Is Brown a target? How about Williams?

Hi, just a good ol' HS senior tryna decide on which College he wants to ED to. I know how each school is hard to get into, etc. etc., but just wondering - how much of targets are these schools? And how do these schools compare (in terms of econ/finance) to..lets say...Dartmouth? Wb a top name like Harvard?

Also, for you folks who live/grew up in the north, how does Brown's prestige compare to top LAC's like Amherst + Williams, since they are very similar? And how do Amherst and Williams compare?

Thanks in advance for all the help folks

27 Comments
 

I'd bucket Brown and Williams as semi-targets, probably same as Amherst but below Dartmouth and Cornell. Brown is a great school, but it doesn't get my alarm bells ringing when someone reaches out to me from there.

That all being said, if you get in to any of those schools, you've got a shot. Amherst might not open as many doors as Cornell or Harvard, but you're still going to have plenty of opportunity. You'll just have to hustle a little harder. But I'm sure you can do it.

 

Definitely disagree. Williams and Amherst are stronger schools than Cornell. It's Cornell lol.

Just talk about how you wanted a more intimate learning environment and Williams and Amherst best offered this compared to the Ivies which have much much bigger class sizes.

 

Current student at HYP. I would say in terms of what I know of recruiting, the most well regarded schools after HYP are generally smaller schools because their alumni will pull really hard for them. I considered going to Dartmouth and Amherst because their alum love their school so much, and would have considered Williams as well. If you go to a top LAC or a smaller school (Dartmouth, Yale, Princeton, Brown are a bit smaller than Harvard, which is smaller than Columbia/Penn, Cornell is huge), the alum will go to bat for you. At most firms I applied to, the first one or two alum I reached out at every firm I was interested in responded quickly, all took the time to chat, and then when recruiting began connected me to MDs/Partners and tried to push me through. While Wharton/NYU/Harvard/Cornell do manage to send large numbers of kids, I think a smaller school focused on liberal arts (which applies to Brown/Dartmouth/Yale/Princeton) has a smaller number of kids going for positions, and I think have a very high hit rate for getting offers at BBs/EBs because of alumni. I think that you can't go wrong with any of Brown, Dartmouth, Amherst, or Williams, but I wouldn't consider Cornell, NYU, Penn on par with any of them. At those places you're competing with literally everyone for just a few more spots than HYP or even Dartmouth may get

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