I'll answer questions about Laf to avoid studying

I’m a freshman guy and I’m tired of studying for my calc exam so if anyone wants me to answer Qs about Lafayette I’d be happy to answer!

Party scene at Lafayette?
How do you spend your weekends?
Course load of engineering?
Do you often visit New York? How much it cost for a round trip?
How’s food in easton?
Phewww

How long it took for you to settle?

  1. Personally I like the party scene. As a freshman guy in first semester, you’re doing a lot of drinking in the room, because official rushing isn’t until sophomore year and dirty rushing isn’t until second semester. The bars on college hill are really fun if you have an ID. The big nights are Monday, Wednesday, Thursday-Saturday. Sunday and Tuesday usually not a ton happens. If you’re going out you’ll end up in one of the off-campus houses of the sports teams, who might make you pay $5 to go in if they don’t know you. It all depends on who you hang with, though. I know a lot of people that don’t party that much, meanwhile my friends and I usually go through 6-7 cases a week. Don’t get discouraged by freshman guys who are angry about the party scene on here
  2. Weekend nights are spent partying. Saturday day is spent hanging with everyone and being hungover, maybe go to Easton to find something fun to do. Sundays are when you pray you drank enough water the night before to go to the lib and study, but that’s when grinding happens.
  3. Engineers have a pretty heavy course load apparently, but it makes sense based on the program’s reputation
  4. I haven’t been to New York yet, but the greyhound tickets are like $25 You can find em online and there’s a bus stop about a 10 minute walk from campus in Easton
  5. There are really good food places in Easton. If you want fancy, go to Maxim’s 22 for american or 3rd street and ferry for seafood. Sogo is a bomb sushi place downtown, and they opened a new public market which has coffee shops, a crepe place, pizza, tacos, bbq, pho, etc. Campus pizza is right outside the front gate and you’ll probably end up eating a lot of it. Wawa is life. There are two good coffee shops right next to campus, and an amazing book store/ diner/ coffee shop down the hill called Quadrant

It didn’t take very long. I’m friends with a bunch of people in my building/floor, and everyone here is super easy to get along with. The small campus/tight community definitely helps you not feel lost

I am a freshman international at Lafayette and I’d be happy to answer questions too.
Adding to what @LehighChasesBeer said, most engineers will overload(take 5 classes) starting sophmore year. However, there is still flexibility and doing a minor along with engineering is pretty easy. I also know a ton of engineers who are doing double majors. So, the course load is heavy but not suffocating.

Thanks you guys. What do you know now that you wish you’d known before you got to college. Could be what to bring, how to get involved, how to think about the acad workload, whatever would have helped you prepare. (Not likely to be in Greek life, not a huge partier, will have liberal arts major).

Hey, can you tell me more about Greek life? we don’t have that in our country so i’m a bit curious about what fraternities/sorrorities often do, and if there are a lot of different between fraternities and sorrorities, or between the houses.

@Alstroemeria, what I wish I had known in more abstract. I wish I had known that every other first year was in the same boat as me when it came to social life and I did not need to stress out about making friends or fitting in.In addition,I do not think anyone can have absolutely everything they need for college and Laf does a good job with the packing list. So, that is not something you should worry about.

@VneseSeal09 Greek life is a big part of the social scene. Like every school, some frats/sororities are assumed to be “better” than others, and if you want my opinion on each one I can DM you. You can’t rush until sophomore year though

Why did you choose Lafayette?
For girls, do sororities make up the majority of the social scene? Are non sorority girls excluded from normal events?
Diversity?
BE HONEST-Food?
Is the Lehigh Lafayette Rivarly super super intense? To the point where you talk crap about each other?
Collaborative environment?
What are you majoring in now? I want to pursue econ. Do you happen to know how successful econ majors are finding jobs?
What is your favorite story from your freshman year so far?

Thanks

I’m a parent so can’t answer many of these questions but can provide feedback on what I do know from my freshman who is home now from Lafayette.
She got into many good schools (some ranked slightly higher than Lafayette) but Lafayette just felt right and she hasn’t bee disappointed. She loved the campus and the fact that students and faculty and administration genuinely knew one another by name. Originally she was looking for somewhat larger school populations but so far is loving the size at Lafayette, which they are incidentally planning on growing by 400 over the next 6-8 years or so…
She really likes the food - haven’t heard any complaints, and for a small school there are surprisingly good amount of choices. On paper the school isn’t super diverse, but her friend group includes international, Muslim, Jews, Christians, black and white students so I’d say pretty diverse! An actual student can tell more but I think the Lafayette Lehigh rivalry is more fun than super intense - I do know she and some friends went to a party at Lehigh the week before the big game…
I’ve never heard people complain about the atmosphere being too competitive or intense in general but more collaborative which is one of the reasons DD was attracted to the school.
She finds a lot to do on campus, enjoys the parties and they go into Easton on occasion to eat.
Freshmen can’t rush but she has older friends who aren’t Greek and she seems to attend frat parties often so guess that isn’t an issue.
DD is a science major so I can’t speak to Econ though hopefully others can.
All I can say is DD has truly never been happier and even her friends from home are amazed at how perfect the fit and seamless the transition has been for her. Obviously everyone will have a different experience and there isn’t one school that is right for everyone (in fact, Lafayette probably wouldn’t have been the right school for her older sister, who wanted a city campus) but we have nothing but great things to report so far. Good luck!

I will add that my D who graduated last May had a very similar sounding experience at Lafayette as @myjanda’s D The school was a perfect fit for her in every respect – academically, socially, personal growth etc. She is now in grad school, lives with two friends from her sorority (who are in different programs at the same school). She sees many other college friends and one of her former professors in NYC, and is still in contact with another former prof. to help him finish up an article that is being submitted to an academic journal based on the research she did last year.

A few questions I can answer are:

–Sororities - Definitely not necessary to join in order to have a social life. The sophomore rush is great as it allows strong friendships to develop before rush. My D surprised us and joined a sorority that she had friends in and it added to her life on campus. But she absolutely remained close and still socialized with her friends who didn’t rush and who joined other sororities.

–Laf/Lehigh rivalry is more fun than anything else. Deep down the students know that these are peer institutions and both excellent schools. In fact my D’s best friend in her grad school program is a Lehigh grad – she said they felt connected right away. My D did go back to the Laf-Lehigh game this year but catching up with friends was more important to her than the game itself.

–Diversity – my D also had a very diverse group of friends at Lafayette.

–Freshman year – I think my D’s memorable freshman year experience would be the week with no classes/no power due to Hurricane Sandy!! I offered to drive down and bring her and some friends home (we had power) but she wanted to stay!

– Environment was very collaborative in her experience. She loved the small classes, getting to know many of her professors, doing research work etc.

@penngirlpending

  1. I chose Lafayette because I wanted a school that was small, in the Northeast, and had good academics
  2. Greek life makes up a lot of the social scene in general, but thats only for upperclassmen. Sports teams make up most of the rest, and girls can get into any party no matter what
  3. It’s not the most diverse campus, with a lot of students being upper class and white. There is a good amount of diversity, though, and there’s a pretty big BLM movement right now on campus
  4. I love the food. The only complaint is the non-all you can eat places sometimes get packed during peak hours. Lower farinon is ranked one of the top 10 college dining halls in the country i think
  5. The rivalry is big, and rivalry weekend is by far the biggest party weekend of the year. We don’t really get too hung up on it though, but there’s a lot of drunk yelling. It’s never hostile, though, and all in good fun. I have heard, however, that there’s a good amount of hostility for lafayette students that go to party at Lehigh
  6. Atmosphere is really collaborative, and only competitive to the point that people want to do best for themselves
  7. I think I’m going to be gov-law but I took econ 101 last semester. Econ majors are well off for the future. A lot of seniors come out already having jobs in economics.
  8. If you want crazy stories I can DM you. I don’t think I want to put them on here :smiley:

What were your stats, and did you apply ED or RD? Did you go for an interview last year?

@laurclassof2021 I had 2190 SAT, 3.65 UW GPA, want RD, no interview, volunteer EMT, tons of similar extra curriculars.