
Anonymous
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And for orginal poster, I would choose Grinnell. But do not commit without visiting, small town Iowa has to be experienced, getting to the school is hard and most juniors study abroad. Education is exceptional and best choice if grad school is a possibility. If the not up for rural then Case Western, Cleveland is a much better place to spend 4 years then Lewistown.
I, too, had originally suggested Grinnell with merit over full pay at Bates or Wes. But I forgot to mention that you should also think long and hard about the broader context of living in a red state, especially since the matriculant in question is female. |
Anonymous
Also, you need to define "gross." I have no problem believing that Wellesley's dorms are in need of some renovation, but I'd be very surprised if they are dilapidated to the point of being structural safety hazards. If what you're saying is that peer schools have all renovated and upgraded the amenities of their respective dorms within the last five years and Wellesley has not, that's a fair point, but if the renovation timelines are all the same, I'd be very skeptical of this assessment for the simple reason that Wellesley, compared to other schools, tends not to have a big drinking culture, and both vandalism and property damage are correlated with on-campus drinking. Also (and I realize that what I'm about to say is a broad generalization), women tend to be more hygienic than men, especially during the college years. Sure, go into any random dorm room and you'll likely find lots of dust, piled up papers and heaps of dirty laundry whatever the sex of its occupants. But you're more likely to find piled up food waste and the like in rooms occupied by men. |