Fine schools yes boredom factor 10 out of 10. Save big bucks and go to the SEC. Think UTexas, UGa, UF . March Madness!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bowdoin is similar to Williams and Amherst.

Middlebury is similar to Hamilton and Vassar.

The other two are similar to Bucknell.

Amherst, Bowdoin, Middlebury and Williams all have a very similar academic profile with avg SAT scores between 1500-1520 and acceptance levels of 8-10% or so
Hamilton and Vassar are just slightly below them with acceptance levels of 12-18%
Colby is probably slightly below this set but they haven't released a CDS in awhile.

Bates is a level down in terms of admit stats but similar in selectivity to Hamilton and Vassar. Their academic stats are far above Bucknell which is also an excellent school.

Amherst, Bowdoin, and Williams: acceptance rate 7-9; mean sat 1510-1530

Middlebury, Hamilton, Haverford: acceptance rate 11-13; mean sat 1490

From their CDS (actual real data) Amherst, Bowdoin, Middlebury and Williams all are at the 98th pct for their SAT score median. Amherst, Middlebury and Williams all had acceptance rates of 10% and Bowdoin was 8%. Amherst and Bowdoin have slightly deflated acceptance rates as they are need blind for internationals and get additional international applicants because of this.
Hamilton and Vassar are close (really the same) in terms of student profile with a 97th pct SAT but only slightly less selective admissions. They are also basically the same as the others.

All of these schools are excellent, Bates and Colby are excellent as well. A prospective student should choose based on where they feel themselves spending 4 years getting a great education.

Might add Gtown and ND to Holy Cross list. But it’s not 1890 anymore and there are lots of Catholics at Williams, Amherst, Bowdoin etc.

Kids who are considering Bowdoin, Amherst, Middlebury, Williams, etc. are NOT looking at Holy Cross.

Kids looking at HC are looking at Villanova, Fairfield, Fordham, Boston College, Providence College, etc.

Move over Bucknell booster, there's a new sheriff in town. Welcome Holy Cross booster (or should I say, Crusader?)!

Personally would not spend $350-400k over 4 years to be in middle of nowhere and freeze from November to mid April. Same applies to Carleton and Grinnell. Problem with good LAC’s is a lot of them are rural -add in Colgate, Hamilton, Smith. Only top LAC’s near major cities Swarthmore, Barnard Holy Cross and Wellesley.

Bowdoin and Miss are considered top schools and bates and bowdoin are not but are the next level down. Sort of like comparing Cornell/dartmouth to BC/BU/tufts. All of them will provide a truly excellent educations and job prospects. Culturally all four are cold, rural, a pain to get to and filled with rich preppy white kids (on the whole). I wouldn’t want to have a HHI less than 300k at any of these schools and less than 500k if your kid cares about fitting in and affording the clothes, trips etc.

Anonymous wrote:Don’t get the appeal of those schools way tol remote. Of the 4, Bowdoin highest academic ranking.Also agree their enrollment is very small believe Midd is the largest at least Dartmouth has 4,500 undergrads. Davidson is a southern Bowdoin but close to major city-Charllotte. Also Holy Cross at 3300 kids close to Boston seem better options. HC seems to have their act together and academics while below Bowdoin more comparable to Colby Bates and Midd. Williams and Amherst also rural ( less so Amherst) have the cache that the Maine schools might lack.

A lot of people don't mind the ruralness of a school. They are all in beautiful settings. As someone who went to one of the discussed schools, I wish my kid were at any of those over the larger university that she attends which is located in a high-crime urban area. And, I am from a big city! It's actually nice being in a contained location. I wonder how many kids who go to schools in big cities actually take advantage of all those cities have to offer.

Not sure about ND vs HC all time academic comparison. US News has Notre Dame at 18 in university category and Holy Cross at 28 in LAC category(lac category includes Army, Navy. and Air Force Academy), Slight advantage to ND but HC outperforms in grad success with Holy Cross at 3000 kids vs ND at 8-9 thousand.

HC was a better tier school in the days of Fauci and Thomas. It was comparable to ND in it's day.

HC would be comparable to Colby and Bates. By successful outcomes Holy Criss exceeds that list with possible exception of Bowdoin. How many Nobel prize winners have come out of Midd., Bates or Colby. Maybe George Mitchell a Bowdoin grad won the Nobel Peace? HC had until recent election 2 US senators down to 1 now do the 3 Maine schools or Midd have any currently? Again HC has Fauci, Clarence Thomas, John Robert’s wife. As in business Holy Cross grads are CEO’s at Jet Blue, CNBC recent CEO’s at Danaher, Under armor and HC grads on board of directors at several well known Fotune 100 companies a lift imo would dwarf that of those 4 schools, Midd does well on Wall Street but imo Holy Cross exceeds the 4 in corporate success medicine and law/politics. They are doing something right at HC.

Anonymous wrote:Don’t get the appeal of those schools way tol remote. Of the 4, Bowdoin highest academic ranking.Also agree their enrollment is very small believe Midd is the largest at least Dartmouth has 4,500 undergrads. Davidson is a southern Bowdoin but close to major city-Charllotte. Also Holy Cross at 3300 kids close to Boston seem better options. HC seems to have their act together and academics while below Bowdoin more comparable to Colby Bates and Midd. Williams and Amherst also rural ( less so Amherst) have the cache that the Maine schools might lack.

The strength of the student body at Holy Cross simply isn't in the same league as the other schools your comparing it to.

Don’t get the appeal of those schools way tol remote. Of the 4, Bowdoin highest academic ranking.Also agree their enrollment is very small believe Midd is the largest at least Dartmouth has 4,500 undergrads. Davidson is a southern Bowdoin but close to major city-Charllotte. Also Holy Cross at 3300 kids close to Boston seem better options. HC seems to have their act together and academics while below Bowdoin more comparable to Colby Bates and Midd. Williams and Amherst also rural ( less so Amherst) have the cache that the Maine schools might lack.

We visited all 4. It really is such a personal thing. My kid liked Bates the best of the bunch — said it felt the friendliest, least pretentious, and most community-minded. Liked Midd second best, thought Colby was “fine,” and applied. For some reason didn’t click with Bowdoin and didn’t apply.

If I was one of these schools, I'd build an extra dorm and some townhouses for upperclassman and start adding 250 kids per class til you have increased size by 1000 kids.

No kids cares if their classes are 12 kids or 15 kids.

They have faculty. And faculty wants more robust resources. The gym has room. The ski hills etc have room. The health center .. hire a couple more nurses. For food - build a coffee shop for overflow, add kitchens to group housing.

We liked ALL these schools, they all just felt a tiny bit too small. Moving to 3500 would be such a game changer and excellent for their bottom line.