Anonymous
12/25/2025 20:45
Subject: WASP? Is this a real thing, or recent construction?
What does bowdoin have/is doing that ranks it near Williams or Amherst? It seems really stagnant and uninteresting.
Anonymous
12/25/2025 20:41
Subject: WASP? Is this a real thing, or recent construction?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Except for Williams and Amherst maybe add in Bowdoin, the rest of the NESCAC is irrelevant. Safe landing spots for prep school kids who can’t get into top schools
Sure Karen, keep telling yourself that. They really aren’t interested in your kind anyway.
Except they’re completely correct. No one is seriously considering Connecticut college or Bates some intellectual bastion for the next generation. They’re alright.
+1, these schools are gonna struggle in the future. They aren’t gonna close but they’re losing relevance.
Anonymous
12/25/2025 20:33
Subject: WASP? Is this a real thing, or recent construction?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:When you folks pontificate about one school or department being better than another school or department, do you really know what you’re talking about? I mean, do you really have a reasonable basis for such opinions that isn’t based on USNWR or internet gossip? The confidence with which y’all make such statements seems directly correlated to the lack of serious thought behind them.
With lacs, some schools fund their departments better than others. There’s pretty clear resources someone can point to about Kenton’s creative writing program or Williams’s math program that they can’t say the same for another college.
No one here is knowingly relying on funding as a basis for distinguishing between different schools' departments. Because know one here actually knows such things, much less is capable of conducting a sophisticated comparative analysis that disaggregates for variables like student size, etc. But you're welcome to prove me wrong by at least citing to any reliable source showing the specific funding for either Kenyon's creative writing program or Williams's mathematics department.
And even if I granted you this point, it doesn't exactly apply here where people are delivering categorical proclamations distinguishing between extremely similar schools (e.g., WASP, Bowdoin, CMC, etc.).
You brought up funding out of nowhere.
No other LAC has SMALL reu or the Kenyon Review. Those are competitive resources. Another example for us was the fine arts resources at the Claremont Colleges surpassed many peers because they had access to 2 ceramics studios and multiple wood workshops and mudd’s machine shop. Colorado College’s block plan allows for various study abroad opportunities integrated with courses.
What? Here's the post to which I responded: "With lacs, some schools fund their departments better than others. There’s pretty clear resources someone can point to about Kenton’s creative writing program or Williams’s math program that they can’t say the same for another college." That post raised the issue of funding, and I responded to it.
Anyhow, my point remains. I'm not saying that there aren't differences between schools and their departments. I'm saying that the people with the loudest, most confident opinions on school comparisons usually know the least.
This is something people say when they don’t know what they’re talking about and are insecure that some people do their research.
It is a fact that some colleges have more resources for a major than others.
Anonymous
12/25/2025 20:28
Subject: WASP? Is this a real thing, or recent construction?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:When you folks pontificate about one school or department being better than another school or department, do you really know what you’re talking about? I mean, do you really have a reasonable basis for such opinions that isn’t based on USNWR or internet gossip? The confidence with which y’all make such statements seems directly correlated to the lack of serious thought behind them.
With lacs, some schools fund their departments better than others. There’s pretty clear resources someone can point to about Kenton’s creative writing program or Williams’s math program that they can’t say the same for another college.
No one here is knowingly relying on funding as a basis for distinguishing between different schools' departments. Because know one here actually knows such things, much less is capable of conducting a sophisticated comparative analysis that disaggregates for variables like student size, etc. But you're welcome to prove me wrong by at least citing to any reliable source showing the specific funding for either Kenyon's creative writing program or Williams's mathematics department.
And even if I granted you this point, it doesn't exactly apply here where people are delivering categorical proclamations distinguishing between extremely similar schools (e.g., WASP, Bowdoin, CMC, etc.).
You brought up funding out of nowhere.
No other LAC has SMALL reu or the Kenyon Review. Those are competitive resources. Another example for us was the fine arts resources at the Claremont Colleges surpassed many peers because they had access to 2 ceramics studios and multiple wood workshops and mudd’s machine shop. Colorado College’s block plan allows for various study abroad opportunities integrated with courses.
What? Here's the post to which I responded: "With lacs, some schools fund their departments better than others. There’s pretty clear resources someone can point to about Kenton’s creative writing program or Williams’s math program that they can’t say the same for another college." That post raised the issue of funding, and I responded to it.
Anyhow, my point remains. I'm not saying that there aren't differences between schools and their departments. I'm saying that the people with the loudest, most confident opinions on school comparisons usually know the least.
Anonymous
12/25/2025 20:26
Subject: WASP? Is this a real thing, or recent construction?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Horrible diversity at a lot of those schools.
WASP grad here and not white. I loved my time there but a lot of kids from minority backgrounds prefer urban campuses. NESCAC schools can be a hard sell in minority communities. My own kid preferred a bigger, more urban school to the WASP schools because of their insular nature.
They just don’t see their people around and decide to leave. Black and Hispanic faculty members tend to be attracted to cities. It’s probably the easiest time ever to live in a rural area as a person of color- can get all your products on Amazon and it comes quick. The issue is that these schools don’t have diversity and struggle to attract students who need to be there to bring in diversity.
Anonymous
12/25/2025 20:24
Subject: WASP? Is this a real thing, or recent construction?
Most are very rural. Agree hard sell.
Anonymous
12/25/2025 20:22
Subject: WASP? Is this a real thing, or recent construction?
Anonymous wrote:Horrible diversity at a lot of those schools.
WASP grad here and not white. I loved my time there but a lot of kids from minority backgrounds prefer urban campuses. NESCAC schools can be a hard sell in minority communities. My own kid preferred a bigger, more urban school to the WASP schools because of their insular nature.
Anonymous
12/25/2025 20:20
Subject: WASP? Is this a real thing, or recent construction?
Anonymous wrote:Horrible diversity at a lot of those schools.
They somehow lack in diversity of thought, income, and race. It’s honestly impressive how homogenous they are.
Anonymous
12/25/2025 20:17
Subject: WASP? Is this a real thing, or recent construction?
Horrible diversity at a lot of those schools.
Anonymous
12/25/2025 20:14
Subject: WASP? Is this a real thing, or recent construction?
Anonymous wrote:^right these schools are interested in full pay WASP schools. Excluding Tufts, very little diversity.
Meh. 85% of Tufts’ class of 2029 is white and Asian.
Anonymous
12/25/2025 20:12
Subject: WASP? Is this a real thing, or recent construction?
Full pay Episcopalians and Unitarians aren’t a growing demographic.
Anonymous
12/25/2025 20:09
Subject: WASP? Is this a real thing, or recent construction?
^right these schools are interested in full pay WASP schools. Excluding Tufts, very little diversity.
Anonymous
12/25/2025 20:03
Subject: WASP? Is this a real thing, or recent construction?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Except for Williams and Amherst maybe add in Bowdoin, the rest of the NESCAC is irrelevant. Safe landing spots for prep school kids who can’t get into top schools
Sure Karen, keep telling yourself that. They really aren’t interested in your kind anyway.
Except they’re completely correct. No one is seriously considering Connecticut college or Bates some intellectual bastion for the next generation. They’re alright.
Anonymous
12/25/2025 20:00
Subject: WASP? Is this a real thing, or recent construction?
Anonymous wrote:Except for Williams and Amherst maybe add in Bowdoin, the rest of the NESCAC is irrelevant. Safe landing spots for prep school kids who can’t get into top schools
Sure Karen, keep telling yourself that. They really aren’t interested in your kind anyway.
Anonymous
12/25/2025 19:54
Subject: WASP? Is this a real thing, or recent construction?
Except for Williams and Amherst maybe add in Bowdoin, the rest of the NESCAC is irrelevant. Safe landing spots for prep school kids who can’t get into top schools