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pros/cons anyone?


I'm interested in classics and politcal science and considering possibly going into law or education


basic stats:
rank = 6/355
1490 (800v, 690m)
730 writing
690 us history
640 math IC (retaking in jan)

By Aspirer42 (Aspirer42) on Thursday, January 08, 2004 - 06:30 pm: Edit

Macalester's political science program is legendary. But do you like Howard Dean? ...If you do, you're too far to the right; try Dennis Kucinich.
Seriously, they do have a heavily leftward political orientation- if you can take that, enjoy. Haverford is mildly liberal as well, but not nearly as much so. They also have good programs all-around, particularly in the humanities, and a stellar graduate school placement rate.
I know Colgate is a traditionally good school, and that Carleton and especially Grinnell are notoriously underrated, but not much else besides that. Your stats you put up seem more than adequate to me for many of those colleges, but remember that admission decisions rely on many more factors than just those (and that I'm in the same boat as you- applying to Haverford myself, actually). Good luck!

By Reidmc (Reidmc) on Thursday, January 08, 2004 - 09:58 pm: Edit

Colgate is the least like the other schools in your grouping. It's bigger -- 2.5x the size of Haverford and significantly bigger than the others. Colgate has more of a traditional "mini-university" feel, with a strong fraternity and sorority culture and Division I athletics. Likely more Republicans there too if that makes a difference.

I would be surprised to find a student who would like Haverford and Colgate equally as they are pretty different - small, suburban and Quaker vs. big (for a LAC), rural and work hard/play hard.

Colgate and (especially) Grinnell are located the farthest away from civilization but that may not be a negative to you. Grinnell has a bit more money to throw around. If you think you would like an urban (but not too urban) school Macalester would be the choice. Mac and Carleton are 45 minutes apart and make a nice combination visit.

Academically you can't go wrong at any of these schools. You can probably find folks that would give a very slight nod to Carleton and maybe Grinnell, but if you are not a math or science type I think the differences are going to be negligible.

I'd check the classics and political science offerings at all of them and note the schools that offer (a) more courses and (b) more courses you are interested in. Finally, I do not think any of them offer teacher certification, but if one did that might be a point in its favor with you.

Good luck!

By Pastyvoigt (Pastyvoigt) on Thursday, January 08, 2004 - 10:00 pm: Edit

Carleton EDITED

By Collegeparent (Collegeparent) on Friday, January 09, 2004 - 09:52 am: Edit

Continuing what Reidmc said, Colgate does offer a fifth year Master's in Education which you should seriously investigate. Also, its political science department is quite good. Most grads go onto top law schools from Colgate.