Went to Colgate a generation ago. Did not get into Cornell, so that was a bummer, but quickly came around to going to the 'Gate after visiting the school a second time.

As others mentioned, some other students who attended did not get into their first choice (although many were early decision - which I still think is the case). I was not in a fraternity (although some of my friends were) and met my wife there (who was also not in a sorority). You find your people. They may be jocks, Greeks, outdoor ed focused (the school has a great program), into music or social justice, or whatever. We received really strong liberal art educations, generally had a terrific time, and both made lifelong friendships. The emphasis on traveling abroad to study for a semester or year is great. It's not for everyone (rural, smaller side, cold weather, skewing preppy and wealthy), but my experiences were generally very positive. Beautiful campus, great professors (who actually teach your classes and meet and mentor you), and a relatively contained community in a small town that keeps all the students centrally located. I also liked the fact that you had really smart kids who were not "gunners" - meaning they took their studies seriously but did not broadcast their individual success (and competitiveness) to the world. I don't know if that has changed (I hope it has not). After school, my friends did a variety of things from Peace Corp, med school, law school, vet school, Wall Street, business school, international foundation work, to federal government.

I've been back over the years and met more recent Colgate grads and get the sense that the school has not changed too dramatically since I was there (except everyone has cell phones!).

Good luck with your son's decision.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some Colgate supporters may bristle with this take, but its popularity has crested.

As far as Colgate's trajectory, I would encourage people to trust the data and not some fartknocker on a forum. Acceptance rate dropping by 50% every year. SAT and ACT midranges climbing. Doesn't sound like cresting to me.

This is true of every top 50 school. The same students applying to more schools, due to FOMO, anxiety or both, are what's forcing acceptance rates down. Colgate isn't unique in this.

Even among this general trend, some schools have focused on drawing more applications, driving admit rates down. Colgate has more than doubled its applications over the past 2 years. That’s truly extraordinary.

This is similar to what Colby did a few years earlier. It drove up applications massively, dropping its admit rate to around 8%, lower in some years than Williams, Amherst, Bowdoin, etc. Colby is a very good school, but most people wouldn’t rank it above that cohort.

Colby is certainly an interesting case. It’s very, very small and in Maine. One of my kids liked it - but didn’t go. Other kids was unwilling to look at a single school in Maine as “too far off the beaten path” for her. Colby’s stats dont really make much sense. Why do so many apparently smart kids apply there? What’s the appeal. They do t stand out to me for any specific programs or successes. I’d genuinely like to understand.

The kind of kid looking for a stand out program isn't the kind of kid going to Colby. It attracts kids looking for a certain lifestyle and does well with those kids.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some Colgate supporters may bristle with this take, but its popularity has crested.

As far as Colgate's trajectory, I would encourage people to trust the data and not some fartknocker on a forum. Acceptance rate dropping by 50% every year. SAT and ACT midranges climbing. Doesn't sound like cresting to me.

This is true of every top 50 school. The same students applying to more schools, due to FOMO, anxiety or both, are what's forcing acceptance rates down. Colgate isn't unique in this.

Even among this general trend, some schools have focused on drawing more applications, driving admit rates down. Colgate has more than doubled its applications over the past 2 years. That’s truly extraordinary.

This is similar to what Colby did a few years earlier. It drove up applications massively, dropping its admit rate to around 8%, lower in some years than Williams, Amherst, Bowdoin, etc. Colby is a very good school, but most people wouldn’t rank it above that cohort.

Colgate recently went fully need blind and massively upped its financial aid packages. It was among the last of its peers to do so, so it isn't surprising that its applications are increasing. I think that plus a lot of people viewing it as a safety both for higher ranked SLACs and for Dartmouth/Cornell and applying to more safeties than ever has driven application volumes.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some Colgate supporters may bristle with this take, but its popularity has crested.

As far as Colgate's trajectory, I would encourage people to trust the data and not some fartknocker on a forum. Acceptance rate dropping by 50% every year. SAT and ACT midranges climbing. Doesn't sound like cresting to me.

This is true of every top 50 school. The same students applying to more schools, due to FOMO, anxiety or both, are what's forcing acceptance rates down. Colgate isn't unique in this.

Even among this general trend, some schools have focused on drawing more applications, driving admit rates down. Colgate has more than doubled its applications over the past 2 years. That’s truly extraordinary.

This is similar to what Colby did a few years earlier. It drove up applications massively, dropping its admit rate to around 8%, lower in some years than Williams, Amherst, Bowdoin, etc. Colby is a very good school, but most people wouldn’t rank it above that cohort.

Colby is certainly an interesting case. It’s very, very small and in Maine. One of my kids liked it - but didn’t go. Other kids was unwilling to look at a single school in Maine as “too far off the beaten path” for her. Colby’s stats dont really make much sense. Why do so many apparently smart kids apply there? What’s the appeal. They do t stand out to me for any specific programs or successes. I’d genuinely like to understand.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some Colgate supporters may bristle with this take, but its popularity has crested.

As far as Colgate's trajectory, I would encourage people to trust the data and not some fartknocker on a forum. Acceptance rate dropping by 50% every year. SAT and ACT midranges climbing. Doesn't sound like cresting to me.

This is true of every top 50 school. The same students applying to more schools, due to FOMO, anxiety or both, are what's forcing acceptance rates down. Colgate isn't unique in this.

Even among this general trend, some schools have focused on drawing more applications, driving admit rates down. Colgate has more than doubled its applications over the past 2 years. That’s truly extraordinary.

This is similar to what Colby did a few years earlier. It drove up applications massively, dropping its admit rate to around 8%, lower in some years than Williams, Amherst, Bowdoin, etc. Colby is a very good school, but most people wouldn’t rank it above that cohort.

Anonymous wrote:Some Colgate supporters may bristle with this take, but its popularity has crested.

I went there and am surprised it's as popular as it is. It's a great place to spend 4 years. It helped my get into a great law school and when I got there, I was as prepared as graduates from better SLACs.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some Colgate supporters may bristle with this take, but its popularity has crested.

As far as Colgate's trajectory, I would encourage people to trust the data and not some fartknocker on a forum. Acceptance rate dropping by 50% every year. SAT and ACT midranges climbing. Doesn't sound like cresting to me.

This is true of every top 50 school. The same students applying to more schools, due to FOMO, anxiety or both, are what's forcing acceptance rates down. Colgate isn't unique in this.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some Colgate supporters may bristle with this take, but its popularity has crested.

As far as Colgate's trajectory, I would encourage people to trust the data and not some fartknocker on a forum. Acceptance rate dropping by 50% every year. SAT and ACT midranges climbing. Doesn't sound like cresting to me.

However, a school in that range, that small, with little chance of getting in due to numbers, now becomes a waste of an application for kids who have a better shot at a similar quality school.

My kid had this same experience last year. Not with Colgate, but another school.

He hated it the first two weeks and then he found some friends. All of a sudden gray skies turned blue.

It’s alllll about the people. If he finds a couple of friends, his whole perspective will change.

Encourage him to join groups, clubs, get involved early.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some Colgate supporters may bristle with this take, but its popularity has crested.

As far as Colgate's trajectory, I would encourage people to trust the data and not some fartknocker on a forum. Acceptance rate dropping by 50% every year. SAT and ACT midranges climbing. Doesn't sound like cresting to me.

Whoosh

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your son is wrong. It’s not a failure. Colgate’s acceptance rate this year is between 11 and 12%. It’s lower than Middlebury’s (14%), Georgetown’s (14.5%), UVA’s (19%) and more top ranked schools. It’s an acceptance he should be proud of. Lots of “highflying” applicants did not get in to Colgate this year - we know several. The class of ‘26 is going to be filled with kids just like him. It is not the same Colgate of 10 years ago or even 2 years ago. Plus the research and internship opportunities are excellent due to its size and strong alum network. Most alums are diehard and often very successful.

Yes, it’s no Ivy but the truth is it’s similar to what Dartmouth was a generation ago before it’s acceptance rate hit single digits. If your kid goes he is going to find himself surrounded by classmates who are academically just like him.

Sorry, PP- Colgate is a fantastic school but is is not harder to get into than Middlebury.

Sorry, PP - love Midd but, this year, Colgate’s acceptance rate was 11-12% and Midd’s was 14%. Average GPA and SAT/ACTs aren’t out yet but, by the numbers that are available for the class of ‘26, Colgate is tougher to get into than Middlebury. Facts. Also, will add, once other numbers are out I believe the trend will hold. Colgate’s extra 1,000 students make it more appealing to kids who don’t want an ultra small (2,000 or less) school. It’s been slowly gaining for a while and this was Colgate’s year.

I know these numbers because my kid had to decide between them and loved both but ultimately preferred the slightly large size of Colgate and the chance to root for D1 level sports teams.

Middleburys acceptance rate for this year is actually 15% not 14%.

https://www.middlebury.edu/newsroom/archive/2022-news/node/662746

Anonymous wrote:I met my husband in a top business school. I went to the ivy that was his first choice, he went to Colgate. He’s still bitter when he hangs out with my dumb ivy friends because it’s obviously such an arbitrary process, but we ended up in the same place and his friends are great. He had so much fun there and it’s all the same students and culture as any ivy - it’s just a shitty process and it’s almost like a lottery these days.

Thank you for pointing out that you all ended up in the same place anyway. In my neighborhood, there are plenty of Ivy grads living next to Penn State, U. of MD, U. of Indiana, U. of Delaware, VCU, etc. grads. The folks I know that built their own multimillion-dollar companies did not go to Ivies.

Anonymous wrote:Some Colgate supporters may bristle with this take, but its popularity has crested.

As far as Colgate's trajectory, I would encourage people to trust the data and not some fartknocker on a forum. Acceptance rate dropping by 50% every year. SAT and ACT midranges climbing. Doesn't sound like cresting to me.

Anonymous wrote:Some Colgate supporters may bristle with this take, but its popularity has crested.

m

Anonymous wrote:Some Colgate supporters may bristle with this take, but its popularity has crested.

Maybe. Can’t predict the future, can only report the present.