<p>For a creative young woman looking to play lacrosse and study writing, which of these is better and which might be more likely to assist with a partial academic scholarship. Looking at well-regarded small liberal arts programs within 200 miles of Baltimore for my daughter to evaluate.</p>
<p>Both will offer small classes, great lab facilities for science, and personal attention. Haverford used to have a more quirky/arty reputation and F&M more traditional/conservative (F&M does have frats but they can be avoided if one prefers...as I did) but I think the differences may be overblown.</p>
<p>I think your chances for an academic scholarship are better from F&M as it is much easier to get accepted to than is Haverford. Check out - Franklin</a> & Marshall - Merit Scholarships for their list of merit awards, which you don't apply to. If your daughter is a serious candidate for Haverford then it is possible that F&M might offer her "money" in hopes she selects F&M. My daughter was offered a Marshall Scholarship at F&M and waitlisted at Haverford but went to Vassar instead of finding out about the waitlist.</p>
<p>My brief comments on both are:</p>
<h2>F&M</h2>
<p>is often underrated and is a great school (I am an alum from the 70's so might be biased here...)</p>
<p>Women's lacrosse team has been 1 and 2 in Div. III the last two years. I suspect you may already know that. Haverford, being much smaller, does not have as strong a team.</p>
<p>Has a number of new buildings and a very pretty campus. It feels more compact though it may not be, not sure urban is the right word but it might work for some, than Haverford's</p>
<p>Historically very strong science and government departments. Has a "new" (last 5-10 years I think) writing program that you should find out more about.</p>
<h2>Haverford</h2>
<p>A bigger national reputation but neither school will register much with the "man on the street". You get used to the lack of reaction and both schools are very well known by graduate schools and employers.</p>
<p>Many joint opportunites with Bryn Mawr. This does mean that the combined community is heavily female. I did ask about this aspect of the resulting dating scene, which would have been better for my son, when on the tour with my daughter...my only parental question in 25 tours over two kids...she naturally wanted to kill me.... the tour guide wasn't phased at all (one of the best tour guides I saw actually) and indicated that somehow that all works itself out.</p>
<p>A smaller school (roughly 1200 vs 2000) though adding Bryn Mawr (around 1600 I think) to the mix makes for a bigger group. Courses can also be taken at Swarthmore (even harder to get into and my favorite of all the school I saw) and UPenn though getting to either is more difficult than to Bryn Mawr.</p>
<p>Very easy to get to Philadelphia.</p>
<p>A very pretty campus that is a bit more open and leafy than F&M.</p>
<p>In a very,very safe suburb. The area around F&M in Lancaster has declined since I was there in the early 70's but appears to have stablized in the last 5 years or so due to, in large part, the efforts, of John Fry who is F&M's very dynamic President.</p>
<p>Is very proud of its Quaker heritage and appears (mentioned on the tour constantly and I believe them...) to have a strong culture of individual responsibility.</p>
<p>Good luck to you in your search. You might also want to explore Swarthmore, Muhlenburg, Dickinson etc. One way to find some schools is to look at the members of the athletic conference they play in - Centennial</a> Conference.</p>
<p>If she truly wants to <em>play</em> lax, then unless she's an absolutely top caliber player - as in, good enough to be recruited ANYWHERE, but making the choice to look at DIII schools for academic or other reasons - Haverford would be a better choice. I second ctparent's excellent advice to look at the Centennial site. The women's coaches just had an online chat about the upcoming season the other day, and the transcript is still online. </p>
<p>What year is your D?</p>
<p>If she requires a merit scholarship, you can disregard Haverford. Its aid is excellent but entirely need-based.</p>
<p>I vote for Haverford.</p>
<p>Haverford, if i recall correctly, does not give academic scholarships. but it has good financial aid. </p>
<p>Haverford is the more academically prestigious of the two. It's also close to Philly and many other schools. F&M would be a lot more boring to attend, to be honest, because it's out in Amish country. </p>
<p>also look at bucknell and lafayette. lafayette gives merit money but you need ivy-caliber stats to get it.</p>
<p>Franklin & Marshall has an excellent English department and writing program. There’s also a writers house on campus.</p>
<p><a href=“http://magazine.fandm.edu/summer03/su03_story1.html[/url]”>http://magazine.fandm.edu/summer03/su03_story1.html</a></p>
<p>I had a friend with this exact decision who went with F&M. I think he liked Haverford more and thought it was a better school, but got a substantial scholarship at F&M. As opposed to merit aid though, I think it was because he had a relative who was a faculty member at F&M.</p>
<p>Of all the top LACs that offered me admission, Haverford was most forthcoming with need-based grants and federal work-study.</p>