<p>What would you say to son who has these choices: Cornell (arts & sci), Wesleyan, Bowdoin, and Brown. He is deciding between Bowdoin and Brown, two very different schools. Expresses interest in economics and was very involved in model UN and debate in HS. any thoughts would be appreciated.</p>
<p>They’re both wonderful schools. I’d let him make the decision without trying to influence him, as he can’t go wrong.</p>
<p>LOL. I know which one I’d choose, but this one is up to him. He’s going to have to decide what he’s looking for in a college.</p>
<p>he needs to visit the campuses, and also try to connect with as many current students at both schools as possible. </p>
<p>heck, even call the admissions offices and say “i’d like to speak with a current student 'cause I have some questions… how can that be arranged?”</p>
<p>I’d say not even close IMHO, go to Brown! Bowdoin is a great, small LAC but Brown has so much more to offer.</p>
<p>Again, I’m biased in favor of Brown, but…how important are debate and model UN to him? </p>
<p>To the best of my knowledge, Bowdoin’s debate team is defunct. APDA is the parliamentary debate league to which most Northeast schools belong. Bowdoin is not currently listed as a member. I checked the 2008-2009 schedule and it did not host a tournament this year. That usually means it IS defunct. I googled, found the Bowdoin debate team’s website and hit results. The most recent year listed was 2004-2005. Obviously, he should double check, but if he wants to debate, he’s going to have limited options at Bowdoin.</p>
<p>My understanding is that Cornell has BOTH an official varsity team in policy debate complete with coach and a “club” team that participates in APDA. </p>
<p>Brown belongs to APDA. So, he could do parli there, but not policy (as far as I know.) Again, he should double check. </p>
<p>Same situation at Wesleyan–belongs to APDA but as far as I know, it doesn’t offer policy. </p>
<p>According to the college board, Bowdoin doesn’t have a model UN team either. Again he should check. Brown has a model UN team which competes and also sponsors a high school tournament. I didn’t check the other schools on his list, but obviously, it’s easy to do. </p>
<p>PLEASE DO DOUBLE CHECK WHAT i FOUND…but if your son is interested in continuing those ECs in college, this makes it a no-brainer to me.</p>
<p>I’d say this is a very difficult call. These are both great schools and he can get a great education at either place. Bowdoin has all the advantages and disadvantages of a small LAC. Brown has the advantages and disadvantages of a research university, albeit a smaller and more LAC-like one than most; yet still hardly the intimate environment of a small LAC. Brown was #1 on my daughter’s wish list until she decided, for sound reasons in my judgment, that a smaller LAC would be a better fit for her, especially if it were in a consortium that didn’t confine her curricular choices as much as a stand-alone LAC like Bowdoin. Both schools are still on her radar screen, but probably somewhere in the lower half of her top 10 right now, Brown because it’s a bit too big and impersonal for her tastes, Bowdoin because the curricular offerings are to limited in certain areas she may want to explore. (FWIW, she’s looking at the LACs in the Quaker Consortium which combine the intimacy of a small college experience with curricular opportunities at other Consortium member schools, which include Penn for less commonly taught languages and Swarthmore for linguistics).</p>
<p>Those who think it’s an easy call in either direction are, I suspect, doing so mostly from the perspective of their own preferences for LACs or research universities. That’s something the applicant needs to decide for himself.</p>
<p>i think it’s important to determine how much your son wants debate to figure into his college experience. if it’s important to him to continue debating competitively, then he should go to brown. if it’s not so important to him, then i think there is a fair case to be made for bowdoin, given that the experience, while different from that at brown, is just as unique and may even be a better fit. visiting both campuses certainly will help the most, i think. also, a friend of mine from bowdoin who had chosen it over brown said she did so by deciding for a day or two to tell people she would be going to brown, and then, on a different day telling people she would be going to bowdoin. she just liked how she felt saying she was going to bowdoin and so she went. this is of course context dependent, but that’s the point. it’s difficult for us to know which would feel better for your son. </p>
<p>good luck. what fantastic choices!</p>
<p>Gee, as of 7 pm last night you were on the wait list at Brown! Now, your parent is here posting under your screen name about the choice you have to make–and doesn’t mention how things have changed overnight! </p>
<p>Funny, I haven’t heard anything about Brown taking anyone from the WL. Why don’t you add the info to the thread on WL status?</p>
<p>I loved Bowdoin when we visited. In the end, S1 turned it down for a couple of reasons: it’s in a colder part of the country, even though it’s only a couple of hours north of here, and it’s even smaller than his high school and less diverse. But the education he would have received there is excellent. For many, the small size and sense of community would be a real draw.</p>