Hello,
I am helping my D24 select her NLA admit choice. She is most interest in Environmental Studies with high hopes on making the world a better place. She is particularly interested in environmental activism and policy. She’s looking at Wesleyan, Carleton, Kenyon, Bucknell, Scripps and waitlisted at Bowdoin and Mid. Still waiting on a few other possibilities. Although it’s her choice, it seems like Wes and Carl have the best reputation. She likes cross country but isn’t Wes in more of an urban area? I went to Bucknell and they have a great sounding program but I’m not sure it is in the same league of a school as the others. Is Carl more conservative? Any thoughts would be most appreciative.
With respect to your daughter’s interest in environmental studies, this site may be worth a look:
With respect to converting environmentalism to policy, note that Carleton appears in this site:
Has she been able to visit any of them during the application process? That’s often the best way to get a feel for the school and the student body, and I’d encourage trying to get as much of a boots-on-the-ground feel as possible.
One search tool here that I find really helpful is to go to this link, and replace “wesleyan” with whatever school you’re interested in. Then, open each of the search results in a new tab. It’s searching within a classic thread on the boards, basically “after you toured them, which schools moved up/down your list, and why?”) It gives good insights into what people saw when they visited. (And sometimes the results aren’t useful, but sometimes they’re gold.)
(Others might disagree, but I wouldn’t describe Wesleyan as being in an urban area. I also wouldn’t describe Carleton as having a conservative student body.)
Good luck with your daughter’s decision!
Great advice of course…We’ve visited all except Carleton and Kenyon. Also, Skidmore and Bates are on the list of choices as well. Bowdoin would be her favorite so far, but a waitlist isn’t very promising, is it? Of course the school is amazing, and it is rural but with a beautiful, iconic town that she loves as well. We walked around Middletown but didn’t really spend much time, but it wasn’t quite as bucolic. She is interested in Env Studies more than Env Science.
I browsed the list, but for her anyway, I think that a more useful ranking metric would be the impact of a school’s ES graduates in the world after graduation. That really her main consideration, whether it’s protecting endangered whales or making policy. How can we find information on that? Maybe the reputation of faculty? How can that be evaluated?
I think you remove the WL schools - sign up for the WL but then move them out of mind.
And I wouldn’t worry about rep/rank. It’s a tough field and is likely to lead to a low paying job if a job at all and frankly, you have mentioned a bunch of fantastic names. But I don’t think it’s like - Bowdoin is #5 and Bucknell #30, therefore Bowdoin is better.
A lot of ES is public affairs/poli sci like - and you’ll potentially have sciences.
I’d ask - where is the comfort? Both on campus but also in curriculum - because different schools will have different focuses.
And yes, a Wesleyan has different surrounds than a Kenyon or Bucknell.
Scripps is a bit bigger - and has mountains right there - which is interesting…bigger because of the Consortium but also geographically with the mountains close by. I could see that, depending on the student, being a game changer.
Do costs matter? Has anyone given merit?
Honestly - I don’t think you have a bad choice but I don’t think the choice should be based on prestige - because the likely career outcome doesn’t justify that - so you might as well have the best four years possible - so I’d choose the school I had comfort for and where I liked the curriculum best as stated b4.
Good luck.
This Carleton website shows you what graduates from each major are doing. I think you need to be a student to drill down in the “pathways” and see specifics of individual alums, but the alumni employment data gives pretty detailed major-specific information.
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You might find it helpful to search Wikipedia. They have articles that list notable graduates of most colleges. Here’s the entry for Wesleyan:
A quick Google search for “notable alumni of [school name]” will turn up articles in alumni magazines and other sources. I came across a site called Edurank.org. If you enter a school’s name in their search bar, you’ll find a link to their list of notable alumni. Here’s the list for Bates:
100 Notable Alumni of Bates College [Sorted List]
Of course, you should take these lists with a grain of salt since they haven’t been vetted by the schools themselves AFAIK.
Your daughter has great options–congratulations!
Carleton is left-wing, or at least it was when I was there. I believe the political climate at Carleton would be similar to Wesleyan. Carleton students have a long history of activism including environmental activism.
The large Arboretum (we call it The Arb) is used for cross country skiing in the winter.
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I don’t know when you graduated, but based on what I have heard from my daughter, I do not think the current student body is as activist as Wesleyan. Students who want to avoid a campus full of social justice warriors would be comfortable at Carleton.
Here’s a relevant article from the alumni magazine that was published a year ago:
Envisioning Environmental Change – Wesleyan University Magazine
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