If you’re referring to the music information, I got that from niche rankings and speaking with the Wesleyan conductor.
I know students at all three- and recent grads from all three.
They would all have been perfectly comfortable at a very wide range of colleges-- none of them would be or could be described as anything but “mainstream”. A couple of the Wes students were seriously into the arts, and one (just one) of the Middlebury kids that I know is an athlete.
Otherwise, they’re all focused on their studies, their volunteer involvement, their friends, their other interests. You are not going to find the same level of support at career services at a small college as you would at a large university- that’s just the numbers game. At a large U they need staff to focus on fellowships, med school, law school, corporate roles in consumer products and banking and transportation and academic grad school programs and the Peace Corps and Teach for America… lots and lots of staff. At a small college, these roles are condensed. I think all three colleges can get you where you want to go, but you’ll need to be proactive-- nobody will wake you up in your dorm and tell you “Time to do your resume for banking internships”.
I can’t comment on the sexual assault issue- I haven’t heard about it and don’t know anything about it.
I will say that if you’re digging for information this late in the game, it might be the universe telling you not to apply ED2 and to keep your options open. But that’s the universe. Surely a bunch of ■■■■■■ on reddit are going to know more than the universe!
Good luck.
You should apply RD so you can visit your finalists b4 deciding. Being there three years ago is not recent enough. You are a different person today.
And when you visit any school, stop kids on campus and even profs and chat them up.
Answer to your question - ED to none.
It’s not needed.
Of 2500 admitted, less than 20% were ED. And that includes hooked students.
I wish I could afford to visit any of these colleges once admitted. Unfortunately that’s not the case thanks though
Have your parents run the NPC ? Are all affordable. It’s a big risk and btw Wes is need aware, so if you need too many $$, they can decline you for that reason alone. The other two are need blind - your finances don’t factor into their decision.
Middletown is a densely populated bedroom community that closes down by 10 or 11 PM. That could be very triggering for anyone walking alone at night, but I would think especially so for a sexual assault survivor.
If you associate poor weather with cold winters, then note that Brunswick, with an average January low temperature of 9.0°, is slightly less seasonally frigid than Middlebury (at 8.8°). For further comparison, the January temperature in Middletown falls to an average low of 18.7°.
(Information from Best Places.)
Why these three colleges at all? What made you choose them?
There is absolutely no reason for you to apply ED2 given your uncertainty about all three of these colleges. Apply regular decision to them.
And free advice…I hope you have some sure things for admission on your application list because none of these three are sure things for most students.
Hence the ED. Statistically it gives one a huge edge, and since I would rather go to any of these three schools (east coast liberal arts colleges are def for me) than other larger options
I’m not sure that’s true. You see higher rates but many hooked applicants - athletes, questbridge, donors and more are in those rates. These schools admit far more non binding than binding.
Your hardest admit would be Wes I would hypothesize due to your amount of need. And that they factor that into admission decisions.
But ED is clearly not for you in my opinion.
Good luck in whatever you decide.
Someone else will need to verify…but at some colleges, ED2 does not give a “huge” edge.
How do you know this when you haven’t been to at least one of these schools in three years?
ETA…you have given us precious little information to even know if these colleges are realistic in terms of admission for you. They are competitive colleges.
Why didn’t you apply ED1 if you really wanted an edge?
As far as the weather variable…current temps: Middlebury, VT: 7 F, Brunswick, ME: 11 F, Middletown, CT: 13 F. All three dang cold
I think you know hardly anything about me. Just trust that for reasons and experiences of my own and with the advice of my counselor, I have come to the conclusion that these are the best types colleges for me. I am only looking for information on these schools, each of which I would thrive at. Please limit your responses to that topic.
Please don’t worry about my admission chances. That’s my job to worry about and frankly none of your business again, I’m just after information on the schools.
I’ve spent quite a bit of time at both Hamilton and Wesleyan over the years and I think you’d be much happier at Hamilton. It’s got a terrific chemistry department. It’s bucolic. No signs of weirdness. As @blossom wrote upstream the career center thing is a bit of a wash (especially since you haven’t told us much about your career plans.) Wesleyan’s the outlier among the choices you’ve given us (except that it’s probably got the strongest STEM departments overall.)
DS visited all three schools you mentioned and chose Davidson. Recommend that you explore it, if not for ED2, for RD.
All 3 excellent schools!
A few thoughts: Wes has quite good science. Their music program is especially strong in ethnomusicology, but really, their classical music is mid-tier for a liberal arts college (but yes, better than Bowdoin’s - no idea about Mid).
And be cautious about making generalizations about college sexual assault rates that come from student-reported statistics. It is my strong hypothesis that sexual assault occurs on all campuses in the US at higher rates than are reported - every Friday and Saturday night. One phenomenon to be aware of is that colleges with high reported rates of sexual assault might be colleges that (1) have a culture of supporting victims and making reporting not feel as alienating/terrifying; (2) might have students that are more proactive and likely to report.
Good luck!
If you want to know which one to apply to ED, and don’t want to listen to advice- just throw a dart. All three are fantastic schools.
Agree with most posters, but I will give it a try.
Wesleyan is a super liberal school. These days, might that mean more drugs? - not too sure. Is sexual assault rampant - of course not!
The other two are still liberal arts schools and have a more of an outdoorsy student body - and they are also colder. They also may or may not have some drugs and are also not known for sexual assault tolerance.
Interestingly, I do not see Bowdoin and Middlebury hanging togther with Wesleyan, besides for athletes. If you would share your ED1 that did not fall your way, happy to try to help you.It would help me understand what is most important to you.