Bucknell vs Lehigh

College Search & Selection
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Two comments:

  1. The OP has eliminated Lafayette from consideration.
    BUT FWIW
  2. My D attended Lafayette and felt that there is no need to be part of Greek Life to have an active/happy social life there. The college offers many other outlets (ex. she was involved in theater, was part of a Living-Learning community etc.). Of course YMMV.
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My daughter graduated from Lehigh. She also applied to Bucknell.

In the end, Lehigh’s financial aid was far superior to Bucknell’s and ultimately the reason why she attended.

She also lived in the area for a decade after graduation. I loved Bethlehem and for all the bad press about the neighborhood, it was fine. It’s not rural like Bucknell but it’s a city with all the city issues.

She had to fly home and the airport is less than 10 miles from campus.

Both have the reputation of being party schools. My daughter has an engineering degree and never pursued Greek life although she knew people who did. Lehigh is definitely a work hard, party hard atmosphere.

3 Likes
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Thank you for posting. I am watching this thread with great interest as my S23 recently added Lehigh to his list. I didn’t realize there was an airport nearby and thought kids would have to trek to Philly. Good to know!

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It is very tough to get a school that offers all three of these things - school spirit with popular/well attended football games, small class sizes and the ability to run track.

If you desire more school spirit, and the idea of Saturday tailgates in the fall appeal to you, you just won’t get that in the NESCAC/Patriot League world. I went to a B10 school and my cousin went to Duke at the same time, both very different schools, but both of us look back on some of our best college memories around sporting events.

If you are set on an LAC and running track, I would put your primary focus on how you fit in with the track team, the culture and any anticipated departures amongst the coaching staff.

The other question is why do you want to run track? Are you trying to see just how good you can get or are you looking for team camaraderie, maybe a bit of both? What I am getting at is the decision to go D1 vs D3 and the expectations around that. Something to keep in mind as you go through the search and examine the teams and culture at each school.

Just my $0.02, but you got some great options, so best of luck to you!

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