<p>My son is struggling like most high school seniors to make a decision. He has been accepted to UVa, Tufts, U of Delware (honors program), and Lafayette College (Marquis Scholar) and wait listed at Cornell and Duke. He is going in without declaring a major, but his interests are in electrical or systems engineering, physics, and computer science. He is looking for an academic challenge (professors who push the students and students who push each other) and is also concerned about the depth and breadth of programs (a wide enough variety of classes across subjects and within his major in case his interests change).</p>
<p>How do these programs compare for these schools? Any input to help make this comparison would be appreciated.</p>
<p>i actually just sent in my enrollment deposit to lafayette today. the personableness (sry is that a word?) of everyone, from professor to admissions to students, the high quality of academics, and great perks of a marquis scholar (cultural events as well as money, which was an important factor in my decision) made me choose lafayette over tufts, williams, boston college honors, tufts, bryn mawr, wellesley, smith, rutgers (in state and scholarships) made lafayette come out on top. at first i had my doubts as laf was more of a safety school and i really hadn't seriously thought too much about going there except my cousins had a great experience there.
the two engineers (my cousins) who went there did very well- one works in consulting and the other does corporate work. they saved enough money and paid off all their debts within four years of graduating and were able to travel around the world, without work or money issues, for two and half years before getting jobs (in their field as stated above) again. the opportunities to study abroad as an engineer were enriching for them and while i'm more interested in govt and law and policy, i have been impressed with laf's engineering program and its seemingly rare situation where engineers can do study abroad.
go leopards!
thant being said, good luck in choice- as the no-pressure alumni from lafayette told me, you only have good choices.</p>