What are some peer schools of Lafayette?
Both LACs and research universities
Check USNWR LAC listing for colleges ranked about the same and National Universities ranked around where Lehigh is.
Offhand some peer schools might be: Lehigh, Bucknell, Union, Trinity, Colgate, URichmond, Franklin & Marshall, Dickinson, Villanova
What about colleges like Wake Forest? According to Startclass.com, Lafayette is harder to get into, has smaller class sizes, a higher average graduating salary, and a higher “smart rating”
http://colleges.startclass.com/compare/3143-3676/Wake-Forest-University-vs-Lafayette-College
The stats on your link the schools as pretty much peer institutions but I don’t know enough about WF to comment based on my own knowledge. At some point it becomes about fit. What location do you prefer? What size school do you prefer? Only you can answer these questions.
Wake Forest has grad students on campus and is quite a bit larger than Lafayette. If these things are important to you (one way or the other) it’s a separating factor.
I have a friend who really wanted to go to Lafayette with his back-ups being Colgate and St. Lawrence. He ended up at the latter. I know a few kids who went to Lafayette with a goal of working on Wall Street. If that describes you, you could also look at Trinity in CT?
I did look at Trinity, but just didn’t see myself there. How does Lafayette compare to colleges like Bates, Kenyon, Colorado College, Babson, etc.?
The question is what attracts you to Lafayette? I could rattle off a number of LACs that are comparable to it in selectivity (some of which you mentioned), but some of them are pretty different in feel. I’m under the impression that Lafayette is pretty sporty, pretty preppy and pretty Greek. I would provide almost the same list as @happy1 as far as schools with a similar vibe (I’d add Gettysburg to that list). I would not, however, characterize Bates, Kenyon or Colorado College that way at all. Babson is kind of a different thing, in that they’re particularly oriented around business, so not so much of a generalized, well-rounded LAC.
I attended Lafayette and my sister attended Gettysburg. The vibe at the two schools is actually very different. And Lafayette is not nearly as Greek as it used to be. Gettysburg is more Greek, and not quite as intellectual as Lafayette, IMHO. I agree with Lehigh, Bucknell, Union, Colgate, Villanova as peers. I am not familiar enough with the other schools to agree or disagree.
@oriolesfan16 If it helps, my D could not see herself at Trinity either but she loves Lafayette.
I agree that Babson is a different type of school because it is all business (we actually considered it for my S but not my D). We didn’t look at the other schools you specified in your last post,
@crazymamaB, I readily defer to people who actually have first-hand knowledge of these schools. I’m just going on the basis of descriptions I’ve read in various college guides.
And I’d also say that Colorado College is pretty different because of the school’s block system.
@rayrick And there are many ways, especially in those books, that they are similar. I just felt that I should share my experience. I thought most of your suggestions were spot on!
I see. How does Lafayette compare (academically) to colleges like Colby, Bucknell, Wesleyan, etc.
I think Lafayette and Bucknell are pretty similar. My nephew went to Wes which is also an excellent academic school but IMO it has an artsier vibe while Laf and Bucknell seem to be somewhat more pre-professional. Never saw Colby (my D didn’t want to go to Maine) so I can’t comment on that school.
Lafayette, Bucknell and Lehigh all have engineering programs in addition to liberal arts. Bucknell of those seems a bit more isolated and far from any cities. All are somewhat preprofessional in focus perhaps. Other LACs being mentioned like Colorado College, Bates, Kenyon do not offer engineering. Kenyon always strikes me as a “prelaw” type of place for those that want to learn to write well, but also very isolated and small. (although not too far from Columbus Ohio).
Colorado College is located in a medium/large city, Colorado Springs. It has a unique one class at a time calendar, known as the Block Plan, and much more selective than Lafayette College, only accepting about 17% of applicants. Its a small very selective LAC with intellectual students, and a lot of time between classes to explore the world, located near Pikes Peak, skiing, and hiking areas. Very outdoors oriented college.
Related question: what are some overlap application schools of Lafayette? I found Cornell, Princeton, Colgate, Richmond, Villanova, Bucknell, but I was wondering if there was more.
For our HS overlaps include: University of Rochester, Lehigh, CWRU, College of Wooster, Union, Bates, Bucknell, Colgate and then Ohio State and U of Michigan (both total outliers but very popular at our HS).
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My D also considered Union, Franklin & Marshall, Dickinson, Muhlenberg, and Bucknell. Lehigh is a very typical overlap school as well.
Lafayette’s “Aspirational” Peers (from internal documents)
Pomona
Williams
Amherst
Swarthmore
Bowdoin
Carleton
Claremont McKenna
Haverford
Vassar
Hamilton
Harvey Mudd
Grinnell
Washington & Lee
Wellesley
Wesleyan
Colgate
Middlebury
Smith
Oberlin
Bates
Davidson
Colby
Union
Bucknell