Hey everyone,
Im trying to decide between a couple of schools right now. I was wondering if y’all could tier/rank these schools on a couple of specific categories: Academics, Graduate school placement, Social life, and Study abroad opportunities. cost is essentially the same.
They all have their own strengths and weaknesses. You can look at any number of different rankings. Each of their websites should give you information about grad school acceptance rates.
I would definitely say Wake and Davidson have more in common and the same for Middlebury and Wes. Wake and Davidson will probably have more of an emphasis on Greek life and will probably be more conservative. Wesleyan has a lot of creative students who are active in visual arts. It’s going to be more liberal than all the others, and certainly much more than Wake Forest.
Do some research on Niche, which has plenty of student reviews. All will have excellent academics.
It’s difficult to imagine a more significant way of illustrating the differences between these four relatively small universities than a quick look at their respective COVID-19 dashboards.
Wake Forest tested randomly and had over 600 positive cases last Fall and is well on its way toward hitting the 1,000 case mark this semester:
COVID-19 Dashboard - Our Way Forward (wfu.edu)
The three liberal arts colleges tested their entire student bodies no fewer than once a week and more often than not twice a week and reported positive cases that were in the low teens:
Davidson College Covid-19 Testing Dashboard (shinyapps.io)
COVID-19 Reporting Dashboard | Middlebury Offices and Services
@Bilraz02 what are you looking for (or not) in social life? That is likely to be the huge differentiator here among your factors. You might want to check the College Transitions “feeder” lists for graduate placement as well depending on for what you are looking?
Re: grad school.
Percent of the students who ended up with a PhD:
Wesleyan: 10.5%
Davidson: 8.6%
Middlebury: 7.9%
Wake Forest: 5.7%
Study abroad: Midd probably has the best setup, especially for language immersion, since it has 40 of its own programs, as well as other recommended. Wake has 29 of its own and other almost 50 associated programs. Davidson has only a few of its own, but it has 125 associated programs. Wesleyan has the smallest number, but it has access to all of Middlebury’s programs.
However, in all honesty, there are far more choices provided by any of the schools than any student would need.
As for academics, all four have challenging programs, but, as @Lindagaf wrote, each has stronger and weaker programs. So that really depends on the direction you want to take.
Wake Forest, though, is a research university, while the other three are liberal arts colleges. If you are looking for a “liberal arts college” experience, Wake Forest takes the last place.
Of the other three: Middlebury is the archtypical NE rural liberal arts college. Beautiful scenery all year round, really cold in the winter, small town next to it. Strong culture of outdoors activity and athletics. Wesleyan is more East Coast suburban, and, as opposed to Midd’s kids leaning towards crunchy, Wesleyan kids lean towards artsy. Also, Wesleyan has Greek life, whereas Middlebury does not. Davidson is in suburbs of Charlotte, NC, and is less diverse (not that the other two are all so diverse). Like Wesleyan, it has Greek life. It also has many more kids from the South, compared to the East Coast students who dominate the other two schools.
Wesleyan is the largest of the three with 3,000 undergrads, followed by Midd with 2,500, and then Davidson with 1,800.
Hey everyone,
thanks so much for responding. @gablesdad , I’m looking for a more laidback social scene. As someone who doesn’t take himself too seriously, I don’t want to be around pretentious people. As a person who was once obsessed with money and prestige, I know the toxic environment that can build.
Otherwise, I’m pretty sure I want to go to law school, the dream would be Duke Law as a Mordecai Scholar. However, this is obviously a very difficult goal. Duke law alone is competitive but the competition for this scholarship is extremely competitive. I have no idea which school would better prepare me for this.
Also, I think I want to study abroad at either Cambridge, Oxford, or St. Andrews in Scotland. I must admit, my main reason for studying at Cambridge or Oxford is because I want to see what all the “ruckus” is about; St. Andrews because one of my best friends from high school is going there.
Anyways, any other insights you could give me on these schools would be great!
Difficult to make a recommendation for you when considering your prior posts on CC.
Seems as though Notre Dame was your target school, but later you wrote that your favorite campus culture among schools to which you were accepted is Wesleyan University. Interesting as the campus cultures of these two schools are quite different.
All 4 of your current options are fine with respect to law school admissions.
I had a similar reaction to @Publisher
I would say Middlebury is probably the most middle of the road, something for everyone of the four, which seems the most advisable as you continue to grow and get to know yourself as you do so. @Publisher would you agree?
I completely agree with @gablesdad. My artsy D, whom I thought would love Wes, found it too much like her artsy, progressive high school. She loved Midd, felt it had enough going on in the arts while also having a mix of students who ran the gamut from crunchy, outdoorsy, to SJW, to preppy, etc.
Middlebury College is a great option for several reasons including its famous language program & outstanding study abroad opportunities.
The location is exquisite & a new train/railway line opening in 2022 gives comfortable access to Burlington, Vermont (University of Vermont & a massive lakefront setting on Lake Champlain) as well as service to New York City.
My best guess is that admission to Middlebury College is going to get even tougher than it is currently.
Both Wesleyan and Middlebury are on this list of top feeder schools for law school. Duke Law is the second most popular law school for Midd grads (after Harvard).