<p>As a preface and a word of caution, rapamom, my experience with this website is that it has become more of a marketing/promotional/recruiting vehicle for colleges by parents and less of a place for finding unbiased information about the student experience (I believe this is why fewer and fewer actual students are using this site anymore). </p>
<p>That said, our daughter, who is a chemistry/engineering major, chose MHC over the other two colleges you mention. She researched the advising - student/teacher relationship experience as best she could in making her decision. In the end, she found that all three colleges offered similar experiences in that regard. All three offered superior research facilities and highly qualified faculty who had done extensive research in their fields. All three prepared students for grad-school if that was their chosen path, etc. All three offer paid research internships with their science departments. And, having hired recent college graduates for entry-level positions for more than 35 years, I can verify that all three colleges have excellent reputations in the “real world.”</p>
<p>What I can tell you in as unbiased a way as possible is that our daughter has had a great experience with all of her teachers (including non-science). All of her classes are fairly small. All of her teachers know her by name, know her strengths and challenges and have worked with her individually to meet those challenges. She has good working relationships with all of her professors, including her advisor and feels free to go to any one of them to discuss any aspect of her college career. </p>
<p>The differences between these three schools in terms of academic experience are subtle. The differences with regard to culture are less so (I think you’ve already discovered this with Wellesley). I believe our daughters ultimately make their choices on the basis of these cultural differences. Whatever your daughter’s choice, she can’t go wrong with either school. I suggest the overnight experiences that both schools offer will help her to finally decide (try to encourage her to look beyond the hype). That really helped our daughter make up her mind.</p>