<p>Hi everyone!</p>
<p>I am a freshman at Ursinus college and if anyone has any questions about anything, please feel free to ask!</p>
<p>Why Ursinus and not Dickinson or Muhlenberg? My D is considering all three. She's already been admitted to Ursinus. She's also been admitted to Penn State-University Park. </p>
<p>Why should she enroll at Ursinus? What schools did you turn down to enroll at Ursinus?</p>
<p>Hi Plainsman, </p>
<p>Thanks for your question! Would you mind providing me with more information about your daughter, such as what she is planning on majoring in/academic interests, so that I can provide you with a more detailed answer.</p>
<p>She doesn't know what she is going to major in. She's leaning toward sociology for the time being.</p>
<p>Plainsman, I'll answer part of your question:</p>
<p>D1 turned down Franklin & Marshall, Lafayette, and University of Delaware to attend Ursinus. UDel was too big, she liked Ursinus better than F&M. There was a financial incentive for her to attend Ursinus instead of Lafayette (full-pay at Lafayette, merit aid at Ursinus).</p>
<p>mrsref: What is Ursinus' rep as a college? Before moving here from the midwest, I'd not heard of it. I had heard of Lafayette and, vaguely, Franklin & Marshall, but not Ursinus. I'm concerned about that. When I mention Ursinus to colleagues at work who are more familiar with Pennsylvania colleges, no one says anything negative but no one praises it either. People just sort of shrug and say "it's okay," but they come across impressed when Lafayette is mentioned. I'm concerned about that too.</p>
<p>My D did not apply to Lafayette and has no interest in the school, but why are people impressed when you say Lafayette but say "it's okay," when you say "Ursinus"?</p>
<p>Plainsman -- </p>
<p>I don't know why people you ask seem to be impressed by Lafayette but not Ursinus...maybe because the acceptance rate is lower at Lafayette (37% vs 55%)? If you look at the middle 50% SAT ranges for the two schools, they are very close.</p>
<p>"Reputation" was not a major factor in D1's criteria for choosing a school.</p>
<p>Because ursinus recruits engineers to create methods to bypass spam filters and flood the email boxes of unsuspecting seniors informing us that it is never too late to apply</p>
<p>RE: Lafayette being considered more impressive than Ursinus. It may have to do with Laf having a strong tradition in sciences and engineering. Most people consider those areas to be very demanding. Ursinus has more of the Liberal arts college feel - know it is a good college overall.</p>
<p>I'm an Ursinus grad -- Ursinus is a MUCH better learning environment than F&M or Lafayette.</p>
<p>As someone said earlier, Ursinus doesn't get the respect due to the high acceptance rate as compared to other schools. Many science majors at Ursinus go to medical school or into pharma. instead of engineering.</p>
<p>A long time ago (I'm getting up there in age), I chose Ursinus over F&M and Swarthmore.</p>
<p>The opportunities for independ. and research projects at Ursinus is what swayed me. It was (still is) encouraged to dual major. Also, the social scene was much better than many other "academic" schools -- I wanted parties & dances, but didn't want the Penn State party 24/7 mentality</p>
<p>Look beyond the presitige of getting into a school and instead look at what the graduates of the school do -- Acceptance rates for grad school, Employment rates, "real" work experience before college. </p>
<p>I got a better educational experiance at Ursinus than did my high school friends who went Ivy. I earn more than most of my High School friends. For me it was the right decision.</p>
<p>I strongly encourage the Red & Gold Day overnight program. It gives great insight to dorm life and classes.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice, Notnim.</p>
<p>Thanks, Notnim. I think we missed the Red & Gold day, but we did visit from California and S really liked UC. It will come down to scholarships, as the list price is higher than any other school on his list, and times have changed since we made the list of colleges.</p>
<p>So, the real story about Ursinus is this:
It has a good looking campus with tour guides that are pumped so full of college BS that they don't know whats what anymore. The administration is out to lunch, most places give you some feeling of being needed and wanted as a student. It is too obvious that the students are a source of funds and not much else.</p>
<p>They have good acceptance rates to med school for two reasons...1) because of the students they attract, not because of the students they make, and 2) they discourage anyone with less than a ~3.4 from applying...and by discourage I mean will not promise good rec. letters from the faculty committee. The bio department has a handful of great professors, and more than its fair share of complete idiots. Depending on what class you take you can be subject to anything from what I call, 8th grade earth science to graduate level classes...and getting into the classes, at an upper level is a crap shoot. I for one was barred from full classes and was forced to make up by taking extra classes (5 instead of 4) in other semesters.</p>
<p>Students are constantly reminded to donate money...and the seniors of all majors are subject to a departmental dinner with the president which I can only describe as being blatantly geared towards leaving you with a good feeling about your 4 year $120,000 stay at the school. It is a sophomoric and transparent attempt at a "lets be friends and hold hands" mental imprint so you don't forget to donate later.</p>
<p>I have had some great professors here, and some lousy ones...and for some reason the lousy ones seem to be in charge of things (Dept. Chairs)...go figure...for the experience of the good ones I am a better person, but I can't say that after 4 years this place got me to where I wanted to go. </p>
<p>Ursinus is a closet party school, and wanna be sports school. Drinking was bad but related incidents have been getting better...either that or the new freshmen just stopped calling EMS/PD...who knows...which brings me to my biggest problem, the school consistently puts the image of the school above the student's very safety in refusing to call ambulances/police and intentionally installing barricades and natural barriers in an effort to keep the fire department, who they have been to court with, off of their campus...</p>
<p>Good English, Bio (Ecology), ESS, Chem graduates 5-15 majors/yr good but tough, BioChem is a good major too, History, Modern Language and cultural studies students will find good opportunities here (study abroad), Business and Econ is a growing department that I would recommend...but Muhlenberg is better for that as a serious primary major. Human Bio suffers, but has the BEST (though small) selection of Bio department profs. DO NOT come here for serious sports, dance, music, psych is so-so, Art is so-so, neuro science is who knows....</p>
<p>Overall, having spent lots of time at Muhlenberg, I have to say, I wish I went there. Hope this helps, sorry to burst bubbles...and thats, the rest of the story...</p>
<p>Also...the tour guides are told to tell people that, "If we don't have something here you like, you can always start a club and the school will give you money." It's true, but they give you $50...also, they don't really support the clubs they have, some continue to get $50/year...thats $25/semester, however greek and sports organizations, groups not open to everyone on campus, are well funded...kinda backwards</p>
<p>Regarding the previous posts by disgruntled UC student, I'm curious why you haven't transferred out of UC if you're so disappointed.</p>
<p>My S applied on the recommendation of his counselor who recommended UC over Muhlenberg. We are from west coast so don't have a feel at all for the Penn LACs.
He was accepted to UC early action and we are waiting for Muhlenberg decision.</p>
<p>I would be interested in additional insights from families and students who are considering both Ursinus and Muhlenberg.</p>
<p>It would have put me behind at least a semester as things like CIE 1&2 and ENG 100 and possibly Bio 111 would not have carried over in credits, also, I got lots of money from UC on merit so I couldn't afford Muhlenberg...mostly about the $$ honestly. Collegeville is also a very nice area with lots of trails and State Parks land, also King of Prussia right down the road. I'll be the first one to be fair and say that UC has some good attributes but there is a dark side as well.</p>
<p>Honestly UC, has alot of great professors its just hard sometimes to go on that alone...</p>
<p>If money and location were not a factor...Allentown isn't the greatest area, but the school is WELL protected by both Allentown PD and Campus PD (yes, it is actually a Police Department)...I would say Muhlenberg hands down, no question...in general at least...what were the reasons for UC over MC that you were given?</p>
<p>benel: We visited both schools. My D was accepted to UC via Priority App. It took 4 weeks, and they didn't care about her SATs but she sent them anyway. UC didn't seem to have much of a definable "character." At least none that we could discern. The students walking around were friendly. One thing we did not like was the total absence of a music program. UC is not big on the arts in "Liberal Arts." Nevertheless, my D liked the campus and thought the dorms okay.</p>
<p>We also visited Muhlenberg. I thought better of Muhlenberg. The campus is smaller than UC's campus, but there were more dining locations and options. After visiting LACs with only one dining hall, this was a pleasant surprise. We liked the dorms better at Muhlenberg. As UC appears to be big in the sciences, we were surprised to find Muhlenberg has a fairly significant business program in finance and accounting. And they are big in the arts part of "Liberal Arts," a sharp contrast to UC. </p>
<p>Here's another difference: Muhlenberg attracts a significant Jewish student population. Something like 1 in 3 students is Jewish, which is odd for its location and the fact that the college was founded by the Lutheran Church. In fact there is a very attractive little church (it's bigger than a chapel) on campus, so I don't understand the Jewish connection, but its huge. My gut tells me Muhlenberg is more liberal politically than Ursinus, but I could be wrong. Maybe I came to that conclusion because I lost count of the number of dorm room windows that had "Obama" signs still up two months after the election (we visited in January). Again, this is a bit of a surprise because Muhlenberg's racial minority population is tiny, much smaller than UC's. Something like 2.2% are black. That's compared to almost 9% at UC. Hispanics have similar low representation at Muhlenberg. Asians are not an exception. I didn't notice a single Asian student when we toured the campus.</p>
<p>Muhlenberg is a very white school and not very politically active, IMHO, but I think the strong Jewish representation provides a noticeable liberal political tilt. We felt very comfortable there. Oh yeah. ONe more thing. Muhlenberg had state-of-the-art exerices equipment for students in one building. I mean top shelf. All Precor equipment and it looked new. There were quite a few female students in tight outfits working out when we wandered through. Of course, I hardly noticed them. I only noticed the Precor equipment. LOL. </p>
<p>My D expects to hear from Muhlenberg by next week.</p>
<p>Thanks for the thorough visit report on UC and Muhlenberg. My S is very much into the creative arts/humanities (writing, film, music) so your insights are helpful in evaluating where he would be most comfortable.
One of the reasons he is looking at Muhlenberg is because of the good size Jewish population for a small LAC.<br>
He applied RD so he probably won't hear till April 1. Wish we could know sooner --- planning a trip out there (or anywhere else he is admitted) will be logistically challenging enough.</p>
<p>Yeah, Benel, very strong Jewish connection. It's just a mystery how it happened at a Lutheran college. Our tour guide, a current student, showed us her dorm room She had a big Obama sign on the wall and right underneath it was a huge flag of Israel. The lady in admissions who interviewed my D, actually told us (they let parents into the interview room after 30 minutes) that she was Jewish. We didn't ask - we're not Jewish - she just told us. </p>
<p>The weird thing is Muhlenberg is only about 8 miles from our house but it was the last school we visited. My D originally was not going to apply to Muhlenberg - we're not originally from Pennsylvania, so we were unfamiliar with the school - but decided she should visit at the last minute, sort of, because it is so close. We really liked it. She has applied. I think they inform students by March 15, but I could be wrong. I read that somewhere. Maybe on the website.</p>
<p>If you you are coming out here and don't mind changing planes somewhere in the Midwest, there is a small airport only 15 minutes or so from campus. It's called Lehigh Valley International Airport. The airport code with the airlines is ABE (Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton). It's an easy airport to get in and out of within minutes. No crowds. If you fly to Philly or NYC, you've got a long drive either way. Almost two hours from either Philly or Newark airports. Much longer if you fly into LaGuardia or Kennedy. Watch out. If you book online and it says there is a connecting flight from Newark or Philly into Lehigh Valley Airport, I don't think it's an actual plane. The "connecting flight" is actually a bus. LOL. And those airports are huge, and can be a mess to get in and out of.</p>
<p>Thanks Plainsman for the additional info on flights. I recall from a few years ago flying into Lehigh Valley on business (connection through Chicago).</p>
<p>Since we are "west coasters," anything East of Denver is "the East Coast" for us. If my S is accepted to Muhlenberg, we will probably visit, just so he can get a feel for the East Coast LAC. Good friends of ours are from Philly area and they think the LACs on the East, plus the whole "east coast" vibe are good for the West Coast students to experience.</p>