Bard has a 10am ET tour and Hamilton has a 1:30pm ET tour. Given you need about 1.5 hours per visit and that it takes 2.5 hours of driving it is just not realistic - or advisable.
You could do Colgate and Hamilton or Vassar and Bard.
This is a senior trying to tour schools to which she’s been admitted, not a junior touring to decide where to apply. Colgate and Vassar are not on the list.
3 Likes
For a brief, subjective summary of Hamilton in the context of comments on other liberal arts colleges, see this post:
For comments on Reed, see this post:
1 Like
But surely making the effort to visit a school and not making the most of it is likely not the intent either thus the logic and rational for doing a guided tour (for admitted students if offered - many schools do).
No one said Colgate and Vassar were on the list.
Echoing @NiceUnparticularMan and others, Carleton and W&M jumped out to me as good fits, with Carleton as the one I’d put at the top for your daughter, if affordable.
Since you know that she’s in to W&M already, I’m guessing she received the Monroe scholarship, which (assuming you’re OOS) knocks the total down by $10k, so you’re probably looking at something like ~$65K for W&M vs. ~$90K for Carleton, which is worth factoring in.
If it helps, my 2025 twins were ultimately choosing between those two schools as their “final two”, and ended up going with W&M, though they loved a lot of what Carleton had to offer. I’d be happy to answer any questions you have about W&M!
Also as others have noted, I’d strongly recommend W&M’s DFAS and Carleton’s Carl Days!
5 Likes
I thought you were suggesting visiting Colgate and Vassar – that’s what I was responding to. They’re not on this student’s list of schools to which she was admitted and is now considering, now that it’s coming down to the final decision.
1 Like
If the student wants to do Bard and Hamilton in the same day, they should ask admissions if they can arrange a private tour that fits their timetable. Fwiw, Bard did this for DS. You might even get a student guide with similar interests. Schools want to yield accepted students, so a request like this will be viewed differently than a request from a student at the earlier stages of the application process. The worst that happens is that they can’t accommodate the request.
6 Likes
No idea how to advise you with that list w/o invoking my own bias, which I don’t think would be helpful given how you describe your D. My only advice would be to prioritize a visit to all of the finalists that are located in very rural unless you are crystal clear that your kid doesn’t care about or perhaps likes rural locations. There are some schools on that list that are known for their relative isolation. We had some experience with Colgate. Wonderful, beautiful school but very isolated and my kid was surprised by how much that grated on her, and she had a car! Over and over people would say things like “Norwich and Oneida are close by for restaurants and shopping and Syracuse is less than an hour away, …” She would have had a hard time spending 4 years there.
1 Like
What a great list of acceptances! Should we assume she has visited none of these schools?? If so, how did she decide to apply to these schools in the first place? When she researched them, did she have any sense of which she thought she liked better? Did she meet with any adcomms who were visiting your area? Has she watched any online video tours? As others have asked, does distance or ease of access to/from campus matter? Required/core courses vs more open course opportunities?? These are things I would do to narrow down the list.
2 Likes
Congratulations to your daughter. Has she considered taking a gap year to work as a college consultant ?
Nerdy band kid, strength is writing (creative or analytical or both ?), no dominant Greek life, humanities, D&D type interests, and all options are affordable.
WFU & Wash & Lee are not compatible with your daughter’s interests, likes, & dislikes.
Reed has lots of drug use on campus and Oxy is a great fit for outgoing, social justice warriors.
The only real fits that I see based on the information shared in this thread are: Carleton College, Bard, and the College of William & Mary.
2 Likes
A kid trying to avoid drug use is mostly confined to BYU and the Air Force Academy (and the other service academies– where there ARE drugs on campus, but the penalties are severe). So I think your comment about Reed is way off- base.
4 Likes
As there’s 30 notes, here’s a few things:
-
Have a budget - when I read make it work, it makes me think there is “strain”. What can one do without strain? I can’t imagine the career outcomes in a humanities, of someone likely not interested in Wall Street, is going to matter based on any of these very good names. So I’d have a true budget - and I’d eliminate any school that’s not there. Now, if you have the $$ without strain, is one thing but you say - will make it work. Even those who think they pick the best school for them - many end up transferring. All have bad roomies, profs, dorms, etc. and there’s no full proof way.
-
Personally, I’m less concerned with admitted student day but I am concerned with you getting to campus. Admitted student days are packaged, sales events, sometimes, like at one school we went to - better food (as the student panel noted, they love these events because the food miraculously improves). Of course, these packaged days will be great - they are there to sell you. Just get to school - however - walk the campus, stop kids, talk to them. Walk the surrounds, see the stores and restaurants, etc. Make an academic appointment if you want or meet the head of a club - we met a few Hillels. I’d worry less about the admitted student day - sometimes they have great things (student panels) but often the campus is clear and it’s not representative.
-
From a - get bang for your travel buck - obviously Reed and Grinnell and even Emory don’t give you efficiency. I wonder if you can do a mid size and small or two and see - maybe the small is too limiting? On the other hand, a Denison’s campus is much bigger than a W&L.
-
Does ruralness vs. suburban-ness matter? At F&M, you’re in town, etc. At others, you’re not.
-
Does the amount of athletes matter? Some may have a much higher percentage than others.
-
I think all will have strength in writing - but when you see those best known - I see Emory, Carleton, and Hamilton - but I think, for most, all these schools are suitable.
-
Not wanting a sorority and there have been stories of not needing to be Greek at W&L but statistically, most are.
The other thing to look at is Calendar. Carleton is on 3 terms vs. 2 at most. Others might be too. Does that matter?
She did great. Of course, the problem with choice is - choice. Many LACs are rich kids schools - entitlement type thing could happen - so me thinks Grinnell sounds good - but don’t know where you live and how far that is from home and how hard it is to get there.
Best of luck to her.
Thank you so much for the lengthy and thoughtful reply. Some of the criteria you mention we had not considered. This is very helpful to us.
You’re right, she/we should do a deep-dive into what humanities offerings exist.
There is a $100K price differential between the least expensive school and the most expensive school, which we could make work, but it’s definitely a factor. Some folks have advised that $100K extra is not worth it under any circumstance, when the list of schools is generally this strong. Others have said it might be worthwhile if there’s a best fit by a wide margin (if that’s even possible).
Thank you for this interesting angle (top Phd feeders), this is not something we had considered.
I really appreciate your time, making this carefully considered list. There are things here that we had not thought about; taking a look at the on-line campus newspapers is easy, low-hanging fruit, for example. Thank you also for your shortlist of recommendations, we are keeping track of what everyone here is recommending, and some top contenders are slowly emerging!
1 Like
Thank you for your lengthy reply; very much appreciated. You provide some very interesting detail that’s very helpful to us. No, none of these schools has been visited – obviously it would’ve been much smarter to have made some visits earlier in the process, but life kinda got in the way and now here we are, yikes.
1 Like
Thanks – yes, the ability for her to explore academically for the first year or two is important, since she doesn’t yet know what she’d like to major in. Good to know that Hamilton is very friendly in that regard.
Yet another poster who immediately thought Carleton and W&M are must-visits for this kid. I particularly know a bunch of very happy kids at W&M. And if your kid got the Monroe/Provost Award, there are tangible (financial, research, housing) benefits that are nothing to sneeze at. My 2026 kid received this, as well, and had he not gotten into his top choice, I think W&M would have been in the final running.
Also echoing the advice to scratch W&L and Wake from the list.
3 Likes
Thank you for this recommended short-list! Also thanks for suggesting that four-college loop; you’re right, it does seem doable.
1 Like