Anonymous wrote:Rigor doesn’t pay the bills. Job outcomes do. Williams, Wellesley, Holy Cross, Colgate, Bowdoin place better than Wesleyan and Vassar.

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Anonymous wrote:Not interested in hearing how woke you think these schools are.

Back when I was applying to college, Haverford was seen as one of the most intense, grade deflated liberal arts colleges you could apply to. Has it kept its rigorous reputation as a challenging place to go to school academically? What about Wesleyan, Claremont McKenna, or Wellesley?

Haverford is still very intellectual. Yes, rigorous and still very good at preparing students for PhD programs. Claremont is the most bro-ish, right leaning, and business-oriented of all the Claremont schools, probably of all the strong SLACs. Wesleyan is interesting - maybe because it is much larger than the others - because it is a funny mix of artsy/political/just missed Brown types and a pretty different athlete group. At least that is how we felt when we visited. We visited all three on admitted student days and know kids who attend.

When looking at the most intellectually rigorous LACs, Williams and Swarthmore come to mind (both not on OP's list). My DS is at CMC and it's not very right-leaning or bro-ish in his experience. A recent student poll determined it is over 2/3 liberal or very liberal. There are 2-3 Maga kids per year, but most of the small-ish (less than 1/3) conservative students consider themselves centrist (think Bill Kristol not Steve Bannon) and most dislike Trump. The faculty at CMC does have some professors who are conservative, but they don't lecture their views but just want open dialogue and some of their favorite students are very liberal. It's a great place.

Haverford is still a very intellectual place. One of DS's good friends is studying science there and really enjoys the rigor. They all have to do a thesis which is rare at some other colleges.

Wesleyan was grouped with Williams and Amherst for awhile as one of the "little three", and is only 30 minutes from Yale, so I do think it's known to have an intellectual vibe.

Vassar has rigorous academics as well.

Hearing "is only 30 min from Yale" as a qualification for Wesleyan just made me laugh. I went to Yale and there was never any mixing between these two schools. None. Some of my classmates applied to Wes as a safety. Some had friends who went there who didn't get into Yale.

As a parent, I toured Wesleyan and thought it seemed liked a good school. My kid liked it. I did too, but it didn't blow me away. The campus was ok (not bad but saw others that were far nicer), the town is kind of meh. A friend's kid goes there and is happy.