<p>My D is a junior and she needs to start looking at colleges. I personally feel burned out, I went through this last year with my freshman in college and know he is thinking of transferring. But I must give my junior some attention.</p>
<p>Anyone have any knowledge of these schools? How far away are they and could we visit these 3 schools in one trip?</p>
<p>Also, does anyone have any knowledge of how generous they are with merit aid or meeting need?</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>Lehigh and Lafayette are within half an hour of each other. Bucknell is just over two hours away from either school. Lehigh and Lafayette would be an easy one day visit but if you try to squeeze in all three in one day, you would probably shortchange one of the schools. Another trio that would work easily in the Lehigh Valley is Lehigh, Lafayette and Muhlenberg. Muhlenberg is within 30 minutes of the other two. You might plug in your daughters stats into <a href="http://www.collegedata.com%5B/url%5D">www.collegedata.com</a> They have a neat finaid calculator.</p>
<p>I know that Lehigh gives generous merit scholarships for students with top stats. Our son got one (did not attend though). I think Bucknell is less generous with merit $ - not sure about Lafayette.<br>
Since I know most about Lehigh - here's a quick summary of our impressions:
Has a very strong engineering program. Also strong in business.
Heavy greek influence. Lots of drinking but I know admin is starting to crack down on this.<br>
Bethlehem is a bit run down - not very appealing for college students. There are some safety issues but nothing huge as far as we could tell.
Students have spirit and are very friendly. Professors are good - and accessible.
Pre-professional atmosphere.
Campus is pretty. Very hilly. Dorms are a bit worn and small.<br>
Has become much more selective over the last few years. We know a number of good students who were rejected.<br>
Good luck!</p>
<p>We visited Bucknell twice. I thought it was a beautiful, very clean campus, but somewhat isolated. My D said that, although the campus was very nice, Lewisburg is just too small....We've visited Lehigh. We liked the campus, but Bethlehem is sleazy-looking... (Have you considered looking at state schools? They're a lot less expensive, and some have generous merit $ for bright students.) Also, check out campus visit reports on CC....</p>
<p>Son visited and applied to all 3. As I recall, Lehigh merit aid is for freshman year only. We may take another look at any or all after April 1 if the news warrants.</p>
<p>Unless things have changed in the past couple of years, Lehigh merit aid is good for the first year and has a minimum GPA (3.0?) for subsequent years' renewal.</p>
<p>I wrote another post, saw it come up but now it's missing?! oh, well.</p>
<p>I just wanted to respond to the words sleazy and run down to describe Bethlehem. Bethlehem is a former steel town so yes, it probably is run down a little bit near where Lehigh is located. However, every year that we have been here I've seen an improvement with restaurants and artsy places like the Banana Factory and Godfrey Daniels, opening every year. Ten minutes from campus (including parking) is the other side of Bethlehem which includes Main Street and has lots of cute shops, restaurants, bars and Moravian College. The city itself hosts three main festivals: Celtic Fest, Musikfest and Christkindlmarkt throughout the year. With 6 four year colleges in the Lehigh Valley it's also a place where something is happening every weekend. Oh, and if you are an Eagles fan, many students find summer jobs working with them when they come to Lehigh for summer camp.</p>
<p>Friend's child received Marquis Scholar award from Lafayette of 30k grant a year- no loans. Although a very good student, not ivy league status. </p>
<p>Lafayette, probably most generous with Merit Aid-because they compete with Bucknell and Lehigh for the same students.
Check out Lafayette's excellent Laf Financial Loan Program- very unique.</p>
<p>Bucknell's "merit aid" is based on financial need ( My H and I are graduates)</p>
<p>I am not as familiar with Lehigh's financial aid policies.</p>
<p>Muhlenberg ( D is a sophomore) is very generous with Merit Aid.</p>
<p>You could visit- Muhlenberg, Laf, and Lehigh in one day.
Bucknell would be farther west- about an hour from Penn State. </p>
<p>Dickinson- another school offering Merit Aid- Carlisle, PA.</p>
<p>If you like these schools- you might want to consider Univ of Richmond,which has a unique financial aid commitment that the student will NOT have more than $4,000 of Loan in their Financial aid package.</p>
<p>***by the way Deb922 your Second Semester Blues located Parent Cafe thread is one of the most enlightening Threads I have read in three years. Thank you and others for sharing. Everyone should read it!
Feel free to PM if you would like any more information about these schools, happy to make your next search easier!</p>
<p>Lafayette has rolling ED admissions. It has become more competitive in the past year or two. Classes are small, campus is supposed to be lovely, professors offer good attention to students.
All three schools have a reputation of being preppy.</p>
<p>Hubby and I are Lafayette alum, and our son is waiting to hear if he got in (although he may chose to attend school closer to our home in Massachusetts). I shouldn't say anything about Lehigh, as they are our arch-rivals! lol Actually Bucknell and Lehigh are both very good schools, Lehigh is very strong in Engineering. Bucknell is quite pretty but Lewisburg is pretty isolated, so it depends if that is what your Jr wants. </p>
<p>Lafayette is beautiful, and they are very proud of their campus and maintain it well. It's in Easton, which was a bit sketchy back in the day when I was there but it didn't seem to matter as most of us never left College Hill anyway. I understand Easton has come "up" quite a bit in the past few years. The neat thing about Lafayette's campus is that it is located on the top of a hill but is relatively flat. It's right next to downtown Easton, but separated from the town on 2 sides by a very large steep CLIFF (with Rte 22 at the bottom). The other two sides border the college hill neighborhood, which is residential. One side is bounded by the football field and field house, and the 4th side of campus is bounded by McCartney St which is part of the college hill neighborhood. So the school is right in town, yet feels quite distinct and separated from town. </p>
<p>Lafayette is very strong academically, with the usual LAC no-grad-school-so-you-get-real-professors thing. Small classes are the norm. It's somewhat unique in that it is a Liberal Arts College with quite a strong engineering dept (but not as engineering oriented as Lehigh).</p>
<p>They offer Marquis Scholarships and Trustee Scholarships to strong students, they are quite a bit of money and are merit based. </p>
<p>You can definitely visit Lafayette and Lehigh in the same day. Bucknell is a couple of hours away though. </p>
<p>I hope this helps. You could check out the threads for each of these schools under the "colleges" page.</p>
<p>I'd urge you to look up what these schools actually report that they give out in the way of merit aid and financial aid, rather than relying on individual reports alone. You should be able to find the information on either the College Board web site, or for $15/year, on the US News and World Report Premium College Edition online. (I actually think that is worth the money for there is a lot onf information on there quite well organized.)</p>
<p>We visited Lehigh and Lafayette in one day. Take the earliest tour/info. at the one and the last at the other. Very do-able. Visiting 3 schools in one day, while physically possible, is emotionally draining. Never a good idea. The last school will just seem repulsive. See Bucknell on Day 2. We never saw it, it just did not call out to us.</p>
<p>I also find US News an invaluable resource for all kinds of school information, before visiting. Pennsylvania has TONS of schools within stone's throw of each other. Where are you starting out from?</p>
<p>US News and World online- a great suggestion.</p>
<p>Here is are two links, Marathon Man posted and these are EXCELLENT lists.</p>
<p>"It lists a very large number of top univerisites/LACs along with the % of students who get merit awards; average financial aid awards; and more"</p>
<p>OK, I swear a posted a response. CC was acting up yesterday and maybe it's lost in cyberspace.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info. We will not tour 3 schools in one day. I have a hard enough time visiting one a day, we may try to see Lehigh and Layafette on the same day, it seems very doable.</p>
<p>SouthJerseyChessMom, those links are not coming up for me. I think that I'm going to take weenie's idea and sign up for the US News premier edition. It sounds well worth $15.</p>
<p>We are going to be traveling from Northwest Ohio. School must have engineering major, would prefer schools where engineering departments are strong. I am thinking that we might look at Case Western, just because it's on the way, as neither one of my kids seemed very interested but I wonder if we should look at it anyway. Then we would travel on to PA. D does not want to look at Pitt and she isn't that interested in CMU, which is good because I've heard that they are stingy with aid and it would be a reach for her.</p>
<p>Junior D, has a 3.75 GPA, 30 ACT, 31 E, 33 M, (darn that pesky science) will retake. Wants a strong engineering program in a school that has a better distribution of males to females. </p>
<p>SouthJerseyChessMom, thanks for the compliment on Second Semester Blues. I too am amazed by the response and how that thread has developed.</p>
<p>Yes, cyberspace was flaky yesterday. Am resending because these lists are very helpful.</p>
<p>try this universities
<a href="http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/brief/webex/Need_based_aidnatudoc_brief.php%5B/url%5D">http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/brief/webex/Need_based_aidnatudoc_brief.php</a></p>
<p>Whoops, my error.
here is the LAC link for Merit Aid at hundreds of schools-
<a href="http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/brief/webex/Need_based_aidlibartco_brief.php%5B/url%5D">http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/brief/webex/Need_based_aidlibartco_brief.php</a></p>
<p>The two links above are for Universities-my error.</p>
<p>Make sure you visit the Ice Cream shop in the small atrium (next to the Crayola store) in downtown Easton. Great stuff.</p>
<p>Thanks SJCM, great links. It looks like Lafayette and Bucknell meet 100% of need and loan amounts seem very low with Lafayette meeting need a tiny bit better. Lehigh looks good too, meeting 98% of need. In contrast CMU only meets 81% of need. Very interesting.</p>
<p>Can definitely relate- deb922- d is freshman, in tears with wanting to transfer in Jan, made new friends and things seem to be turning around. Have Jr son who is hot on engineering and not as driven to find schools as D was. We went out Pres weekend- did Northeastern, Lehigh, Penn State and WPI. He was not impressed with Lehigh or Penn State because he wants hands on early and doesn't care ratio. Liked Northeastern and WPI. We drove to all, so it should be driveable for you. We did Syracuse another time, liked that until we found it wasn't as hands on early, but a good engineering school.
I like the second semester blues too, it's been so reassuring that we're all going through this.</p>