<p>“All four are small, rural liberal arts colleges”.</p>
<p>north-face, that is just not true. Colgate is located in a rural part of Central New York. Bucknell is located in a rural part of north-central Pennsylvania. </p>
<p>Dickinson is located in the small town of Carlisle on the outskirts of Harrisburg. Getting close to rural but not quite there.</p>
<p>Lafayette is located in the Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton metro area, a region of 800,000 people. The small city of Easton has its nice areas and pockets of typical northeastern urban blight. The area is perhaps analogous to the New Haven metro area.</p>
<p>Some people are attracted to rural locations, others want to be in a big city or within a convenient distance of a big city. The four colleges are very different in that respect.</p>
<p>We play in an NFL stadium. Outside of top schools in the SEC and Big Ten, not many other schools would fill the Linc.</p>
<p>Our basketball attendance has never been good, despite being our bread-and-butter and one of the top basketball programs historically. Again, this has a lot to do with being a relatively new residential school.</p>
<p>College hockey teams, in comparison, generally play in the same size rinks.</p>
<p>I’m not remotely offended by your statements, so nice try.</p>
<p>my D1 will be amused to learn that she’s “unhappy” “conservative” and “pretentious.” And here she was thinking she had just spent the best year of her life as a freshman at Dickinson.</p>
<p>ha Peabodie. that was my impression/opinion/what i’ve heard from friends who go/went there. obviously not everyone feels that way. good for ur daughter…</p>
<p>and carlisle, like all of these colleges, is rural.</p>
<p>north_face – where do you live? I suspect your impression of what is rural may be different than other’s because of what you have been exposed to. Carlisle, Easton, Hamilton and Lewisburg are very different environments, albeit none of them are NYC or Philadelphia.</p>
<p>My D has the pleasure (???) of spending two weeks every summer in a town of 2,500 so to her, Carlisle is just fine. And even though our hometown is around 50,000, there is nothing within walking distance, so having the restaurants and shops in the historical district, as well as the shopping area with Panera, etc., that she can get to without a car, is great. Carlisle is small, but it more than meets her needs. </p>
<p>She also considered Colgate and Lafayette but liked Dickinson better. That’s what makes the college search fun—finding out which schools rock your boat.</p>
<p>i’m not going to tell you where i live (i’ll admit, it’s a city). still, carlisle definitely isn’t urban. it also isn’t close enough to a city to be suburban. that makes it rural. along my drive to the college, i passed farms galore. i also had to pass a tollbooth to get into the town (I think), and it was surrounded by trucks (i.e. truckstop). the campus was quaint, but the town seemed dead (population<20,000). it’s a good drive to some nice places though (hour or more). </p>
<p>the students seemed alright. no one went out of their way to be friendly. i went for an admissions visit day and all of the representatives felt and spoke snooty about the college. i won’t generalize and say that the school is that way, it just didn’t give off the best vibe.</p>
<p>Here’s what the Federal government has to say: The Harrisburg–Carlisle Metropolitan Statistical Area is an area consisting of three counties in Pennsylvania’s Susquehanna Valley, anchored by the cities of Harrisburg and Carlisle. As of the 2000 census, the MSA had a population of 509,074 (though a July 1, 2008 estimate placed the population at 531,108).</p>
<p>Technically, Carlisle is a city, although it is indeed a very small one and is eclipsed by Harrisburg, 22 miles to the east. I’ll stick with my contention that Carlisle is a suburban town on the edge of rural central Pa. north_face can stick with his contention that it is in the boondocks. And it really doesn’t matter. It only matters how the OP’s kid perceives it, as well as the communities the three other schools are located in.</p>
<p>The O.P. asked about sports participation not just the general “sports scene.” I also didn’t discuss anything about playing a “particular sport.” So, other than being wrong on both those points and trying to correct me in the process - you get an ‘A.’ </p>
<p>If being at the bottom of the barrel in Division 1 sports turns you on, then enjoy. If a student is applying to a school, I hope they are interested in sports that students rally around ** and ** those they could actively participate in. </p>
<p>There are high schools that have better teams in some sports than Lafayette. I only pick on Lafayette because that’s the school you went to. So saying that Patriot league is superior to the Centennial Conference is basically saying that if there was a mercy rule in football the University of Florida would have invoked it by the end of the first quarter against Lafayette versus the 10 minute mark against Dickinson. Big whoop. </p>
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<p>Since Dickinson students cheer and watch the Red Devils, well d’uh. New York Ranger hockey doesn’t exist there either. The list becomes long. ;)</p>
<p>Want the students that read this to be impressed, don’t tell them about the one big game that will be at Easton two of the four years they are there. Tell them the average attendance of all the other home games. Go ahead, we’ll wait. </p>
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<p>You had to realize that? Since your “star” Lafayette basketball player knows there are high school sophomores with more game of course he has every reason to be humble. ;)</p>
<p>I believe Lafayette is the smallest of the four. Although it is on top of a hill (thus, somewhat removed) from Easton, it feels non-urban. Its proximity to Route 22 means that it’s a straight shot to NYC, although it takes time to get there. The Allentown airport isn’t far, and it offers connecting flights so you can get anywhere in the world. The Lehigh/Lafayette sports rivalry is huge, and the two schools are only 20 minutes apart. For Dickinson, the nearest large city is Harrisburg. Bucknell . . . heck, I don’t remember anything around it, although they have a small town street and large box stores nearby.</p>
<p>I disagree about Bucknell being the best place for school spirit. I’d say that Bucknell, Lafayette, and Colgate all have tremendous unity and sports. Dickinson is much more low-key that way.</p>
<p>The OP states “Do kids go to the games and support the teams?” So I directed the answer toward that.</p>
<p>Also you are quite wrong about many things. Granted the Patriot League is toward the bottom of D-I in many sports, but they are a mile away from D-III.</p>
<p>Also Lafayette avergared 9,700 fans per game this past season–look it up. </p>
<p>Finally I agree that the PL basketball player should be humble. They are and that is what is refreshing- they are not future pros who dont go to class. They are truly part of the student body.</p>
<p>I understand you are using wink emoticons, but your so far off its not even funny.</p>
<p>bucco- my comments here are more on what Bucknell & Colgate ultimately create from an employer’s standpoint, rather than the undergraduate experience itself.</p>
<p>As a guy who meets, interviews & recruits students from LACs, private U’s, to state schools across the US, I have some direct experience with Bucknell and Colgate. [But first let me say that I am also a very positively biased Colgate parent…we love the place for many reasons.] I have tried to drum up some recruits at Dickinson, but to no avail; no experience with Lafayette…but I’ve interviewed and hired many from Bucknell & Colgate. These kids work very well in my environmental consulting firm (hiring mostly science and engineering majors) not only because they are book-smart and well-schooled, but they, relative to applicants I see from most other schools, are street-savvy & can write, talk & relate. I am always a little surprised at how the products of these two schools turn out this way so consistently. In fact if I had ANY schools to pick across the US for producing winning applicants (again, for scientific/engineering consulting), it would be Colgate & Bucknell (and maybe Cornell).</p>
<p>You should recruit at Lafayette and perhaps Lehigh as well. You will also find kids with the same personality and skill set regarding the “are street-savvy & can write, talk & relate” factor.</p>
<p>In fact the reasons you cite are among the most prominent factors that set Lafayette engineers apart from their counterparts.</p>
<p>in essense, yes. Fewer applicants relatively speaking, and those we received were not as consistently stellar, although my dataset is not huge here. Lower yield on offers also. Enough data, though, so I don’t spend too much effort there anymore. I suspect Lehigh engineers had plenty of opportunities in other industries.</p>
<p>While Colgate didn’t have a good year in hockey this year, they have been ranked much higher than #25 in various polls over the previous four seasons.</p>
<p>Okay, I did. But that wasn’t the question now was it? Take away the home sellout for Lehigh and the remaining games averaged approximately 8,125 fans. Meaning the stadium was half empty for four of the five home games. To be fair at least this was a lot better than Colgate and Bucknell (5,473 and 2,438 average attendance, respectively).</p>
<p>What was Dickinson’s home attedance–800? Again Lafayette and Bucknell arent Penn State or Michigan, but they are a world away from Dickinson sports wise. 8,000 some fans per game is small in the grand sceme of things, but the poster was asking how it compares to the other schools posted. It is relative is it not?</p>
<p>The poster asked what is unique about each school and I provided some examples given that context.</p>
(i’ll admit, it’s a city). still, carlisle definitely isn’t urban. it also isn’t close enough to a city to be suburban. that makes it rural. along my drive to the college, i passed farms galore. i also had to pass a tollbooth to get into the town (I think), and it was surrounded by trucks (i.e. truckstop). the campus was quaint, but the town seemed dead (population<20,000). it’s a good drive to some nice places though (hour or more). </p>