College Decision

MiddleburyDad2
Thu, 28 Apr 2016 16:49:37 +0000

I think you posted this elsewhere. I continue to believe that of that group, your choices should be down to Wes and Carlton. Congrats on Wes - they received over 12,000 apps and had a combined admit rate of 17% and a RD admit rate of under 14%.

I think Willamette is a nice school - I’ve been there since posting before on this topic with you. I still think Whitman is in its own league academically among the NWC schools, but Willamette and L&C are reasonable alternatives to Whitman if you just don’t want to deal with WW. Redlands is not a highly regarded school based on my experience and knowledge. It just doesn’t belong on that list in my view. That would be a “no” for me right off the bat.

I would lump Kenyon and Mac in the next tier, including above Whitman, but with that said, if you really liked Whitman I’d say go. It’s not compelling enough to head to Kenyon or Mac if you don’t like them. I myself liked Kenyon a lot when we were touring, but that school has money issues that they need to fix. Whitman has addressed that issue with a good fundraising campaign. Kenyon has not to my knowledge. Both Whitman and Kenyon are isolated. Macalester not so much.

But I think the conventional wisdom wisdom would be that Carl and Wes are in a category well above the others, and you can flip a coin there. What I like about Wes is its place among the Little Three, its history, the kinds of people who come out of there, the range of things they’re very good at and its status as a founding member of the NESCAC, the trend setting and preeminent D3 sports league in the country. In another thread, someone reported that seven NESCACs (Williams, Amherst, Bowdoin, Colby, Tufts, Wes and Midd) had admission rates below 20%. The competition among those schools in everything is fierce, and I just think it makes them all better. Carleton is a bit of a loner in its conference and affiliation. It really has no regional peers to speak of - maybe Grinnell. But everyone knows Carl is the very best LAC in the midwest.