<p>Our son was accepted to both Lafayette and Villanova in their Chemical Engineering programs.
Any thoughts to the pros and cons of each ? When we review all the usual college guides, Lafayette seems to be ranked better, but in the engineering rankings Villanova appears to be ranked better. Any insights ?</p>
<p>Each seems to have good Alumni networks and from an outsider perspective their chemical engineering programs seem comparable...</p>
<p>Any insights ? He is getting a small merit scholarship at Villanova....</p>
<p>Both are very good for engineering. Its really a matter of preference and where you feel most comfortable. Nova is a catholic school so one must be prepared for the social rules that go along with that.</p>
<p>These two schools are also my son’s favorites–hasn’t made his decision (they both have admitted student visit opportunities next weekend, he’s chosen to visit Lafayette, since Villanova is his slight preference and he wants to take a closer look.</p>
<p>Both look like excellent undergraduate engineering schools. Villanova has a somewhat preferable location: Lafayette promises all the benefits of the small class LAC environment. Both campuses are very nice–Lafayette has a somewhat preppy flavor, Villanove has the Catholic school overlay of service and faith. I’m eager to hear any insights you learn or others care to share on how best to distinguish these fine schools.</p>
<p>The two schools differ in the size of their student bodies, and by a fairly significant margin: 2,400 undergrads at Lafayette, 6,300 at Villanova (plus grad students).</p>
<p>At Villanova, Engineering has its own “school,” and students have fewer opportunities to take courses outside the “school.” At Lafayette, even with their fairly structured curriculum, engineers are very much a part of the liberal arts climate. They can take elective courses in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences.</p>
<p>I don’t know if this is the case at Villanova, but Lafayette engineers can study abroad for an entire semester – the opportunity is built into the curriculum.</p>
<p>Both schools are top-notch, so your son really can’t go wrong. If it sounds like I’m a little too swayed by my “Pard Pride”…well…just know that I’ve recently decided to attend Villanova for grad school in psychology. :D</p>
<p>Leopard, what social rules are those? They don’t sell condoms on campus?</p>
<p>As you said, both are good options. It really depends on whether he likes the feel of a small school. Lafayette has a nice campus even though it is not in a really exciting town. </p>
<p>Villanova has a nice campus too and proximity to more entertainment options. If your son is an extrovert he’ll probably like Villanova because there are more people and more of a rah-rah spirit due to sports. </p>
<p>If your son is shy, he may prefer to be in a smaller school. He may also get more personal attention at Lafayette, although the student-to-teacher ratio at both is 11:1 according to the princeton review.</p>
<p>I see that this thread is 4 years old, but it came up for me in a search. This is now my daughter’s choice and I was wondering if anyone has any new insight on it. She liked both schools and the locations are both about 90 minutes from home. Anyone choose one over the other and have thoughts on it? My daughter is planning to major in chemE and has been offered partial scholarships to both schools.</p>
<p>Hopefully my answer to your previous question was helpful…glad to see you’ve pulled up a forum from my predecessor, candyman!</p>
<p>Obviously, you know my answer to this question is going to be biased for Lafayette, but Lafayette has a distinctive advantage over Villanova for a particular reason— student research. As an undergraduate only institution (and a smaller school than Villanova), Lafayette’s engineering departments are overflowing with opportunities for students to get experience with hands on research that is often one on one with professors. This provides students with invaluable experience that is usually more difficult to get at schools where they have to compete with graduate students for “real life” engineering projects. Also, Lafayette’s small class sizes are highly beneficial to engineering students (and college students in general).</p>
<p>Just my 2 cents.</p>
<p>Feel free to ask me more questions on my forum if you have any!!</p>
<p>I’m not sure why, but Lafayette slipped significantly in this years US News rankings for Engineering schools from mid teens down to 25. Villanova is ranked at number 10.</p>
<p>Both schools seem to have small class sizes, especially in Engineering, so I don’t think there is much of a difference to compare.</p>
While i see this is an old post, I too was wondering what anyone’s thoughts are for Lafayette today. We went for a tour and my daughter set up an interview for next month. My concern is that my daughter has the grades and school ranking to have other options like RPI, Cornell and Yale which are all schools we have visited. Will she be missing out on a good education by going to a liberal arts school instead of a technical school? Do companies like to see ivy league schools over liberal art schools or technical schools? We have been to RPI twice now and thought that was the one, until we went to Lafayette and my daughter fell in love with it!
@max5656 My D is a senior at Lafayette (not an engineering major) and is having a wonderful experience there. Perhaps when you go back for the interview she can arrange to shadow a student for a day (my D did that and it solidified Laf as her #1 choice) – maybe ask if she can shadow an engineering student.
The bottom line is that going to a LAC, a large university, a technical based school are all great and you can have a wonderful experience/education at any one of them, but they are all different. If your D likes that close-knit type of atmosphere, smaller classes, the chance to get a liberal arts education along with the engineering then a LAC like Lafayette might be a great option.
In general, I’d say that Lafayette is one of those schools that “has it right”. The kids work hard and get a great education but also seem to find time to get involved in things they enjoy. For example my D is a science major who does theater and orchestra (and shocked us by joining a sorority too). She has friends who do varsity track, club crew, community service and a whole host of other things. She knows engineers who double major in a variety of liberal arts disciplines. While no school is perfect, Laf just would be an excellent choice for an engineering student who want a small LAC environment.
PS It is fine, but in the future it might be easier to start a new thread rather than resurrect an old one.
Fit is fit and it’s individual to each person. My son is a sophomore ChemE and one of the things he liked about Lafayette was the lack of grad students. It opens up opportunity at the undgrad level that the kids might not get at another school.
My son is a junior engineer at Lafayette. We are thrilled with the education he is getting. He was able to obtain a great internship last summer. Let me know if your daughter would like more information and I will PM you his email.
I am an alum with a mechanical engineering degree from Lafayette. I work alongside RPI, Cornell, Princeton, Rutgers, Lehigh, and Stevens graduates. The point is we all landed the same job. Let your D pick the school where she feels the best fit and it works with your budget. If she is happy she will perform better. I visited Laf with my son this summer and was impressed with the upgrades they had made to the engineering labs. He will be applying to their engineering program also.
Hi. I’m an engineering alum as well and I enjoyed my experience there too. And we also toured with my daughters who decided to pursue their engineering degrees at two schools very different from Lafayette. The size of the programs, the size of the overall undergrad, the campus location and the choice of majors played heavily into their choices. I agree with what has been stated by the previous posters. My husband went to a tech school and when we compare notes, our undergrad experiences were extremely different. While we can all end up at the same employer, the undergrad experiences outside of the classroom vary greatly. Feel free to PM me if you’d like.
The original post here is from 2009. The OP has chosen a school and graduated by now.
In the future it is probably best to start a new thread as opposed to resurrecting an old one.