My highly-motivated, high-achieving daughter has been accepted and is seriously considering E-town. Does anyone have thoughts about what she will find in the community there? We are missing accepted student day because of the weather.
I have lived in Etown for the last 16 years. It is a lovely and safe little town. If your daughter likes small towns it is a great place! I don’t know any current college students, but know a graduate from Allentown who loved it there. The town and college are very integrated with students helping with downtown projects and in the school district. The town itself has a movie theatre, 2 good restaurants, lots of fast food, grocery stores and Kmart. A car is needed to drive the 25 min. to Lancaster to do any real clothing shopping and to get to tons of restaurants, outlets, and the Park City Mall which is very large and nice. Hershey is also nice and 20 min. away and Harrisburg has some really upscale restaurants and nightlife and is 25 min. away. You could feel at ease sending your daughter to school here safety wise. It is a great town to raise a family as we are presently doing, but if your daughter is a city lover then she may feel bored.
rksj8930 Thank you so much! Hmmm…not seeing a car for freshman year…I think she’ll need to make friends fast!
My daughter is a senior at Etown. She did fine without a car for the first two years. A car is very helpful for course related activities but not absolutely necessary, I think, since other students help out.
Etown is very nurturing and she has had fantastic opportunities related to her degree.
She has had no time to get bored since her program keeps her extremely busy.
The work in her program is hard but the vibe is very collaborative rather than competitive.
MACmiracle- thank you! Any take on biology / business majors? How is quality of housing? Also wonder how seriously prepared for grad school students are and any take on the honors college… I have so many questions, but will stop there for now…
I don’t have personal experience with the honors college. I have a memory of reading somewhere that it was selective and challenging. But my impression with Etown is that there’s value in the challenge kids are given because the professors are involved and doing their part.
Generally the kids work hard and get stressed, but they stick together and support each other through it, at least in my D’s small program. But my D has friends in other departments who don’t seem as busy or stressed toward the end of the semester…and I don’t know if tgey are as close-knit. ??
I don’t know about biology particularly, by the science classes seem challenging. My D’s program required a science class that many students wound up withdrawing from because they were doing so poorly, way beyond what would be expected. The good news about that was the department addressed the issue and made changes.
I think that students that make an effort will be very prepared for grad school. My D’s program has students attending professional conferences from freshman year and doing grad school level research. When I was in undergrad, I read mostly textbooks, while my D reads mainly professional literature and subscribes to academic journals.
I can’t really say the housing is great. It’s adequate. My D has been in three different dorms. One year the building was older but the room was a good size. My D never had a suite, like you sometimes read about here. The bathrooms and showers are not particularly nice. Not dirty just older and institutional.
The one thing is that the college in my experience has been very receptive to problems, like one call and it’s fixed. That was a lot different from my own experience at a large state flagship.
My D told me recently that there are always things to do on weekends but she doesn’t always have time to participate, but she and her friends seem happy to just hang out and relax.
Sorry, I have no experience with business but aI imagine it’s probably good for the reason that Etown is all about learning and getting out and putting what you learn into practice. Huge emphasis on real life leaning from very early in. I suspect that the kids in my D’s program will come out with more real work experience than any students anywhere. No doubt!
MACmiracle - things are sounding good. Will have to get daughter in on discussion.
Son just chose Etown for Engineering he seemed to like the campus and big merit scholarships. Chose over several big names schools. Seems pretty good all around.