Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Np our DD toured Williams, Amherst, Pomona and loved them all. Also toured Swarthmore and Harvey Mudd and thought they were also great and too small.

She wants small to mid sized colleges that offer high rigor but not a cut-throat culture, professor mentorship, research opportunities and a collaborative, tight-knit community. Also value strong grad school admissions results.

Which other colleges should she look into? Not necessarily need to be LACs, also interested in universities with population under 10k as long as undergrads get to do research. Already ruled out Rice due to Texas.

Tufts seems like a bullseye fit for what you describe. (If you ruled out Rice due to Texas, you'd probably rule out WashU due to Missouri, so I won't suggest that.) Tufts is in MA, like Williams and Amherst. It's the perfect "goldilocks" size of 6500-700 undergrads. There are graduate students (famous Fletcher IR/diplomacy, and prominent Tufts Med school, etc.) but undergrads make up the majority and most get to do research as undergrads. Tufts is R1, but still thinks and acts like a LAC in some ways. They have LAC-style distribution requirements, you don't declare a major until end of sophomore year, but all majors are open to you. It's high rigor, but not cutthroat and profs really sound like they are accesible and open to working with undergrads. It is known to be collaborative too. Kind of sounds ideal for what you're looking for.

Anonymous wrote:Mine got rejected from both but, she would’ve chose Williams.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Np our DD toured Williams, Amherst, Pomona and loved them all. Also toured Swarthmore and Harvey Mudd and thought they were also great and too small.

She wants small to mid sized colleges that offer high rigor but not a cut-throat culture, professor mentorship, research opportunities and a collaborative, tight-knit community. Also value strong grad school admissions results.

Which other colleges should she look into? Not necessarily need to be LACs, also interested in universities with population under 10k as long as undergrads get to do research. Already ruled out Rice due to Texas.

Tufts seems like a bullseye fit for what you describe. (If you ruled out Rice due to Texas, you'd probably rule out WashU due to Missouri, so I won't suggest that.) Tufts is in MA, like Williams and Amherst. It's the perfect "goldilocks" size of 6500-700 undergrads. There are graduate students (famous Fletcher IR/diplomacy, and prominent Tufts Med school, etc.) but undergrads make up the majority and most get to do research as undergrads. Tufts is R1, but still thinks and acts like a LAC in some ways. They have LAC-style distribution requirements, you don't declare a major until end of sophomore year, but all majors are open to you. It's high rigor, but not cutthroat and profs really sound like they are accesible and open to working with undergrads. It is known to be collaborative too. Kind of sounds ideal for what you're looking for.

Anonymous wrote:Np our DD toured Williams, Amherst, Pomona and loved them all. Also toured Swarthmore and Harvey Mudd and thought they were also great and too small.

She wants small to mid sized colleges that offer high rigor but not a cut-throat culture, professor mentorship, research opportunities and a collaborative, tight-knit community. Also value strong grad school admissions results.

Which other colleges should she look into? Not necessarily need to be LACs, also interested in universities with population under 10k as long as undergrads get to do research. Already ruled out Rice due to Texas.

Anonymous wrote:Very, very different places geographically and weather-wise. Both are kind of in the middle of nowhere, although Pomona (in inland empire 1.5 hours east of LA) has a town that has more shops/cafes than Williams. Gets very, very hot and was surprised at the lack of consistent AC especially at night in dorms.

Williams seemed more impressive to us academically (the tutorials!) but wow, it felt isolated. Gets very very cold.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Np our DD toured Williams, Amherst, Pomona and loved them all. Also toured Swarthmore and Harvey Mudd and thought they were also great and too small.

She wants small to mid sized colleges that offer high rigor but not a cut-throat culture, professor mentorship, research opportunities and a collaborative, tight-knit community. Also value strong grad school admissions results.

Which other colleges should she look into? Not necessarily need to be LACs, also interest in universities with population under 10k as long as undergrads get to do research. Already ruled out Rice due to Texas.

Our DC liked Emory, WashU and Wesleyan.

Anonymous wrote:Np our DD toured Williams, Amherst, Pomona and loved them all. Also toured Swarthmore and Harvey Mudd and thought they were also great and too small.

She wants small to mid sized colleges that offer high rigor but not a cut-throat culture, professor mentorship, research opportunities and a collaborative, tight-knit community. Also value strong grad school admissions results.

Which other colleges should she look into? Not necessarily need to be LACs, also interested in universities with population under 10k as long as undergrads get to do research. Already ruled out Rice due to Texas.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Np our DD toured Williams, Amherst, Pomona and loved them all. Also toured Swarthmore and Harvey Mudd and thought they were also great and too small.

She wants small to mid sized colleges that offer high rigor but not a cut-throat culture, professor mentorship, research opportunities and a collaborative, tight-knit community. Also value strong grad school admissions results.

Which other colleges should she look into? Not necessarily need to be LACs, also interested in universities with population under 10k as long as undergrads get to do research. Already ruled out Rice due to Texas.

Dartmouth is basically an LAC in practice and nearly in size (4.5k).

I'd reconsider Rice. Texas is more diverse than a lot of people presume, and Houston is hardly a conservative place if that's your concern.

Someone who is actually knowledgeable about LACs would never say this. Dartmouth is technically a university and has a vastly different ethos than SLACs.

Anonymous wrote:Np our DD toured Williams, Amherst, Pomona and loved them all. Also toured Swarthmore and Harvey Mudd and thought they were also great and too small.

She wants small to mid sized colleges that offer high rigor but not a cut-throat culture, professor mentorship, research opportunities and a collaborative, tight-knit community. Also value strong grad school admissions results.

Which other colleges should she look into? Not necessarily need to be LACs, also interested in universities with population under 10k as long as undergrads get to do research. Already ruled out Rice due to Texas.