<p>PLEASE help me decide. I am torn. I have a choice to transfer to Franklin and Marshall, Dickinson or Gettysburg College. Assuming the financial aspect is irrelevant. Which would you choose and why?
I am actually studying Computer Science. I am just having trouble choosing which college I want to go because they are all relatively close in "ranking" for me. So i just want to know what YOU guys and gals would choose for yourself and why. Thank you SO much.</p>
<p>it is quite possible that the most significant relevant difference btw the 3 is the financial aspect. The schools are in many ways quite similar. One would have to be able to examine each Compsci curriculum and course offerings and see if one is “better” than another. You can do that much better than we can since we don’t know anything about YOU and your needs, prefs, etc–that is, what would make one better for you. </p>
<p>I have done that examination.( Compsci) and I found that Franklin and Marshall seems to be the strongest in that aspect. I actually prefer Franklin and Marshall. I was just wondering if there was anything that I should be warned about before I make that official choice!</p>
<p>Any other opinions? </p>
<p>Have you been to campuses of all three? Did you do an overnight at all three? Sit in on a class or two? Talk to students at the dining facility? </p>
<p>Forty years ago, when I was at a sister school, Muhlenberg, F&M had the reputation of being the most boring school in the conference. Nothing much has happened to change that–that I know of. Its reputation is still of a stodgy, serious academic institution where no one’s ever sat on a whoopee cushion. Good, safe, burgermeister students. Obviously, that works for a lot of families and students. In terms of academic reputation and 21st century awareness, Dickinson has it hands down on the other two. A lot of students at CC and in my experience really enjoy Dickinson today. Gettysburg fares a little better than F&M but not much, in my experience. But you’ve chosen these three similar schools for a reason: I hope it’s not because you’re expecting South Beach and mojitos every night.</p>
<p>Franklin and Marshall is supposedly extremely rigorous in their curriculum. Its also in lancaster PA, home to one of the largest amish populations in the country.<---- not really relevant but a fun fact. Lancaster is not a bad city/town and it has a nice art and music scene. Dickinson is in carlisle which is really in the middle of no where. Dont know much about gettysburg </p>
<p>that’s an inaccurate characterization of Carlisle, I believe. It’s not NYC, but it’s close to a lot of major highways and the PA state capitol nexus. It’s a town of about 20K, 25 miles from Harrisburg and 50 miles from Hagerstown, MD. If you saw its traffic I don’t think you would call it middle of nowhere, pontinator. More like Lancaster in this respect than Gettysburg minus the summer weekend.</p>
<p>I have a friend who attended Dickinson about five years ago. He said the big doings were the annual car show every summer as well as the annual clan rally! Dickinson is a good school but fairly isolated in his words…</p>
<p>My D and I visited Dickinson last summer and both really liked it. Then we visited again last month after she was admitted EA and had a completely different experience. I have to say it DID feel like the middle of nowhere … maybe because it was winter and about 5 degrees out, and maybe because the restaurant at the town’s one hotel is closed on Sundays. I was looking forward to a glass of wine when we arrived in the evening after driving up and down the crazy hills to get there but had to settle for a Sprite from a vending machine, ha ha. I did find the town itself to be a bit depressing. That said, I found the school and its management to be very impressive, though my D decided she did not like it and did not want to go there. Apparently, while she enjoyed the one class she attended, all of the other prospective students D met were from prep schools (she’s a public school kid) and acted like they all already knew each other, and she felt like an outcast. Note that we went directly to visit Gettysburg College after that and D really liked it there … but that’s for another post! </p>
<p>I go to F&M so I can only offer that perspective, but I think socially, they’re basically the same - draw from the same schools, have a mix of student stereotypes. Not suggesting that the other schools don’t have the following attributes, but I think F&M has a lot to offer. Independent research is pretty popular and because the CS department is small, I’m sure they’d love to have someone that is interested in pursuing opportunities with CS beyond the classroom. There’s also a lot going on on campus (given that it’s a LAC in central PA…) and I think that would make transferring an easy transition! Let me know if you have more specific questions, I don’t really know much about our computer science department but I could answer pretty much any other question you have!</p>