You attend a NESCAC school, but do you feel like a NESCAC kid? You know the stereotypes of these small liberal arts colleges: Middlebury students are rich and snobby. Wesleyan students are very...granola. Bates is covered in snow year-round.
"Everyone at Middlebury is exactly the same - blond, preppy kids who come from private schools and rich parents," senior Meredith Harris said.
"Wesleyan is very alternative - very smelly armpits," senior Emily Hershburdick said. "I stayed there before coming to Tufts, and [the girl I stayed with] seemed spunky and fun, but then she was telling me how they don't party, but occasionally they chase each other down the hall and kick a big ball around."
Whether these stereotypes are valid is unclear but the NESCAC grouping does invite comparison - and competition - between member schools. NESCAC, or the New England Small College Athletic Conference, was founded in 1971 to serve the intercollegiate athletics of liberal arts colleges and universities in the New England area.
It now has eleven member schools: Amherst College, Bowdoin College, Wesleyan University, Williams College, Bates College, Colby College, Hamilton College, Middlebury College, Trinity College, Connecticut College - and Tufts University.
Dean of Undergraduate Education James Glaser said Tufts is difficult to compare to other NESCAC schools because of its size, its many institutions, and its relatively urban environment.
"I think they [the other NESCAC schools] see Tufts as a larger version of themselves, which isn't really accurate," he said.
In the academic realm there are similarities: all the NESCAC schools are intellectually solid, diverse, liberal, and rank well against other liberal arts colleges and national universities. While some, including Amherst College, allow for a completely open curriculum, many have "general" course requirements - similar to Tufts' distribution requirements - in math, science and English to graduate.
Junior Erica Brody, who transferred from Trinity to Tufts last year, said the schools have similar academic environments. "Academically, the schools are comparable," she said. "The professors at Trinity had a great impact on me - Tufts and Trinity both have great academics."
While the classrooms are popular, sports are not. "As far as fan support goes, the only people who show up to our games are our parents or really close friends," Tufts sophomore and softball player Erica Bailey said. "People don't really seem to have a huge interest in women's sports in general around here. Maybe it's because most NESCAC schools are so hardcore when it comes to academics that people forget the athletes."
Games might not be popular but athletes are not forgotten. According to William G. Bowen and Sarah A. Levin - the authors of "Reclaiming the Game: College Sports and Educational Values" - 20 to 33 percent of entering students at the typical New England school are composed of recruited athletes.
"I don't like Williams or Amherst because they're good at basketball, especially Amherst," Tufts senior and basketball player Dan Martin said.
Athletic rivalries are stronger at other NESCAC schools, Brody said. "Trinity is a smaller school, so people were more invested in the school sporting events," Brody said. "That's not to say that kids aren't invested in school activities at Tufts - they are. But the interests are more diverse at Tufts because of the school's nature: it's bigger, and it's a university rather than a college."
Since all NESCAC schools are located in New England, they are usually further away from big cities and nightlife.
"There's a bigger bar scene here, and Boston is a college city, so there's more opportunities to meet other students," Brody said. The on-campus social scene at Tufts, Broday said, is more varied than Trinity: "Trinity parties were more frat-oriented," she said. "There are more options here."
At other rural NESCAC schools, complaints about social life are common.
"One of my closest friends goes to Bates, and he thinks it lacks in social spirit," senior Hilary Pentz said, adding that "overall, the thing he complains about the most is that there is snow on the ground six months of the year."
Colby and Trinity boasted glowing reviews of their campuses based on attractiveness - in College Prowler, one Trinity male claimed the girls are so hot, he thanks God when spring comes around - and almost all schools affirmed that well-dressed individuals dominate their campus.
All NESCAC schools posted positive reviews of their guys and girls in College Prowler - with the exception of Tufts.
One student justified the ugly ducklings of Tufts by posting "smart people are generally not good-looking." Others claimed the girls are definitely better looking than the guys. Expect the number of members in the "Why Are There No Hot Guys at Tufts?" Facebook group to continue rising.
Alex Dretler and Patrice Taddonio contributed to this article.
