I really don’t think WalletHub has any credibility. I’ll remind readers that I am a Wesleyan grad and I love the school, but it’s not “better” than Bates.
Also going to add that AI data on small colleges is really really really inaccurate. Like it’s wrong every time. I only trust the data reported by the actual school or it’s student newspaper.
Yes, I think there are a lot of students who apply to both schools, are accepted to both, and consider both (just based on an anecdotal and non-scientific sample of kids). Wes might be a bit more of a fit school for people with areas of interest like the arts, but for most students, the two probably have a lot of appealing factors in common. My D23 was accepted to both schools RD, and her decision ultimately came down to these two. It was not an easy choice – she chose Bates because she just felt more at home there, and she’s never regretted it, but had she chosen Wes, I’m sure she would have been happy there, too. I suspect she’s far from the only one who chose between these two schools, and who could have been happy at either one.
Wesleyan typically receives about 5,000 more applicants a year than Bates, strongly suggesting the existence of at least that many who can’t possibly apply to both.
I’m one who doesn’t believe any of them are really better than any of the others. Each of the conference member schools have their own areas of pronounced excellence, tend to be pretty strong across the board and are each interesting and attractive in similar and unique ways. For me at least, the specific rate at which they reject students is the least important or interesting thing about them.
Maybe some of the schools in the conference take a flier on a few applicants each year because they see something in them for which they think the traditional admissions criteria does not account. IDK. The 25th and 75th percentile marks for submitted test scores, and whatever evidence the admissions people consider for those who don’t submit, seems to produce a pretty bright and accomplished cohort of students. That’s good enough for me.
I attended a large public R1 with, at the time, an admission rate far exceeding 50% and more than held my own at my T5 law school, where I was surrounded by graduates of every tippy top university and college you can imagine. But if getting to the bottom of 16% vs. 9% is important to anyone, I will not stand in the way. I just don’t care. But I agree that if you really want to get into selectivity comparisons it’s a little more work than basic admit %.
I wasn’t suggesting that 14,000 are applying to both. I am suggesting that my kid and her randomly assigned roommate at Bates were both also admitted to Weselyan.
You win.
FWIW, D26 is applying to both. Also applying to Amherst, Williams, Bowdoin and Colby in the NESCAC. Didn’t love Midd, not interested in Trinity, Hamilton, or Tufts, and S24 goes to Conn so that’s off the list. 
FWIW, Wesleyan considers its two biggest overlaps to be Brown and Yale. It’s just a matter of arithmetic; it shares the greatest number of acceptances with those two R1 universities. Partly, it’s a matter of geographic proximity and partly - in the case of Brown - it’s a matter of shared vibe. I think in another thread I pointed out how the concept of ED grew out of a frustration on the part of Amherst, Bowdoin, Wesleyan and Williams with perennially losing massive numbers of overlapping acceptances to the larger, far better-known Ivy League universities. Until you take that into consideration, it does no good comparing two LACs and their nominal rejectivity rates.
Best of luck to her.
Honestly, if I could go back and be a kid again I’d apply to all of them and play my sports in the NESCAC. The competition would be a little below my level at the time, in one my sports in particular, but no matter; it would have been a great experience.
When I was at Wesleyan, a lot of people were there because they didn’t get into Brown. Coming from the south, I delighted in telling them I’d never even heard of Brown which was true. I also had a classmate transfer from Wes to U Chicago because he thought Wes was too easy.
Do you know what Ivies Bates “overlaps” with?
I wasn’t an athlete, but I was deciding between Princeton and Amherst. I picked Princeton but a big part of me thinks I should have gone to Amherst.
I put the question to AI and apparently, it’s Dartmouth.
On this, I might challenge AI. Colby is generally considered an overlap for Dartmouth (more for its outdoorsiness ), and Colby and Bates historically have a different vibe. With that said, it seems like Bates and Wes are overlaps, Tufts and Brown are overlaps, and Bowdoin and Williams are overlaps. To be constrained by the Ivies, of which only two are pretty rural, kinda makes this an impossible exercise.
Edited to add that ChatGPT chose Dartmouth for Colby as well.
I think it depends on how the question is posed. I was repeating @Franklynn ‘s question almost word for word which asked, “What Ivy is a Bates overlap?“ So it’s possible I was being overly suggestive. To answer the question that has been confounding everyone, yes, I think, by and large, anyone accepted by Bates would be happy at Wesleyan.
I think for the kids who are interested in the New England SLACs – who like the small size, coldness, small town setting – Dartmouth is the Ivy that is closest to that. At least that was my D26’s feeling. Dartmouth is the only non-SLAC on her list. I don’t think the vibe difference at any of these NESCACs is terribly huge, IMO. Maybe Bates and Wesleyan lean a little more artsy and Colby a little less so. But a kid who is prioritizing a small town setting and small size is going to find a lot to like at any of the NESCACs that aren’t in cities (i.e., not Tufts or Trinity) as well as at Dartmouth.
Of all the knocks on Wesleyan I’ve heard, that’s not been one of them. My D found the grading and competition to be rigorous and she’s a pretty damn good student. Coincidentally (to this conversation only), she had someone on her varsity team who transferred in from Chicago.
I absolutely loved Weselyan and tried to get at least one of my kids to attend, but both chose other similar schools. I still love Wes and I am a tireless booster for the school. But because its students are really really smart, they might have also applied to other really selective schools. Just like all a deese places.
With respect to academic rigor, a cluster of NESCACs appear in this Princeton Review survey-based site:
Williams, Colby, Bowdoin, Amherst and Hamilton are the NESCACs included.
I’m sure many of you are aware that colleges can select a group of peers when submitting data to the government. The Chronicle of Higher Education has a great tool where you can see the self-selected peers, but you need a subscription. You can also find the info on IPEDS.
For example, here’s what Williams defines as its comparison group:
| 
| Amherst College (Amherst, MA) |
| | Bowdoin College (Brunswick, ME) |
| | Carleton College (Northfield, MN) |
| | Dartmouth College (Hanover, NH) |
| | Grinnell College (Grinnell, IA) |
| | Haverford College (Haverford, PA) |
| | Middlebury College (Middlebury, VT) |
| | Pomona College (Claremont, CA) |
| | Swarthmore College (Swarthmore, PA) |
| | Wesleyan University (Middletown, CT) |
Interestingly, neither Bates nor Wesleyan count each other among their comparison groups. Colby counts Wesleyan, but Wesleyan doesn’t count Colby. Dartmouth sticks with other Ivys, plus MIT, Stanford, UChicago, and Vanderbilt.
It’s fun to look through these.
Amherst doesn’t list Williams, but Williams lists Amherst.
But, of course…