My son wants to study Civil Engineering and I wonder if anyone has a strong opinion about which one is best: Clarkson or Lafayette? Thank you
Lafayette is better, I think. Clarkson was more highly respected a while ago but I don’t think they have been able to keep up. They take more medium-average students at Clarkson. Our Upstate NY HS has about 20 students accepted there every year but many are in the B+, 1150-1200 SAT range. Laf has only taken a few but they are higher stat kids. I guess it depends what you’re looking for and the type of student in question.
Both schools are very good! My public high school has a lot of kids that go to Clarkson and they do fantastic when they get out. Job offers by senior year. I will say I think Lafayette is the better school, I agree with the helpingmom40 above.
Clarkson is FREEZING, but they do give a lot of money in scholarships. either choice is amazing.
If your son has the stats for Lafayette, he’ll see good merit money from Clarkson. I would say reputation wise, Lafayette is more competitive, but Clarkson has great job placement for their engineers.
S19 applied to both along with a lot of other similar schools. Only wait list that stuck was Lafayette. He wasn’t super interested so that was fine. His act was 34!so it’s pretty competitive. We did visit. He was civil as well.
Not sure on reputation, to be honest. We live in the northeast, and when my d applied to Laf, there were a lot of people who hadn’t heard of it. Clarkson has fantastic career placement support; I would check to see how Lafayette’s measures up. Also, which does your son feel is the better fit? They’re different enough that he may have a preference on where he wants to spend the next four years. Another thing to consider: if there is any chance your son could change his mind on engineering, he’ll have more options for a major change at Laf vs. Clarkson.