<p>Bucknell was the first stop on our spring college tour. It’s about 5,000 students, 150 of them graduate students. The campus is large and lovely, and just this side of nowhere. One of the first things you see when entering is the football stadium, and a big deal is made over the fact that Bucknell is a Division I sports school (27 Div. I teams, in the Patriot League). This year, the basketball team apparently made the semi-finals in March Madness (I can’t confirm that because I don’t follow such things).</p>
<p>Our info session was led by Tim Johnson, a member of Bucknell’s class of 2004, who now works in admissions. Very entertaining young man. </p>
<p>Bucknell apparently fosters “experiential learning”, taking “ownership” of ideas, and fostering original thinking. One of the things he mentioned is that Walmart wanted to build a superstore in Lewisburg. Bucknell students did a significant piece of the economic development research. (The store was approved.)</p>
<p>Freshman are required to take various required seminars, and intro courses. Several courses can be used to satisfy multiple requirements, both for the distribution courses and majors/minors. Eight classes in the school of arts & sciences constitute a major. Bucknell also allows you to create your own major.</p>
<p>The largest class is about 90 students - Management 101. Even in that class, kids are broken up into groups of 3 or so to create a product, produce it, market it, sell it and then donate the proceeds to charity. TAs are used only to supplement in discussions & labs, but do not teach. Courses are taught only by professors.</p>
<p>We could never get a straight answer on how many join, but there is a large Greek life at Bucknell. It could be up to 50% of eligible students (freshmen cannot go Greek). There are some fraternity houses; sororities don’t have houses. Rather, they have a large dorm split up by suites into the houses.</p>
<p>Bucknell has EDI and EDII. Fifty to 55% of ED apps are accepted; 38% of RD. ED apps are reviewed by 6 people, individually and together. RD apps are reviewed by 3 people, but not necessarily together. ED is more “holistic”, RD is more numbers driven.</p>
<p>Bucknell looks for As & Bs in the strongest curriculum you can handle. B- or lower would be a problem. They use the weighted GPA in admissions.</p>
<p>It’s OK to be undecided in your major.</p>
<p>Bucknell has a 96% placement in employment or grad school within 6 months of graduation.</p>
<p>Every classroom has a projector, a slide projector and several computers for the professor. We did see a couple of classrooms set up in rows of desks, which disturbed my d; she prefers a more collaborative atmosphere. The school is fully wireless.</p>
<p>Grades are not curved in most classes - you get what you earn. </p>
<p>Bucknell has only a dance minor, but they do have jazz dance. There is only one large dance studio, but several performance spaces. The department is off on the edge of campus, so it feels like an afterthought. It’s not with the theater department. We watched part of a student rehearsal, which didn’t really impress my d. She felt like the dancers didn’t really want to be there, and didn’t even like each other.</p>
<p>The biggest drawbacks for my d were the rural location, the Greek life, and the Division I sports (she’s not a big fan, and definitely not a participant). It may remain on the list, but not at the top.</p>