We’ve had this discussion before, and I haven’t moved. 
Based on SAT/ACT scores, adjusted for those matriculants not submitting:
Note: arbitrarily putting Wesleyan in at 10 because they report standardized scores in a different manner, and subjectively putting Reed and CC in:
| 1 | Williams |
|---|---|
| 2 | Swarthmore |
| 3 | Bowdoin |
| 4 | Pomona |
| 5 | Wellesley |
| 6 | Claremont McKenna |
| 7 | Amherst |
| 8 | Middlebury |
| 9 | Vassar |
| 10 | Wesleyan |
| 11 | Haverford |
| 12 | Barnard |
| 13 | Colby |
| 14 | Carleton |
| 15 | W&L |
| 16 | Hamilton |
| 17 | Colgate |
| 18 | Smith |
| 19 | Richmond |
| 20 | Grinnell |
| 21 | Davidson |
| 22 | Macalester |
| 23 | Bates |
| 24 | Reed |
| 25 | Colorado College |
While we can all argue about the merits of SAT scores, student/faculty ratios, sports teams, location, etc, in determining the rank of a college, nobody here can argue with the alphabet.
Without further ado, here is my definitive ranking of these LACs by alphabetical order:
1 Amherst
2 Barnard
3 Bates
4 Bowdoin
5 Carleton
6 Claremont McKenna
7 Colby
8 Colgate
9 Colorado College
10 Davidson
11 Grinnell
12 Hamilton
13 Haverford
14 Macalester
15 Middlebury
16 Pomona
17 Reed
18 Richmond
19 Smith
20 Swarthmore
21 Vassar
22 W&L
23 Wellesley
24 Wesleyan
25 Williams
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WRT the consortia… I tried to space both of them out. (Claremonts and Quakers). I was this close to putting CMC behind Wes/Vassar/Ford.
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I have finally found my purpose!
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Au contraire mon frére. You just found the one person who can, and will, argue with the alphabet, given where it places my personal favorite liberal arts college.
I would, however, support a reverse alphabet order ranking. So,
Williams
Wesleyan
Wellesley
W&L
Vassar
Swarthmore
Smith
…
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I jest with Nice, but it is an interesting topic. I don’t mean to overly downplay the consortia where they exist; and I do see value in them. But I think you rank each school on its own merits, and then can account for the value of access to another school in your own calculus. Otherwise, if you add up the Claremonts and, especially, the Quakers, no stand-alone LAC would come close to competing. What LAC can compare with the collective that is Swat, Haverford, BMC and UPenn? I mean, you can’t touch that. But if you add them up as a whole, it’s not a LAC anymore. It’s a spread-out university. Nonsensical in my view to include that as a factor in ranking each college. Maybe the thing to do is to rank the consortia separately. Here’s my vote:
-
Quaker Consortium: can’t beat that combo of 3 truly outstanding LACs (and their individually stunning campuses and awesome locations in the Philly Main Line) and the membership of one of the most comprehensive of the Ivies. Probably only second to the Claremont Consortium in terms of actual use across the consortium (my understanding is that the greatest amount of Quaker cross-pollination is between BMC and Haverford), the addition of Penn puts it over the top for me. Best consortium of the bunch IMO.
-
Claremont Consortium: very good coverage in terms of LAC “types” anchored by one of the top LACs in the country. Very real consortium by way of use and access. Also, gotta get the west coast in here somewhere in this eastern-heavy LAC world.
-
5 College: my views on this have been previously expressed. It’s a nice thing to have available, but my view is that too many of the members are too spread out for it to be as functional as the Quaker and Claremont consortia. Still, anchored by one of the tippy top LACs in the country and access to a solid R1 public, it’s a nice feature.
I don’t really know about any others. And I’m not talking about cross-reg agreements between schools (like Wellesley and MIT). Lots of schools have those arrangements.
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I don’t know enough about the functionality of the Claremont Colleges to compare (although I heard good things), but I’d suggest the BiCo with Haverford and Bryn Mawr might merit its own ranking, and a very high one perhaps.
In fact, that is at least one case where it really seems to me like the relationship is not incidental, it is fundamental to how they have individually structured themselves so as to be complementary and not just additive.
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The CC is highly functional, as you would expect given the proximity of the schools and the intentional design of the group as a consortium. But they don’t have ready access to a university like Penn as do the Quaker consortium members, so I score the latter higher primarily for that reason (this assumes valuing these consortiums on the bases that you have shared on the subject when discussing the 5CC). My personal reasons would also include a preference for the Maine Line (though not necessarily west Philly) over Claremont, CA and the campuses of the QC members over those of the CC colleges.
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Chalk one up for the Ephs and Polar Bears! I’m looking into these European river cruises (being discussed in another thread) and was directed to Tauck. Shopping their options, I see this New England tour and I’m thinking it’s a mistake. Nope. Tauck does a tour in New England. I’ve spent so much time in New England and Upstate that I could probably do this tour myself, so I won’t be buying this one.
But, Williamstown and Brunswick are stops on the loop. The only NESCAC homes unless you count Tufts, because Boston is obviously on the itinerary.
I have to say, Brunswick is, IMO, super cute and has a nice row of inns between campus and downtown, which is where we stayed when my D interviewed.
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I would guess that the itinerary in Williamstown includes the Clark. As Michelin would say, it’s “worth the detour.”
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They have quite a collection and well worth a stop for that alone.
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Bowdoin tops the 23-24 list of Fulbright producers.
How the NESCACs fared:
Name/Grants Awarded
Bowdoin/23
Tufts/15 (PhD granting institution list)
Amherst/11
Williams/10
Bates/7
Hamilton/6
Wesleyan/6
Trinity/5
Colby/4
Conn/4
Middlebury/4
Nice job, Bowdoin, which led all Baccalaureate institutions by quite a margin. Oberlin/Pomona were distant seconds at 16.
Edited to include Tufts.
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Tufts had 14 2023-24 Fulbright Scholars.
Sorry, I was just looking at the baccalaureate list. And the list shows 15.
Bowdoin topped the Students list and Middlebury topped the Scholars list.
Bowdoin and Middlebury were the only two NESCAC schools recognized as top producers of both.
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I’m not sure what goes into “top producers”, but for the sake of clarity, Bates, Colby, Conn and Williams made the scholars list, which comprised 3, 2 and 1 producing schools. So let’s give those 4 schools credit for producing 1 when Middlebury topped the list with 3 and Bowdoin with 2.
Scholars and Students are quite different lists.
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Top Producers criteria: https://iie.widen.net/s/b69hvp8frl/tpi-methodology
From the press release:
Twelve institutions had the distinction of being a top producer of both Fulbright U.S. Students and U.S. Scholars: Arizona State University, Bowdoin College (Maine), the George Washington University (District of Columbia), Middlebury College (Vermont), North Carolina State University at Raleigh, Reed College (Oregon), Rollins College (Florida), School of the Art Institute of Chicago (Illinois), the University of Alabama, University of Maryland - College Park, University of Massachusetts - Amherst, and University of Southern California.
But yes, many NESCAC schools did well … and Bowdoin crushed it!
The table just corresponds to the list itself. So, yeah, I can see that. Lol.
I suppose there has to be a cut-off.
Let’s go Sun Devils !!
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