Haverford, Reed, Grinnell, or Williams

lr4550
Wed, 28 Oct 2015 03:15:21 +0000

What the heck, my two cents…

ED to Grinnell makes a lot of sense on many levels. It has the close knit intellectual community he is looking for and a swim team that could be a lot of fun. If he goes ED his chances for acceptance are strong, and he could possibly/likely get merit aid. My biggest question would be whether or not he is concerned that the isolation/location would bother him?

If so Haverford seems like the second best fit. He would have the advantage of the consortium with access to Philadelphia. The down side is that while he might have access to a pool at Bryn Mawr he won’t have the option of being on a team if that winds up being important to him.

Of course he can’t go wrong with Williams. It is preppier than the others- and shares isolation issues with Grinnell- but if he is at all outdoorsy there is at least a lot to do with regard to hiking/skiing. He could easily find his intellectual community and he would have access to excellent sports facilities and swimming. Again, question of location and the additional issue of whether or not the presence of a NESCAC type vibe fits.

Reed is probably the biggest risk in terms of fit. He might love it there or it might not be at all what he would expect. Reed just seems to be more hit or miss in terms of campus community. But if isolation concerns him at least Portland would be an excellent college town with a vibrant music scene.

At the end of the day it seems as though he can’t really go wrong, they are all exceptional schools