<p>We live in South Florida, and there is no way that I can take my son to visit all the colleges up north that he is interested in. There are a couple of schools that look terrific academically but seem to be in a remote neck of the woods. Can someone please tell me if these schools (any or all) really give off the vibe of being isolated from the rest of the world. Colgate, Vassar, Williams, Dartmouth?</p>
<p>Really, really try and take a road trip. Your perception of what is remote is entirely subjective. My D and I came out for a week from the west. Everything in the east seems crammed into a small geographical area, compared to western distances! We were so amused at being able to see so much of New England, and so many wonderful schools in just a few days. It seems to me though, that people who live in the Northeast (and maybe Florida) see these distances completely differently. </p>
<p>We had an entirely revised perception of all the schools you mention after our trip. You can get most information about colleges from their websites, but physical context can only be understood by driving the loop. </p>
<p>Do it!!! You won’t regret it. This quality time spent with your child can’t be underestimated. Find another family to share the trip with your child, if you can’t do it yourself. There must be another kid in your area who wants to do the same tour. PM me if you want our itinerary and an example of what you can see in a week.</p>
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<li><p>I would second riverrunner’s recommendation. There are cheap airfares and car rentals. Just don’t try to do what I’ve seen some West Coast families do: 10-12 colleges in a week or less. It’s physically possible, but not mentally possible. They get that thousand-yard stare . . . by Day 3. </p></li>
<li><p>Williams and Dartmouth: Yes, they feel isolated, at least to me (and to my kids). Both are smack in the middle of lovely college towns, though, with various amenities – stores, restaurants, inns. Dartmouth College (including its hospital) is not so small a community unto itself, either. And Williamstown is at the northern end of what, during half the year, is a significant upscale vacation area for people from New York and Boston. By car, neither is that far from civilization.</p></li>
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<p>Vassar feels a little isolated, but it is less than two hours from NYC by easily-accessed train, so one can come and go without a car. And with a car, it’s closer to everything than Williams or Dartmouth. (Vassar is actually a little less than half way between NYC and Williams.) Its town is both bigger and less pleasant than Hanover or Williamstown.</p>
<p>Thanks JHS.
I agree 10-12 in a week is not a good idea! Best tool is Google Map. Put in each school and let it tell you drive times. You can reorder and delete way-points until things look reasonable. We saw one school per day, in detail, including tour, admissions session and meetings with prof/coaches. Often did drive-bys on the way to the next destination, late in the day.</p>
<p>The above posts make some great points and I agree 100% – on top of the knowledge you’ll gain, it’s a great way to spend time with your son (or daughter).</p>
<p>Like riverrunner we also came away with a completely different view of every school we visited. Some seemed to click with S. while others surprisingly didn’t. Often it had nothing to do with location-- rural or urban. </p>
<p>Depending on how much time you want to spend you could easily do three in a day. I don’t recommend rushing, but (from Long Island) we visited Williams and Amherst and made it to Boston with time to spare. Also, if he’s interested in Vassar I’d highly recommend adding Wesleyan to the loop. Vassar and Williams gave off very different vibes, but it depends on what you’re looking for. Definitely worth visiting if you can possibly swing it.</p>
<p>Vassar is in a small town, but within easy distance of NYC. I haven’t been there in ages, but its town at least around the campus seemed pretty cute to me.</p>
<p>As the earlier posters suggested - if there is any possible way to visit please try and do it. I say this as a middle class parent who understands completely how costly it can be. We did not visit Vassar, but we combined the Williams, Amherst, Dartmouth trip in one of our swings. </p>
<p>Just let me say, that in the end you will be so glad you did. If your son is lucky enough to be accepted at a couple of these places and you have not visited, you will be in a time crunch to visit and decide where he will spend his next four years and a sizable chunk of your money. Any of us would be happy to share advice on where to stay or how to arrange the trips so they could be as efficient and inexpensive as possible. </p>
<p>I was so happy last spring that we had visited all of my D’s choices at least once. Then when it came time to decide she was able to really focus on a few deciding factors. Remember, these acceptances come in the heat of AP tests and finishing up courses. </p>
<p>Anyway - this was not the question you asked. Williams and Dartmouth were on D’s short list. They are gorgeous. She loved both, particularly Williams(also tremendous FA), where she felt all correspondence was very personal. In the end, she decided that they might be too isolated for her - maybe not as a freshman or sophomore, but as an upperclassman. I will say, Dartmouth really encourages kids to to internships which gets them off campus and would make Hanover seem fresh when they returned.</p>
<p>I think it really comes down to your child. At the time she was making her decision, she felt she had outgrown high school. I think unconsciously she made a choice to go somewhere with a grad program so she would never be the oldest student on campus.</p>
<p>My rec: Do Williams, Amherst and Dartmouth in two days; do Colgate (and add Hamilton) on another day; agree that if you’re going to see Vassar you should see Wesleyan too.</p>
<p>If for financial and time reasons you just plain can’t, be aware that while none of these schools would ever be considered urban, they are all civilized, they all have indoor plumbing, and all of them are within a few hours of a major city.</p>
<p>Yes - but if something were to happen to indoor plumbing, you would be in luck, too!</p>
<p>Thank you all for your great input!
I really, really do hope we get to make a trip up north next summer. Our family did get to visit some Southern schools this past summer and my son loved it - my two younger ones just groaned…
Question: are any of the schools I mentioned before (or any other ones you can think of) similar in vibe to the College of William and Mary in Virginia?</p>
<p>Vassar and Bard is also a possible one-day pair (although, yes, Wesleyan is a great school to look at). You may also want to pair Hampshire with Amherst – two very different schools only a few minutes apart. If you are like most people you may want to look at some colleges that accept more than 20% of their applicants.</p>
<p>Note, by the way, that Amherst is really in a different isolation category than Dartmouth or Williams. First, it’s in the middle of a pretty sizable, sophisticated town, and only a few miles from a 20,000-student U. Mass. campus. Amherst is a way more happening place than any of the other college towns in this thread. Second, it’s only about an hour from Boston or Hartford, which is much closer than any of the other schools is to a city of that size.</p>
<p>IMO, none of the schools youmentioned is similar in vibe to College of William and Mary.</p>
<p>Disclaimer: I’ve visited all the other schools mentioned on this site (not Bard) but I have not visited William and Mary, so take my comments with a grain of salt.</p>
<p>My impression of W&M is that it is fairly conservative, politically and religiously. No, not a Bob Jones, but still somewhat conservative. I would put Vassar and Wesleyan at the opposite extreme-- very very liberal, socially, politically, religiously. Kids with pink hair, piercings, and homosexual coples. Williams and Amherst are generally liberal, but not as “out there” as Vassar and Wesleyan. Dartmouth is very preppy and very activist. While it’s on the liberal side, many conservative Dartmouth students are very active and outspoken, so there is lively debate.</p>
<p>Anyone who wants to rebut what my impressions are (and my quick summation of those impressions) – go at it!!</p>
<p>W&M is similar to Amherst/Georgetown/Davidson/Chicago in political leanings student vibe. Prob about one step left of center. Which puts it in the mainstream of America. </p>
<p>Academic focus by the student body with a faculty that cares greatly about teaching. Very non conformist student body. Need to vist to come to your own conclusions.</p>
<p>I never visited W&M so no input there. I attend Wes as a frosh and went to high school down the road from Vassar. Both have a similar feel and I chose Wes because of the distance. Anyway, Poughkeepsie is definitely not a small town. It’s a city. Though that fact is not evident from the area around the campus. It can be cute just don’t make a left on Main. NYC is easily accessible. In my opinion Poughkeepsie is pretty dead except for the Chance and the civic center sometimes. You do have night clubs accessible and venues though unlike Middletown.</p>
<p>I agree that Amherst is not in the same isolation category as Dartmouth or Williams, but we are actually an hour and a half from Boston (if you drive really fast and get lucky with traffic), not two hours.</p>
<p>I think that Colgate is very isolated. The very small rural town seems to exist because of Colgate, and in fact the main hotel, the coffee shop and I believe the sushi shop are owned by the college. the coffee shop and sushi shop were established by the college to give the kids somewhere else to go; they’re right across the street from campus. There are a few mom and pop restaurants but that’s really it. It’s a very dynamic university, but I think that one could get cabin fever during the long winters. It’s a long drive (>1 hour) on a two lane road to Binghamton NY, I think the closest sizeable city (although I’m not sure, we were driving North from PA.)</p>
<p>I think that Vassar is much less isolated and is also less rural than Colgate. It’s a self contained campus, but it’s located along a main road (two or four lane) to Poughkeepsie NY and there is (I think) a big GE or IBM facility close by on the same road. Marist College is located on the same road but I don’t think there is much interaction between the schools.</p>
<p>I concur with reasonwhy that Colgate can seem isolated, particularly during the months of December through March. The nearest big city is Syracuse (I’m intentionally not including Utica), which is about 40 miles to the northwest; less than an hour away. </p>
<p>Re: William & Mary, we didn’t pick up a particularly conservative vibe when we were there (several times), either politically or religiously. It seemed that the vast majority of Virginians were from the Washington D.C. suburbs and there are a lot of north-of-the-Mason-Dixon types there. Still, if you want to compare it to Wesleyan, Bard or Vassar it leans to the right. I actually felt it had some of the same vibes as Dartmouth, but with different dialects.</p>
<p>I will differ a little with veryhappy’s view of Wesleyan (but in a nice way:))</p>
<p>We were there recently, expecting a student body that was as you say, more “out there” like Vassar, but didn’t really see it, at least that day. There was a real mix of kids, and the campus was just beautiful. But you’re right, it’s def. one of the more left-leaning schools.</p>
<p>I’m going to chime in as the western voice of relative distances. It takes us 5 hours drive time to get to a city with more than 1 million people. My D, having grown up in the west, felt like Dartmouth was practically IN Boston! It’s not, but the drive time/miles aren’t daunting to people from big states. I don’t know how a Floridian will see all this, but if you can’t make a road trip, look at a map and compare distances to local drives to see if a trip to town looks like no big deal, or an expedition. So hard to imagine the relative sizes of cities and distances between them!</p>
<p>If you’re looking for a vibe similar to the CW&M, I suggest that you create a new thread asking that question on the W&M forum under Colleges (Top Forums). Most likely, students and parents there have visited enough other places to have an opinion about which other colleges gave off the same vibe or had similar type students.</p>