Reply to Which among WASP would you choose to ED and why?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Just curious as I have a kid looking at Swarthmore. Is it not considered similar to Williams/Amherst in these conversations (most of which center on WAP and Bowdoin) bc of perceived intensity or something else?[/quote]

yes, I think WASP is alive and well as top 4. I also think Midd and Bowdoin are really just a half a step behind. Very tough admits, really nice environments, great career outcomes. I personally would pick Bowdoin and Midd over Amherst. If a kid liked the vibe of one over the others, that's the way to go. They're that close in prestige etc[/quote]
Midd is nowhere close — and declining. The only schools a 1/2 step behind WASPB are Harvey Mudd, Claremont McKenna, and Wellesley. Harvey Mudd and Claremont McKenna, though, are on the upswing, while Wellesley is on the downswing.

If Midd continues its decline it will be on the Colgate, Hamilton, Bates, Holy Cross, Reed tier. The focus should be on avoiding that, not pretending it is something it isn’t.[/quote]

Let's look at things over time. Here is the average ranking for the past 35 years of USNWR rankings

Williams
Amherst
Swarthmore
Pomona
Wellesley
Bowdoin
Middlebury
Carleton
Haverford
Claremont McKenna
Davidson
Wesleyan
Smith
Vassar

These rankings are very stable over time with only a couple of exceptions. Haverford started slipping a bit after their endowment debacle and then with the inclusion of DEI metrics starting in 2020. Middlebury slipped a tiny bit with the inclusion of DEI metrics in and then last year with the change in the student resources calculation which required them to calculate their resources per student using a students number which is 70% higher than it actually is.

The most interesting thing about pulling the data together was how stable the numbers are over a long period of time. Williams, Amherst, and Swarthmore are very stable. Wellesley, Pomona, Bowdoin, and Middlebury trade places back and forth until the DEI changes move Middlebury down a couple of notches in 2020. This also happened to Haverford likely because Middlebury and Haverford have smaller endowments relative to the schools above them and correspondingly fewer kids meeting the Pell grant numbers. Carleton, Haverford, CMC, and Davidson were also pretty stable with Carleton comfortably settled in at 8 occasionally swapping places with 7 in the above list and the others swapping with each other. Haverford is the only school among the long term top 10 which is experiencing a relatively steady trend downward over the past 10 years. It looks like their endowment debacle has finally left them unable to keep up with the resources of the top schools.
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