<p>Hi. Wondering if any current student or parent can fill me regarding the engineering program. S wants to attend a LAC with engineering, or "smaller school" with engineering (not technical school), so his search is limiting. Does the lack of facilities compared to a state university's engineering dept lessen the strength of the engineering dept at Lafayette? How many students typically in engineering / year? What about job prospects?</p>
<p>Also, How big is Greek life on campus - my S is probably not interested in Greek life, what are alternatives for fun on campus? He has heard that in some schools, there is minimal fun on campus and can't attend parties, etc., wondering if this is the view of those in Greek life, or is this reality?</p>
<p>Any answers to above info. would be very helpful. Thank you.</p>
<p>My D is at Lafayette (loves it there) and is dating an engineer. I can’t help you with all the details, but I know he is very happy with his program, that he also wanted a small school and considers it to be a plus particularly as he expects to have an opportunity to do research with a professor in the coming year. He works hard academically (as do most students at Lafaeytte) but is fully involved in activities on campus (he participates in a club sport and some other groups on campus) and he has not joined a fraternity. He has an externship with a company (shadowing an engineer) over winter break. Overall, Lafayette does a great job with job placement with its students. </p>
<p>Another positive aspect of Lafayette for engineers is that there is ample opportunity to go abroad. There is a semester abroad geared for engineers or for those that don’t want to miss a semester on campus there are opportunities to go abroad with a summer program or during interim (a 3 week session where you can take a one credit course abroad over winter break).</p>
<p>There are not a lot of fraternities on campus so many guys do no rush. In addition Lafayette has sophomore rush (you cannot rush freshman year at all) which I think is a big plus, especially in a smaller school because it allows people to develop strong friend groups freshman year – my D has found that those friendships stay in place even if some people in the group go Greek and others don’t. She has always felt busy and happy in terms of her social life.</p>
<p>Glad to help, you might also want to post this same question on the questions and answers thread on this page so maybe you can hear more from a student at Lafayette (I’m a parent) – some people only look at questions on that running list.</p>
<p>My son is a freshman engineer. He was also looking for a small LAC and is not interested in the greek system. he absolutely loves it. I wouldn’t worry about the size of the engineering dept. Intro classes in engineering are the same everywhere. Fluids is fluids. They have all of the necessary labs. I have been on two tours of the Mechanical engineering dept. and was thoroughly convinced on the level of education. The career development center has a great reputation and the hiring statistics reflect this. </p>
<p>The greek system is bigger than advertised, but not overwhelming. My son has formed tight relationships with his hall, which is coed. He is also active in numerous organizations on campus. He is not bored. For my son, he is thriving at Lafayette. He has been accepted to be a tour guide next semester.</p>
<p>I love the decision my son made to go to Lafayette. It fits him. This from an alumni of a competing school :-)</p>
<p>Hello!
i’m an international student (from the UK) who is interested in studying chemical engineering at lafayette.
I was wondering whether you could help me- what’s the program like, are the facilities good and how big are the classes? Also, do you think as a non-US student I have a good chance of getting a placement/internship too?</p>
<p>BTW i’m new here, your help will be much appreciated :)</p>
<p>@HumbleMitchie - send an inquiry to admissions and ask them to put you in touch with an engineering student. It’s a good idea to call them as well. </p>
<p>You won’t find the graduate research at Lafayette you may find at a larger Uni, but you will find adequate facilities for labs etc for your undergraduate learning, small class sizes (57% of classes have under 20 students, only 1% have over 50), plus opportunities for summer and other research. Your opportunities for grad school are significant and you can compete with those from Ivy’s. If you perform well, you will be competitive. Your placement/internship should not be affected by your citizenship.</p>