I was accepted off waitlist Monday into School of Management. Committed to Lafayette but having second thoughts. I love both schools but I am very interested in the business school at Bucknell where I would study finance but I am concerned about the party vibe and dominate Greek life at Bucknell. Still leaning heavily to Lafayette but I really liked the program at Bucknell. So confused - Any thoughts would be appreciated
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Lafayette has no caveats, whereas Bucknell does. Go with your gut and stick with Lafayette. Your job opportunities will be similar out of either institution.
Not sure where these myths emerge and continue to get traction on CC
Lafayette has 39% of students in Greek life. (And outperform non Greek in gpa by .04)
Bucknell has 41% in Greek life.
It’s the same. Choose for major, fit, finances and facilities you prefer.
Congrats and best of luck !
Bucknell does seem to have more of a party/Greek Life reputation than Lafayette. By the numbers, it appears to be pretty much the same. I think in the case of Bucknell, its rep might be due to its isolation. There is a lot more “life” to be found around Lafayette, in terms of other towns and cities in the vicinity.
Both have an A+ on Niche, but Bucknell has a lot more students. You will find non-partying people at both schools. I would not let partying concerns drive your choice. Partying happens at every school in the country, even schools that have no Greek Life. Go to the school you can see yourself being happiest at.
One thing to consider, Lafayette has sophomore rush. I think this is a good thing since you don’t have the freshman class dividing itself up second semester. (Full disclosure, I went to Lafayette a long time ago and was in a frat).
Bucknell also has sophomore rush.
I think the major issue should be if OP wants to study business. Bucknell has a School of Management. Lafayette doesn’t. My D graduated from Bucknell in 2018 and my son will be a senior at Lafayette in the Fall. Both have loved their experiences. Both are involved in Greek life. Both kids feel like the vibe at Lafayette is a bit more laid back.
My son is in the SOM and my daughter graduated from Lafayette. Love both schools. Son chose Bucknell because of SOM.
@Jaspers123: I think you understand your options quite well. If your concern is that you are a non-drinker, then you need to look elsewhere.
Hi, I go to Bucknell right now. If you want to be a finance major, it’s definitely the school for you. There wasn’t a single week that we didn’t have some networking/skill-building event, plus I’ve heard that the business classes are very good. There is a LOT of partying though. However, I didn’t go out at all this year and still made many amazing friends! If you have questions, ask away 
Honestly folks. Even you, yes you, the required “my child isn’t at all interested in anything but coding, service and life of the mind” …
Large groups of teenagers and away from mom and dad = a lot of partying.
Sure not every night and some more than others. But unless you go to all schools or even just two - simultaneously - no one can say x vs y has more partying. It’s either perception, belief, selection bias, pure hopefulness or willingness to suspend disbelief.
This is more for the parents with first borns heading off to college (or applying). To @privatebanker 's point, partying happens when you have a bunch of 18-22 yr old kids without parents around. Whether a school is isolated or not. The more isolated ones do a great job bringing things to campus. Some partake in that, others don’t. But they all essentially have lots of kids that want to party.
What many experience is quite a bit of it first semester freshman yr. That’s a very social time. All the greek and non-greek orgs are recruiting. Parties galore. A little less second semester. Then this thing called academics sets in and partying settles down. The ones who were “going out” 5 or 6 nights a week reduce to 3. The ones who were at 3 limit to weekends with some of those nights just hanging out with friends. Clearly if you are in a frat there will be more of that accessible.
At the end of the day, there are plenty at most schools that do and plenty that don’t. It’s about finding your tribe.
@rickle1 is 100 percent right on this point.
Bucknell, by Princeton Review survey data, places 5th in “Party Schools,” 7th in “Lots of Beer” and 13th in “Lots of Hard Liquor.” I regard it as reasonable to consider that characteristics associated with these listings might be more prevalent at Bucknell than at some other schools.
The above noted, I’d nonetheless recommend that you base your decision on program strength in your areas of interest, @Jaspers123. Bucknell is clearly very strong in direct business programs such as those relating to accounting and other subfields. Lafayette, however, might be stronger for economics, which could serve as an academic draw as well depending on how strongly its array of available courses appeals to you.
Wishing you the best of luck with your decision.
Bucknell has a very active party life.
Everywhere has an active party life. And self reported student surveys are essentially meaningless. Especially when it’s a decimal point difference between number 5 and number 50.
Publisher and Merc. Unless we experience each school ourselves and in the same exact environments it is literally impossible to verify or quantify your assertions. They maybe correct directionally but they are opinions without any factual basis.
I have never known a student from bucknell or Lafayette. Literally. I did see one nice and studious looking young woman with a bucknell sweatshirt in the airport a few weeks ago Pretty preppy and clean cut kid from what I could tell.
Bucknell also has a nice reputation. So hard to see the kids doing so well in a tough academic environment if they are getting bombed every night and smoking from a bong all day.
This is all marginal stuff. As a non drinker it is 100 percent possible to attend every party available and not have any alcohol. No one cares. And Netflix is nice way to unwind too. Choices and options at all schools.
So here is one data point: one kid at one school. But I think it’s helpful and provides some context to the general topic.
S just finished his 2nd yr at Wake Forest. If you go by niche, greekrank, Princeton Review (the beer and hard liquor), and others, you’d get the impression that Wake is a southern, fratty, work hard / play hard, party central school. And in some respects it is. Meaning if that’s what you want your college experience to be, you can make that happen.
You can also be a very serious student who works around the clock, attends fascinating lectures given by many thought leaders on various subjects, develop your own start up company with funding and exposure from the university, view student led plays virtually every week, etc.
A student within each extreme, looking for their kind of fun would be equally happy. There are plenty of both at Wake and at most schools.
For most kids, certainly my S and his friends, they’ve found bliss somewhere in the middle. They are not greek but they have plenty of opportunities to party and they do. Not an extreme amount. Typically on weekends. Sometimes in small groups and others in much larger groups. They also attend tons of career focused info sessions, play intramural sports, attend Game of Thrones watch parties, go hiking, attend ACC sporting events, etc.
If we would have read and focused on the niche’s of the world, we might have not even suggested he look at Wake as he is not the frat boy, party 100 mph type, but rather fairly reserved, friendly, hardworking, etc. And that would have been a shame because he loves Wake Forest; has grown as a human, has tons of friends, will most likely get a great job, and get so much more exposure to things had he just stayed in his comfort zone (including his backyard).
It really is about finding your tribe and they’re on every campus.
I think the issue becomes one if one’s tribe is very small. Or so small that it doesn’t allow for much choice or options within it.
At a school that is small and isolated, the dominant culture DOES matter, unless you’re that kid entirely happy living outside of it. Some are. Many are not.
I know kids who were merely social (vs hard partiers) who have been miserable at party schools and transferred as well as kids who have been very happy at those same schools.
Personally, I think it’s helpful for kids to understand the social milieu at a school and to think through how it would work for them. And smart and accomplished doesn’t mean not partying, btw.
^ Absolutely you can do both. S is a good example as he has a full social life while being quite accomplished in the classroom at an academically challenging school.
And yes, I suppose the smaller the school, the more dominant a leading culture would seem. Easier to find more tribe members from a larger pool. But for the most part, college is not cliquey like HS. Nobody really cares what you do as long as they are not prevented from doing what they do.
Looking back at my own college yrs, I had a certain group of friends I met through my dorm. This was at a state flagship of around 20k students. This became my tribe. If we were at a much smaller or larger school, and the dorm was the same, they would still have been my tribe. We just hit it off and are close to this day. Who went to a frat party and who stayed in on Saturday night really didn’t matter.