<p>Papa Chicken your post #32 made me very happy. I have a S at Colgate, D1 at Cornell and D2 at Bucknell. I have been very impressed by the students I have met at these schools.</p>
<p>Since the op asked about Bucknell and Colgate (I do not know anything about Dickinson or Lafayette), I’ll give my impressions as a P. My S (and a niece who attended Colgate) and my D2 LOVE their schools. My sence is that most of the students do. School spirit is very high at both schools.</p>
<p>School spirit should not be judged by attendance at games. Many student may not attend because they are involved in their own activities.</p>
<p>Which brings me to my next point. Bucknell and Colgate are both located in very small quaint towns. Lewisburg and its surrounding area has more in the way of shopping closer by. But just because the schools are not located in large cities, the schools themselves provide many activities (sports, dance, publications, theater, community service, guest speakers, concerts, etc, etc) My kids always have something to do–as well as a lot of class work. And I know Bucknell has buses that go to NYC at least several times a semester for various activities.</p>
<p>I do not think you can go wrong w/ either school.</p>
<p>You have an interesting perspective on things. This is the second time you’ve mentioned Penn State. They average over 100,000 for home games, Lafayette averages 9,700. Now that’s a world apart. I’ve already mentioned that other Patriot league teams schedule football games against Dickinson College so they aren’t worlds apart, they’re competitors. What won’t be happening in this world is Penn State scheduling a football game against Lafayette. </p>
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<p>The O.P. asked what made each school special and rather than talk about anything that sets your school apart from the others listed in the title’s thread you decide to dump on the social and Greek life of school you don’t first hand knowledge of. </p>
<p>When I visited Lafayette this month, the school was busy converting one of those beautiful large frat houses to another purpose. Another beautiful large frat house (seemingly on double secret probation) may be losing its charter. How many large beautiful frats will remain on campus if that one goes bye bye? The point is not to pick on Lafayette but to suggest that perhaps you should be more candid about your own school’s situation before dumping on a peer school. </p>
<p>I’ll be posting notes from our visit to Lafayette, but overall, the school makes a very good first impression. </p>
<p>As far as school spirit goes, what Hudsonvalley51 posted about Lafayette gear seems spot on. </p>
<p>CT Yankee-- You are incorrect once again. I struggle to understand where you get your information.</p>
<p>“I’ve already mentioned that other Patriot league teams schedule football games against Dickinson College so they aren’t worlds apart”</p>
<p>That is completely 100% false. No Patriot League team has played Dickinson or a school in their conference for decades…decades. Penn State played Coastal Carolina last year in the first game of the season. The week after Colgate beat Coastal Carolina. Both Coastal Carolina and Colgate (and the rest of the Patriot League) are FCS, so if one team played Penn State isnt it plausible that a team that beat them could also play Penn State. The chances of victory are highly unlikley, but thats what Michigan said before they met App State.</p>
<p>If you think Dickinison has similar athletics as Lafayette, Colgate, and Bucknell you are sorely mistaken.</p>
<p>Do you think I am unaware of the greek situation at Lafayette? I never said greek life was the strongest at Lafayette, and it is declining quite a bit in many ways. Bucknell and to some extent Colgate have a more active Greek life. Lafayette students try to make greek life active, but the admin tries to crush it. </p>
<p>Once agaon you are missing the point however. Socially I believe Bucknell, Colgate, and Lafayette are more sports and greek life oriented than Dickinson. Sure each school is different but I am grouping. Ask most alums of these schools and I suspect you will get a simialr answer.</p>
<p>However you spent 10 minutes on campus once, so you’re the expert.</p>
<p>Dickinson College is a member of the Centennial Conference and competes on the Division III level. Other members of Dickinson’s sports conference include Gettysburg, F&M, Swarthmore, Bryn Mawr, Johns Hopkins, Muhlenburg, McDaniel, Haverford, Washington College and McDaniel. </p>
<p>Colgate, Lafayette and Bucknell, as already noted are Division I Patriot League schools. Lafayette, for example, will play Harvard, Yale, Columbia and Penn next fall in addition to its Patriot League rivals. Similar OOC opponents for Bucknell and Colgate. These schools sports teams play on a very different level from Dickinson.</p>
<p>Teams in the Patriot League rarely if ever schedule teams that are not Division 1 in football. In basketball, PL rules actually prohibit their schools from scheduling teams that are not Division 1. In other team sports, it is very rare to see a D2 or D3 team on the schedule although it does happen occasionally in baseball for Wednesday afternoon games. (PL teams play four games over Saturday/Sunday during baseball league play, plus one or two games on Wednesdays.) </p>
<p>Teams from Dickinson’s Centennial Conference would not be competitive in the Patriot League in any sport, although the top Centennial team occasionally would do OK against the bottom PL teams in certain sports.</p>
<p>No Patriot League football team has scheduled a sub-division I team in at least a decade. I believe the last PL football team to schedule a D-II was Bucknell who played Bloomsburg in the late 90’s. I do not believe a PL team has ever played a D-III team in football. (when that team was classified as D-III)</p>
<p>Many other FCS teams schedule D-II teams quite often such as Delaware/West Chester who play annually… So the PL football league actually plays below the division much more infrequently than other FCS teams.</p>
<p>Below is the 2009 Out-of-Conference schedule for Patriot League football schools. Fordham and Georgetown are football-only members of the PL, taking the place of PL members Army and Navy which play BCS football.</p>
<p>Bucknell – Duquense, Robert Morris, Marist, Cornell, Penn
Colgate – Monmouth, Stony Brook, Dartmouth, Princeton, Cornell
Fordham – Rhode Island, Columbia, Old Dominion, Bryant, Cornell
Georgetown – Yale, Harvard, Old Dominion, Marist, Richmond
Holy Cross – Sacred Heart, Harvard, Northeastern, Brown, Dartmouth
Lafayette – Liberty, Yale, Harvard, Columbia, Penn
Lehigh – Central Connecticut, Villanova, Princeton, Harvard, Yale</p>
<p>Someone sent me a PM asking me if I would be interested in sharing notes about the schools I visited with my son as they are also interested in many of the same schools. As some of those schools are of interest to the O.P. (and others) I will also post some of them here. </p>
<p>We wanted to tour campuses when schools were still in session and active so we went Tuesday through Thursday two weeks ago. These are only one mans impressions and what may interest me may not interest you. But I really watch body language as it can tell you a lot more than mere words about how kids interact with each others and the faculty. It can also tell you when admissions officer or student guide may not be giving a truly candid answer to your questions. I am interested in the schools infrastructure as if they arent investing in themselves, perhaps your kid might be better off not investing in them. I also take particular notice of libraries and student centers as they can show a certainly buzz (or lack thereof) on campus. For the most part, if youve see one freshman dorm youve seen them all. When possible, we grabbed some food on campus or at least got a good look at what was being offered. Great food does not make or break a school but poor food can really affect a students mood. Also, if youve seen three LAC info sessions, you could give the speech and get most of it word for word so my comments are limited to things that made an impression, one way or the other. </p>
<p>Lafayette College was the first school on this particular swing of schools. Things get off to a poor start as the admissions officer was 10 minutes late to a 9 a.m. session with approximately 40 of us waiting. Nobody covered for her in the interim. When the woman did arrive it was clear that she had come straight from her car. She apologized but did not explain why she didnt make her own info session on time. All I know is that if I were a Lafayette alum, I would be quite upset and would be making a call right about now. The info session covered that students dont apply for engineering or history but are accepted to the school and can do anything that the school offers. That speaks to a certain richness of the overall program when one major or school is not more selective than the school in general. Admissions said they were working to lower their student faculty ratio to 9 to 1 the start of which was five added faculty members hired for the Fall. </p>
<p>Lafayette is the classic LAC campus if Ive ever seen one. Classic big pretty quad surrounded by large classrooms and other facilities. Facilities were pretty darn impressive for the most part with the library being the highlight a terrific library where the kids (on a Tuesday morning) were not just pretending to work but were engaged. A student returned a DVD to the hand of a librarian rather than just putting it down on the counter. He made eye contact and smiled. She asked him what he thought of the film and they talked all of it making a good impression. The same thing was evident around campus kids calling out to each other by name and with a smile. Lafayette also has the most kids on campus wearing something with their schools name on it that Ive ever seen. Kinda scary. We saw two large cafeterias; one was quite modern with individual food selections (that looked quite good) while the other was an old all-you-can-eat place with poor lighting and mediocre food other than the desserts. We did not eat at either hall. Our tour guide was okay, but it was the only place Ive ever toured that had a freshman giving a tour. I think it is preferable to have someone that can speak to both freshman and upper year classes as well as freshman and upper year housing options. She did tell us that she and a friend had just submitted their picks for the lottery for next years housing. </p>
<p>We did talk to a couple upperclassmen before leaving. They directed us to a small place on campus where we could get coffee (which was pretty darn good btw). They asked my son where else he was looking. My son asked them how they liked Lafayette and they both said they loved it and clearly meant it. One said she has amazing teachers that are well known in her field (one gal was a engineering student and one was a history major and I just dont remember which made that comment). Neither had done study abroad but knew many classmates that had. One said she was active in student government. She said the administration would pretend to listen to their ideas, smile and then go away and do nothing about them. My son asked whether Easton sucked as bad as it looked (eloquent I know). They said that there are music acts and comics that come in to perform at a theatre downtown and good places to eat and some sort of discount shopping (mall?) nearby. They also said that the school arranges bus trips to NYC and Philly so you can see some Broadway shows or shop. Overall, they seemed like happy campers.</p>