My S needs to chose between Lafayette, Dickinson, Franklin & Marshall, and Lewis & Clark. Any thought on the relative merits would be appreciated. My S has broad interests, undecided for major. Film studies, History, and Spanish all possibilities. A college that encourages interdisciplinary might be a plus. He has been a classic “super fan” in HS, so wants a school where students support their teams. Cares about politics, does want to be somewhere with mostly political conservatives.
Based on that description I would throw out Lewis & Clark. The school encourages interdisciplinary thinking and has solid programs in all the fields described, but it’s about as far from a sports oriented, politically conservative college as you can get.
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I have been to Lafayette, Dickinson and F&M with two different boys. I really didn’t care for F&M but there is nothing wrong with it. It just seemed rather generic. Lafayette is Division 1 in the Patriot League which is a great academic sports conference. Dickinson is Division 3 in Centennial Conference which is not really competitive with the better high schools.
Lafayette is the more prestigious school not to say Dickinson isn’t but in business circles Lafayette wins hands down.
The Lehigh vs Lafayette rivalry is something to behold as is the rivalry with Bucknell and Colgate.
Dickinson has the nicer town for sure but if your son is looking for a sports culture married with high end academics then look no further than Lafayette. Great school and sounds like a perfect fit
I also looked at Lafayette, Dickinson, and F&M with my D a few years ago. She is currently a student at Lafayette and loves it. She did think she could be happy at all of the schools, but Lafayette just felt right to her.
I’d agree with the post above – if your S wants a LAC that has a rooting interest in sports that Lafayette is a great choice. Everyone really gets into the annual Lafayette-Lehigh rivalry (they had the 150th game at Yankee Stadium this year) and the school was excited again when the team made it to the NCAA tournament in basketball (although they did get crushed in the first round). The football stadium and sports facilities are outstanding for such a small school. In terms of academics, she has been very happy (very challenged but not overwhelmed I’d say) and my D has friends who have created their own interdisciplinary majors to suit their interests. She has also found it very easy to get involved on campus. I’m not sure about the politics there – I’d guess most college campuses lean more liberal, but there is a variety of people there so I’d imagine there are plenty of conservatives on campus as well. If you have any questions about Laf, feel free to PM me.
Thank you for the replies. I made a bad typo. Actually my son would NOT feel comfortable with a campus that is too conservative. His politics are to the left. It is not the most important consideration anyhow; he just wouldn’t want to be somewhere with an overwhelmingly conservative atmosphere. I probably didn’t need to even raise it. These are LACs in the Northeast and Oregon, after all.
Alright, I hope you guys are still alive on this thread!
I have GOT INTO Lafayette and Drew (as my top choices), and Dickinson and Wheaton as my second choices.
I’d like to know your feedback on these four colleges, specifically with respect to the following aspects, but feel free to give me any other info you feel I could use:
(1) Campus rural-ness. I’ve heard that Lafayette and Dickinson are in the extremely rural settings. Though I don’t want an urban, city-center campus, I sure don’t want to go to some place in the back of beyond. Semi-urban, and say about an hour or two from major cities, would be best.
(2) Student diversity. Of course, this is represented by a school’s out-of-state percentage, but any personal views y’all have on this are welcome. (I’m looking for high campus diversity, with low same-state students, and a fair amount of international folk too.)
(3) Sports. I’m not an all-out sports buff, unlike nigelb’s son, but I surely do want to go to a school that participates in a respectable sports conference. I play basketball, and sail too.
Well, these are the three factors that are top of mind for me right now, but any other great feedback on ANY aspect regarding the above four colleges would be WHOLLY APPRECIATED.
Thanks!
@HeyHelloHi: you need to start your own thread. This is called “hijacking” and is considered very bad manners.
@nigelb: If sports matter a lot to your son, then Lafayette is the best choice. If a moderate political environment is important (as well as a cute college town and decent D3 sports), Dickinson is your choice. If liberal is important compared to sports, Lewis&Clark.
Dickinson is not rural or semi rural at all – the town is surprisingly (to us) charming, with strong colonial influence. The “downtown” housing looks remarkably like old Philadelphia. It is about 2 hours from Philly, 1 hour from Harrisburg, and 2 hours from Pittsburgh (I did not check google to confirm, that is my rough guess based on our travel times). On our recent visit to Dickinson, we were told that Basketball draws a big student crowd, other sports not as much. The student athletic facilities are quite nice.
Dickinson not as strong on out of state diversity as some others might be – as I recall, a strong PA concentration, maybe 15-18%, with a lot of east coast students beyond that. However, it was not a super preppy environment as far as we could tell – not a lot of Vineyard Vines – though Patagonia and North Coast seem to be on every college campus we have visited so far.
Sorry @MYOS1634 I’m not quite well versed with forum etiquette! I just thought I’d engage the same people who had already given helpful opinions on a very similar topic!
Nevertheless, I shall. 
@nigelb Being a current student at Lafayette, I’m a bit biased. But considering we have great programs in all of the majors that your son is interested in, push for interdisciplinary work (including a create your own major option), and have amazing team spirit (just look at the Laf-Lehigh rivalry), I think Lafayette could be a great decision. We are a small school but with a wide range of views. We have clubs on campus for every range of the political spectrum, but are in no way ultra-conservative, or ultra-liberal aka neutral. As for the academic side, we have history, spanish, and film and media studies courses so he can pick any of them or combine them for a create your own major. Laf loves to encourage and somewhat mandates that we take some courses outside of our major, but it gives us opportunities most other colleges don’t offer. For example, this year’s spring theatre production (Frankenstein 2029) has been one of the most crossdisciplinary projects I have ever seen. http://sites.lafayette.edu/frankenstein2029/ We have staff and students from almost every field working on this project. Hope this helps and feel free to pm me if you have any other Laf-specific questions.
Thank you, Rachel Szt and others. My son did chose Lafayette.
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