NESCAC

[MENESCACFAN]

Genuine interest here FourMore.  Where did your non-soccer athlete attend and why?  I am partial to the Maine schools, but do love the NESCAC as a whole.  If I was to rewind to my college years, it seems the location of Tufts would have been a big draw.

[FourMoreYears]

Genuine interest here FourMore.  Where did your non-soccer athlete attend and why?  I am partial to the Maine schools, but do love the NESCAC as a whole.  If I was to rewind to my college years, it seems the location of Tufts would have been a big draw.

Responded off-board in a private message.
One thing I'd like to clarify, in referring to the relative difficulty of admissions at the Maine schools, I am in no ways demeaning the quality of education provided by either Bates or Colby, I believe both to be top-notch.

[blooter442]

Genuine interest here FourMore.  Where did your non-soccer athlete attend and why?  I am partial to the Maine schools, but do love the NESCAC as a whole.  If I was to rewind to my college years, it seems the location of Tufts would have been a big draw.

A Maine native's 2¢: Having attended Brandeis and loved it, I now live in Massachusetts. While my mother is a Bowdoin alum, I don't know that I would have gotten in there (I was a "good, not great" student in high school,) but I did get into another NESCAC.

From a Maine (in-state) perspective, Bates and Colby are certainly prestigious schools—B, B & C are the top three schools academically in the state without doubt. However, even in-state, Bowdoin is definitely known as being "a bit more" prestigious. For example, kids who apply to Bowdoin are generally applying to the more selective NESCACs like Williams Amherst, Midd. Tufts, etc., while kids applying to Bates and Colby generally look at places like Brandeis (which, while not a NESCAC, has a surprising # of applicants/students from Maine), Conn. College, Hamilton, and Trinity. Additionally, Brunswick (while not much closer than Lewiston) is very close to Portland, and a lot closer to Portland than Waterville. Combine the academic prestige of Bowdoin with its accessibility, and it is little wonder that families from out of state would prefer to look there over Colby and Bates.

In conclusion, I am NOT knocking Colby or Bates academically, and I recognize that there are kids who would choose Bates or Colby over Bowdoin. However, even in Maine, there is a slight difference in prestige between Bowdoin and Bates/Colby, and that same dynamic is likely replicated outside of Maine as well.

[MENESCACFAN]

Good insight Fourmore, thanks.

[MENESCACFAN]

Blooter, while not a Maine native I spend large chunks of time in Maine every year.  I would mirror your thoughts with regards to the CBB schools. 

[LaPaz]

boring conversation but I will chime in for a student athlete:

Amherst and Williams are top dogs. You might have a select few choose Midd or Bowdoin over these two for various reasons but it is rare. If you got into Harvard, Yale or Princeton you would choose those over Williams and Amherst. Wild Card would be Dartmouth and maybe Columbia and / or Penn.

Midd and Bowdoin will always get Williams and Amherst scraps. Midd and Bowdoin end up with the better athletes because of this but maybe not the best individual player for that sport(that is debatable).

Wild Card Tufts- It is very rare but you might choose Tufts over a Williams or Amherst because of location / undergrads / etc. Tufts usually gets all kinds of applicants and this bodes well for athletics. I am not sure how Tufts mens b-ball coach doesn't get better players or win more and not even sure how he has lasted this long. I am by no means a b-ball expert so I do not know.

Wesleyan- gets the more artsy kind of applicants and Williams / Amherst  scraps. Wesleyan is the Brown of the Nescac's. Even more so now with Wesleyan eliminating SAT scores.

Hamilton / Colby- good schools, nice campuses, but a tick below the others.

Trinity- An athletes paradise. Can get anyone in for Nescac standards. Beautiful campus and even starting to change the surrounding area.

Bates / Conn- I would much rather be in New London than Lewiston Maine.

[1970s NESCAC Player]

boring conversation but I will chime in for a student athlete:

Amherst and Williams are top dogs. You might have a select few choose Midd or Bowdoin over these two for various reasons but it is rare. If you got into Harvard, Yale or Princeton you would choose those over Williams and Amherst. Wild Card would be Dartmouth and maybe Columbia and / or Penn.

Midd and Bowdoin will always get Williams and Amherst scraps. Midd and Bowdoin end up with the better athletes because of this but maybe not the best individual player for that sport(that is debatable).

Wild Card Tufts- It is very rare but you might choose Tufts over a Williams or Amherst because of location / undergrads / etc. Tufts usually gets all kinds of applicants and this bodes well for athletics. I am not sure how Tufts mens b-ball coach doesn't get better players or win more and not even sure how he has lasted this long. I am by no means a b-ball expert so I do not know.

Wesleyan- gets the more artsy kind of applicants and Williams / Amherst  scraps. Wesleyan is the Brown of the Nescac's. Even more so now with Wesleyan eliminating SAT scores.

Hamilton / Colby- good schools, nice campuses, but a tick below the others.

Trinity- An athletes paradise. Can get anyone in for Nescac standards. Beautiful campus and even starting to change the surrounding area.

Bates / Conn- I would much rather be in New London than Lewiston Maine.

I agree with your take LaPaz.  Tufts truly is a wild card, as it is more than twice the size of almost all others, and is the only school located in a major metropolitan area.  In those respects, it is not really a NESCAC school.  As you may know, in addition to having a new coach, Colby has a new president, among whose expressed goals are to raise applications and selectivity.  It will be interesting to see if those goals are achievable, and whether this new administration gives any more assistance than the last to the athletics department . . .

[Ommadawn]

In those respects, it is not really a NESCAC school. 

This reference (to Tufts) is particularly astute.  It seems that Tufts is more a UAA-type school than a NESCAC-type school.

[ihidebehindtheinternet]

Always found it a little ridiculous that Tufts isn't better at athletics. They are the only NESCAC school close to a major city and one that offers engineering and business (I think only) as undergrad degrees. It is also by far and away the biggest so sneaking a poor performing student into the grade should not hurt the percentiles and thus there academic rankings. The school can get top recruits (ie top lax program) but somewhere the dots just don't connect.

[PaulNewman]

Raises an interesting question.  Why isn't Tufts in the UAA?  And why isn't Vassar a NESCAC or even Union (as a peer to Trinity and Conn)?

I agree mostly with the pecking order as described although I think the differences are slight.  Some kids will apply to Williams, Amherst, Midd, and Bowdoin and be very happy to get in any of them and while viewing them as on the same level.  The fact that 8 out of 10 double admits might or would choose Williams over Midd I don't think fairly describes how close they are.  Same with Bowdoin and Colby (I'm more familiar with Colby than Bates).  Yes, Bowdoin, with its annual top 5 or 6 national ranking gets the edge, but Colby has closed the gap.  With Colby now a top 15-18 school we're still talking pretty ultra-elite.  And yes, Colby is a little further away, but is a very attractive (and very popular) school, and should do better in soccer.

[Jump4Joy]

Is Williams without both Rashid and Westling for the season? Rashid's knee. Westling?

[LaPaz]

Union was a member of Nescac until 1982. D1  hockey is more important to Union than being in Nescac at the moment.
Rashid is done for the season.
Westling is thought to be done for the season with a concussion. He had a couple at Andover and they are being cautious.

[Nutmeg]

Always found it a little ridiculous that Tufts isn't better at athletics. They are the only NESCAC school close to a major city and one that offers engineering and business (I think only) as undergrad degrees. It is also by far and away the biggest so sneaking a poor performing student into the grade should not hurt the percentiles and thus there academic rankings. The school can get top recruits (ie top lax program) but somewhere the dots just don't connect.

Forbes ranked Williams as the best school in the country so one might choose it over Harvard, etc. also, I don't believe tufts has an undergrad business degree....it's really geared to liberal arts...

[Nutmeg]

Also, I believe tufts may have a lower acceptance rate than many other nescac schools but I have not verified that.

[Corazon]

Union was a member of Nescac until 1982. D1  hockey is more important to Union than being in Nescac at the moment.
Rashid is done for the season.
Westling is thought to be done for the season with a concussion. He had a couple at Andover and they are being cautious.

What a stupid move by Union. I'm sure they've been regretting it ever since.