As many of you know, I’ll be attending La Salle University in the fall.
I attended a high school where 3/280 kids are going out-of-state, so La Salle wasn’t known.
However, I’ve been talking to people such as my doctors, or wealthier people who visit my moms restaurant. Everyone has great feedback, and seem to think its quite competitive!
Is La Salle well-known, at least in the northeast? I thought it was mainly known by Philadelphians.
Maybe I can help you out. I’m mostly a lurker around here, but I’m a recent grad of La Salle.
In Philadelphia and its surrounding metropolitan area, La Salle – in my experience – is very well known. It’s attracting a lot of stellar students, alumni (Philadelphia’s newest mayor is a vocal La Salle grad), and athletes as of late. It’s an up-and-coming school, and its graduates give La Salle a very positive name. I think in a few years it’ll be nationally known, especially if its basketball team can get its act together.
Let me know if you have any other questions about La Salle. I’d love to help you out. Have a great time at college next year!
To the above poster - every school is considered “up-and-coming”, and it’s extremely rare for obscure schools to suddenly gain national recognition out of nowhere.
For the general public, UPenn is probably the only university that exists in Philadelphia. To people who are from around the area and/or are more familiar with schools in the East Coast, Temple and Drexel might also make this list. My parents lived in Philadelphia for a year and Hershey for 5 (dad got his M.D. at Penn State) before moving to NYC and then California - neither of them are familiar with La Salle or are aware of its existence. As a native East-Coaster (not from Philadelphia, though), I hadn’t heard of La Salle either before seeing this post and doing a quick Google search.
I wasn’t able to find any official common data sets online, but according to USNews almost 80% of students who apply are accepted and only 13 percent of those who applied for aid had their needs fully met. According to StartClass, it’s the 38th rated institution in Pennsylvania. I wouldn’t classify this as “competitive” with regards to any school.
To answer your question: Is La Salle well-known, at least in the northeast?
No. Not in the northeast, not in Pennsylvania, and probably not in Philadelphia unless you actually go to La Salle or have family and friends who go there.
But college is what you make of it, and as long as you do well and actively seek out resources you’ll still be able to get an education and further your career prospects.
The general public doesn’t know Penn and Penn State are two different universities. Many think of Temple and Villanova as Philadelphia’s main universities, and have never heard of Haverford or Bryn Mawr. In short, the general public is not a good measure of universities.
La Salle has a good “brand” in the Philadelphia area, including crossing state lines. It’s got quite a few catholic/parochial feeder schools in the area. Not a national powerhouse, not a “Mainline” school, and not an intellectual school, but definitely respected; especially well-known among Catholics, for nursing, social work, and education, and for its strong core curriculum requiring theology and philosophy from all graduates; they are considered well-educated and reliable.
In short- yes it absolutely is, in certain circles. Most high school students, your peers, will not be familiar with, nor will many other college students. But that is not who you should be concerned about, you should be concerned about adult professionals who own the businesses and run the businesses you will be applying to after you graduate.
The Christian Brothers who run the University have a great reputation in the education community and the degree comes with that level of respect when interviewing, especially with a fellow LaSalle grad. In addition to that, the school is excellent at helping grads coordinate with other alumni who are willing to employ them, knowing the value of their education.
One great example of a LaSalle Alumnus is Mr. Thomas Curley- he was the President of the Associated Press, literally the world’s largest news organization up until 2012 and was also the pivotal in the creation of USA Today.
The above poster who claims the school is not even known in the Philadelphia area is woefully ignorant of the city for a number of reasons. 1. We are part of the big 5, anyone in Philadelphia knows our 5 major schools. Penn, Nova, Temple, LaSalle, St. Joe’s. Furthermore, we made a run in the NCAA tourny a few years ago making it to the Sweet 16 and upsetting teams expected to do well, such as Ole Miss, who have traditonally much stronger basketball programs.
That poster could not even think of Nova as a school and thinks we are only known for Penn, Nova literally won the NCAA championship this year and they could not recall that fact. So do not trust their opinion on the notoriety of anything in this city, they probably get their cheesesteaks from Geno’s.
NewJerseyGirl98, it is a respected school in the world outside of your peers and you would do well in post-grad life with a degree from there. The above statistic about financial aid is inaccurate, there is plenty of need based aid available and even more merit-based aid. I strongly encourage you to attend it if you’re looking for a mid-sized school with heavy focus on the students from caring and concerned professors. They have a strong Greek Life community, as well as a variety of sports and academic associations- not to mention a reknowned theater organization, that boasts having the late Dan Rodden attached to it, a man who coached people like Robert DeNiro in acting.
Fight on Explorers!
Have you heard of Villanova? They just won a national championship. If you think people aren’t aware more than 1 school exists in this city, you’re obviously out severely out of touch with the entire landscape of this city. LaSalle itself made a run in the tourny a few years ago and as part of the big 5 regularly plays against Temple and St. Joe’s, you’re just ignorant about the city in general please keep your uninformed opinion to yourself.
It’s ranked #24 in the northeast, & several websites rank it in Top 10 of Pennsylvania. I wonder what Start Class is doing differently in their rankings.
They don’t meet need, although very few people pay anything close to sticker price.
La Salle’s average GPA is a 3.3. I’ve always thought that was high, considering the acceptance rates. @yinuos
ITT: LaSalle graduates who, after going out to the real world, are completely aware that the reputation and rigor of “LaSalle” isn’t comparable to average U.S. universities and now have to use basketball results to validate the existence of their university.
LaSalle is NOT ranked #24 in the northeast - it’s ranked #24 for REGIONAL universities in the northeast which doesn’t even include mid-low tier state schools, much less actual universities that people might actually recognize. After Villanova (which is ranked #1 on that list), the quality of the schools that are being ranked plummets. The StartClass ranking is actually extremely generous which is why I included it in the first place.
Take a look at the universities on the “regional” rankings and you’ll which would probably translate to an even lower Startclass ranking. Not that it matters, though - you’re free to believe whichever ranking you choose to since they’re all pretty much telling you the same thing.
Anyhow, I’m not here to trash-talk this school that I’ve never heard of before and couldn’t care less about - I’m here to tell you that it would be much better for you to save your money and attend a 2-year community college before transferring to a university. If you do well at CC, your college options will improve significantly and you’ll be able to attend a school that will give you a meaningful degree while also saving a significant amount of money in the process.
Your username says that you’re from New Jersey… have you considered Rutgers or Stevens Institute of Technology? If you’re into smaller schools, TCNJ would also suit you well. If you’re into going out-of-state, there are hundreds of significantly more reputable colleges and universities that you could easily transfer to. LaSalle is simply not worth it, and I personally wouldn’t choose to attend even if offered a full ride with stipends.
Also, I would be wary of posting in the LaSalle board when asking questions like these. It’s human nature for graduates to be biased towards their alma mater, moreso for those graduating from obscure schools. It’s like going to a football game and then asking the fans if they like the team they’re supporting.
@yinuos I’m already enrolled at La Salle, did you read the original thread?
I didn’t want to stay in-state. Almost everyone I know is going to my local CC (awful), or Rutgers. I want to get away from the rude atmosphere, and live somewhere new.
La Salle gave me great aid. It’s quite rude to say you wouldn’t attend a good school, even for free.
I know La Salle is ranked #24 as regional school, although I’m not sure why you think that’s a low ranking…why exactly do you dislike La Salle? I haven’t heard a negative thing about it until now, I’m curious.
Yinuos, you said yourself that you didn’t know the school and don’t live in Philadelphia. So why comment ?
I’m NOT a LaSalle grad; what you said shows complete lack of understanding for two local situations (New Jersey and Philadelphia). I’m sure you have lots of things to contribute on topics you’re knowledgeable of, but avoid responding to threads where you don’t know what you’re talking about.
Newjerseygir98 : perhaps post your query in the Parents Forum.
As a lifelong Philadelphian, I think the description given in Post #3 by @MYOS1634 is spot on (ignore the venom from yinuos). La Salle is well known in the Philadelphia region (and I extend this to NJ, DE, and much of MD and NY) as a solid academic school. Its generous merit money attracts some excellent students, often from the archdiocesan and private Catholic high schools in the area, but also kids from the city public schools and students like you from nearby states. Campus facilities are continually being expanded and improved (I understand the new business school building is phenomenal). Besides nursing, education, and social work, the Accounting and pre-med programs have, historically, been quite strong. The emergence of Temple (and, to a lesser degree, West Chester) as very good, local, lower-cost alternatives has drained some top students from La Salle (and from St. Joe’s and some of the other Catholic colleges in the area), but you will still get a very good, student-focused education at La Salle.
The comment when I was in college 30 years ago (and I had a number of friends who went to LaSalle) was that Villanova wanted to be Notre Dame, and St. Joe’s wanted to be Villanova, but La Salle was happy just being La Salle. The socio-economic status and incoming academic stats of LaSalle students are not as high as those other two schools (significantly lower than Nova, somewhat lower than St. Joe’s); but work hard and take advantage of the professional opportunities that come with a strong local alumni network in the city, and you will be in good shape.
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La Salle has a reputation for having a nice, open social environment and warm connections between faculty and students. This is not always common with schools of that size. The administration is also accessible–meaning that if you need help, you don’t have to beg through five layers worth of staff people to get to see a dean. The business school has a brand new building, the science building is a few years old, and there’s been a lot of growth in health-related majors in the last ten years. I believe LaSalle’s brand is getting bigger as a result. Of course, it is not a major research university, nor a 300 year old, national, liberal arts college, so, everyone doesn’t know it’s name outside of Philly area. That doesn’t matter to employers. They will look it up, and find out that it has good programs and a well-known, supportive alumni.
The atmosphere you want to spend four years at matters to some people and less to others. I’m guessing that if you are looking at mid-sized, Catholic schools like La Salle, than, you care about more than what’s the cheapest way through college, so, these arguments about going to Rutgers or NJIT aren’t helpful.