<p>I'm a rising senior, and I know I still have to get accepted to these places before making a final decision, but these schools seem very similar to me. (I have only visited Lafayette so far.) All three are around the same area and about the same size. Anyone have some good/bad input about any of these three schools that separates them from the other two? Current students: any advice would be greatly appreciated!</p>
<p>I’m not a current student, but I visited Dickinson and Lafayette with my D two years ago (can’t help you with Gettysburg) and both are excellent schools. Our sense was that Dickinson was a bit more humanities driven while Lafayette was more equally split between humanities and the sciences (and she is interested in both areas). One unusual thing (you never know what bothers people) is that she really didn’t like that a road went right through the Dickinson campus. </p>
<p>She looked at some other LACs in the area as well (F&M, Muhlenberg, Union, Skidmore) but fell in love with Lafayette. She finished her freshman year at Lafayette-- she had a great experience in every respect and can’t wait to return in late August. </p>
<p>There are a number of great LACs in this area and it is important to visit each one and get a sense of which is the right school is for you. We went back for a second visit to her two top choices and she did an on campus interview and shadowed a student. This helped to give her a really good sense of which school she felt was the best choice for her.</p>
<p>I actually disagree with happy1’s assessment of Dickinson. My parents and I were extremely impressed with the school overall – it definitely seems to be “on the rise”. They have a huge, state of the art new science center and are working on a new environmental center/greenhouse. It seemed to be focused on sciences, humanities, and languages equally.</p>
<p>Getty is more conservative. LC has good engineering program which is unusual for a LAC. Easton kinda blows though. Overall pretty equal.</p>
<p>Lafayette offers engineering and offers Division I sports, which is unusual for a school of that size. Because of engineering, it actually has slightly more male students than female students, which is unusual for a LAC.</p>
<p>Dickinson has more of an international emphasis than the others, and is well known for its study abroad program and foreign language programs, and has more international students.</p>
<p>Gettysburg and Dickinson have more of a Greek scene than Lafayette. All schools go after many of the same students. There isn’t much more to Carlisle than the Dickinson campus. They do have the car show in the summer and the War College and Dickinson School of Law (Penn State) are located in Carlise, but not much else. Gettysburg has the National Park and some tourist places but you are really in the middle of Adams County and you better really like what is happening on campus. Lafayette at least offers the proximity to Philadelphia (1hr) and NYC (2hrs) for internships and interviews as well as social activities on the weekends. Lafayette also is located near Muhlenberg, Lehigh, Moravian and Cedar Crest Colleges. Best of luck to you!</p>
<p>@allaboutbooks - We should agree to disagree. My assessment was based not on the facilities (the science bldg and Dickinson was indeed very impressive) but rather the overall “vibe” of the school, the interests of the students we met, the global/study abroad emphasis at Dickinson, and how the strengths of each school were presented to us at our particular information session. I think having an engineering school at Lafayette gives it a more science/math vibe in general. But I am confident that one can get a wonderful education in the sciences at either school. And of course two different families can visit the same school and get two different senses of the place depending on the tour guide, who runs the info. session, who them randomly meet and talk to etc. </p>
<p>And I agree with sacchi that the D1 sports make Lafayette a bit different from the other schools (especially during the week of the Lehigh-Lafayette rivalry).</p>
<p>my daughter was accepted to Dickinson and Gettysburg, and was wait listed at Lafayette. She chose Dickinson and will be entering next month. She liked them all, but she liked the vibe at Dickinson the best, and especially likes its “global” focus. We’ll know soon enough whether it was the right fit for her, but we have a good feeling that she’ll settle in nicely.</p>
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<p>:confused:</p>
<p>Not quite sure how Dickinson and Skidmore can be considered to be in the same area . . . since they are 350 miles apart from each other.</p>
<p>;)</p>
<p>^^^^I do apologize for not being clear enough - I should have said that they are all LACs located in the Northeast. Union and Skidmore are in upstate NY rather than in PA where the other schools mentioned by the OP are located. All of these schools happen to be within four hours of my home so we looked at all of the ones I noted, but of course that isn’t the case for everyone. Each family needs to do their research and make their own assessment as to what choices make sense to them and geography is certainly one component of that. Hope that clarifies things to your satisfaction.</p>
<p>Lafayette best of the three IMO</p>
<p>and dickinson has a road that runs thru it.</p>