<p>John, the Wesleyan forums are calling your name.
Stop getting into arguements with the swatties :-p.
Wes, swatty, amherst, williams, pomona, haverford, etc are all awesome schools.
I have a friend who turned down swatty to go to haverford, and i know people have done the opposite.
The education at the top LAC’s is comparable. To be honest, I don’t think there’s any real difference. The only difference is in perception.
Also, I dislike the ‘my campus is prettier than your campus’ arguement, I turned down colgate and one of my main reasons was that the info session focused more on the beauty of the landscaping and buildings (which seemed to lack character in my opinion), than on the academics offered. I’m going to college to study and learn, learn about my major/other interesting tidbits and learn about myself. Sure there will be some socializing and stuff, but the aesthetics of the campus will not make or break my experience for me.
It’s not where you are, it’s who you’re there with which makes time spent special.
In the end, where you go to college (talking about top lacs and others) ends up being more about who you are than the endowments, rankings, etc.
However, I do wish that I had applied to swarthmore, especially after i got a letter from them telling me to complete my application. It would have been nice to get another rejection :-P</p>
<p>Hmm, has anyone on here seen this link
<a href=“http://www.wsjclassroomedition.com/pdfs/wsj_college_092503.pdf[/url]”>http://www.wsjclassroomedition.com/pdfs/wsj_college_092503.pdf</a>
It lists the top three graduate programs in law, business, and medicine and the % of students from the college’s graduating class gaining admittance and going there. With a study one has to keep in mind some other things that come into play. For example, wesleyan does have a disadvantage in this since it has more students which results in a lower %, even though the same or more students would have gained admittance. Also many students in science stay for a 5th year to get a masters in their major, which this study does not take into account. And finally, I know schools like wesleyan and swarthmore are very into community mobilization, and this study does not take into acount the students who decide to go into the peace corps and programs such as teach for america. Regardless the schools do well, and I’m sure that anyone with any real knowledge of the top lacs would say that the education offered at swatty, wes, pomona, haverford, williams, amherst, etc are comparable and the students are each qualified and earned their grades. It’s funny though how wesleyan’s compared to williams and amherst in terms of the little three, when it’s most similar to swarthmore in terms of demographic.</p>