Anonymous
11/22/2025 18:21
Subject: Question about NESCAC schools
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Colby or Holy Cross might be good options. Probably more so because most NESCAC schools are magnets for Northeast prep school grads. Colby may be exception.
Being a lesser NESCAC Colby does have a lower population of kids from top privates relative to Amherst, Bowdoin, Middlebury, and Williams.
You do realize that Colby is the hardest admit of the bunch?
Anonymous
11/22/2025 18:19
Subject: Question about NESCAC schools
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Colby or Holy Cross might be good options. Probably more so because most NESCAC schools are magnets for Northeast prep school grads. Colby may be exception.
Being a lesser NESCAC Colby does have a lower population of kids from top privates relative to Amherst, Bowdoin, Middlebury, and Williams.
You have it backwards, the "Lesser NESCACs" like Colby, Trinity, etc, accept the highest amounts of prep school bros. Boarding school kids in the bottom 50% of their class have to go somewhere. Do you think they are going to SUNYs, UMass and UConn? Only if they are D1 recruits. Williams, Amherst, are able to be much more discriminating, and have a more even mix of public/private students as a result.
Anonymous
11/22/2025 17:54
Subject: Question about NESCAC schools
Our west coast public school kid was looking for this kind of environment and looked into a lot of NESCAC schools. She felt the best matches at Wesleyan, Conn College, Tufts, and Amherst. She's a very social kid, also well-rounded with varied interests and an athlete. She toured all these and also did a lot of talking with students she knows who currently attend these colleges. Ironically she ended up ED'ing to Carleton, but Tufts is her #2 choice.
Anonymous
11/22/2025 17:06
Subject: Question about NESCAC schools
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Midwesterner here, curious which NESCAC schools offer the best vibe/fit for a student from a flyover state. We are looking for campuses that feel warm, welcoming, and collaborative rather than pretentious or dominated by private/boarding-school culture.
My daughter is pretty open academically, plays a varsity sport, and works as a stage manager for drama productions, so she’s well-rounded and tends to make friends easily.
Which NESCAC schools would likely be the best match for that environment, and which might be tougher fits?
The NESCAC school that you are seeking does not exist. You are not going to find Midwestern nice or Southern kindness at a NESCAC school. To be blunt, you are more likely to find the opposite of what you are seeking. NESCAC schools are lax bros, prep school central types.
Regardless, I admire your daughter's desire to explore outside of her geographic region.
NESCAC schools offer beautiful Fall settings and solid academics.
As others have suggested, Davidson College may be a match. Bowdoin College is worth a visit, but it is small, however the campus vibe is more like an exclusive New England prep school than the elite college that it is. If the search is limited to NESCAC schools, then consider Conn College.
I wrote the above post.
Consider Skidmore College in New York state. Not a NESCAC, but the students seem friendly and into the arts.
Visiting NESCAC schools is fun and enchanting due to the beautiful easily managed campuses. The campus culture at Colgate University (very attractive setting & campus) is not one to which I would subject a female relative, but it is a very good school with above average career outcomes.
Anonymous
11/22/2025 16:58
Subject: Question about NESCAC schools
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Midwesterner here, curious which NESCAC schools offer the best vibe/fit for a student from a flyover state. We are looking for campuses that feel warm, welcoming, and collaborative rather than pretentious or dominated by private/boarding-school culture.
My daughter is pretty open academically, plays a varsity sport, and works as a stage manager for drama productions, so she’s well-rounded and tends to make friends easily.
Which NESCAC schools would likely be the best match for that environment, and which might be tougher fits?
The NESCAC school that you are seeking does not exist. You are not going to find Midwestern nice or Southern kindness at a NESCAC school. To be blunt, you are more likely to find the opposite of what you are seeking. NESCAC schools are lax bros, prep school central types.
Regardless, I admire your daughter's desire to explore outside of her geographic region.
NESCAC schools offer beautiful Fall settings and solid academics.
As others have suggested, Davidson College may be a match. Bowdoin College is worth a visit, but it is small, however the campus vibe is more like an exclusive New England prep school than the elite college that it is. If the search is limited to NESCAC schools, then consider Conn College.
Midwesterner who attended a NESCAC back in the day FWIW- for “Midwestern nice” or “Southern warmth”, consider Kenyon, Grinnell, Davidson, Denison, Macalester and Carleton. If she wants something more collaborative in New England then maybe Smith, Mount Holyoke or Wellesley? That being said, it is possible for her to find her people at any NESCAC- there are nice people from prep school backgrounds and not-so-nice people from public school backgrounds at any college.
Anonymous
11/22/2025 16:52
Subject: Question about NESCAC schools
Anonymous wrote:Midwesterner here, curious which NESCAC schools offer the best vibe/fit for a student from a flyover state. We are looking for campuses that feel warm, welcoming, and collaborative rather than pretentious or dominated by private/boarding-school culture.
My daughter is pretty open academically, plays a varsity sport, and works as a stage manager for drama productions, so she’s well-rounded and tends to make friends easily.
Which NESCAC schools would likely be the best match for that environment, and which might be tougher fits?
The NESCAC school that you are seeking does not exist. You are not going to find Midwestern nice or Southern kindness at a NESCAC school. To be blunt, you are more likely to find the opposite of what you are seeking. NESCAC schools are lax bros, prep school central types.
Regardless, I admire your daughter's desire to explore outside of her geographic region.
NESCAC schools offer beautiful Fall settings and solid academics.
As others have suggested, Davidson College may be a match. Bowdoin College is worth a visit, but it is small, however the campus vibe is more like an exclusive New England prep school than the elite college that it is. If the search is limited to NESCAC schools, then consider Conn College.
Anonymous
11/22/2025 16:44
Subject: Question about NESCAC schools
Based on my DCs experience, Wesleyan checks all these boxes.
Anonymous
11/22/2025 15:09
Subject: Question about NESCAC schools
Avoid williams, lord the egos would make your kid explode.
Anonymous
11/22/2025 13:37
Subject: Question about NESCAC schools
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:NYer here with a kid set to go to a SLAC in a flyover state. The NESCAC (and similar) schools that he liked with similar vibes: Wesleyan, Tufts, Haverford, Lafayette, and Colgate.
Just out of curiosity, which flyover SLAC is your kid set to attend?
Carleton
Anonymous
11/22/2025 13:36
Subject: Question about NESCAC schools
Anonymous wrote:NYer here with a kid set to go to a SLAC in a flyover state. The NESCAC (and similar) schools that he liked with similar vibes: Wesleyan, Tufts, Haverford, Lafayette, and Colgate.
Just out of curiosity, which flyover SLAC is your kid set to attend?
Anonymous
11/22/2025 13:36
Subject: Question about NESCAC schools
In New England HC would be the answer.
Anonymous
11/22/2025 13:27
Subject: Question about NESCAC schools
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Colby or Holy Cross might be good options. Probably more so because most NESCAC schools are magnets for Northeast prep school grads. Colby may be exception.
Being a lesser NESCAC Colby does have a lower population of kids from top privates relative to Amherst, Bowdoin, Middlebury, and Williams.
Since Trinity is known as prep school central, your logic is flawed.
Anonymous
11/22/2025 13:26
Subject: Question about NESCAC schools
Anonymous wrote:Avoid Colgate, Middlebury and Williams.
Look at Amherst, Hamilton.
Consider Davidson.
If your daughter might like the idea of an open curriculum, Amherst and Hamilton offer this.
Anonymous
11/22/2025 13:26
Subject: Question about NESCAC schools
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Midwesterner here, curious which NESCAC schools offer the best vibe/fit for a student from a flyover state. We are looking for campuses that feel warm, welcoming, and collaborative rather than pretentious or dominated by private/boarding-school culture.
My daughter is pretty open academically, plays a varsity sport, and works as a stage manager for drama productions, so she’s well-rounded and tends to make friends easily.
Which NESCAC schools would likely be the best match for that environment, and which might be tougher fits?
Sounds more like a Holy Cross kid than a NESCAC kid…
The HC booster is lurking this weekend. That said, HC is a great school but it’s not a top NESCAC.
It’s not a NESCAC at all. But if you are in flyover country, want to go to New England, and want to avoid the boarding school vibe but still go to a welcoming and academic SLAC, there’s your answer. The other answer is to avoid New England altogether and attend a SLAC elsewhere. Upstate New York is a wasteland: you might as well be in the midwest. Thinking more Davidson, maybe the 5Cs…
Anonymous
11/22/2025 13:11
Subject: Question about NESCAC schools
Anonymous wrote:Colby or Holy Cross might be good options. Probably more so because most NESCAC schools are magnets for Northeast prep school grads. Colby may be exception.
Being a lesser NESCAC Colby does have a lower population of kids from top privates relative to Amherst, Bowdoin, Middlebury, and Williams.