<p>My S has been accepted to Lehigh and Bucknell, both College of Arts and Science, undecided. He loves both schools. But he can only pick one. So it is time to compare and decide.</p>
<p>Can anyone give us your assessment of both schools in the areas of?</p>
<li>Academic experience </li>
<li>Academic program</li>
<li>Flexibility of transferring between colleges</li>
<li>Living “conditions”</li>
<li>Student life</li>
<li>Location</li>
</ol>
<p>I don’t know much about the two universities but I wanted you to consider their relative endowments:</p>
<p>Lehigh = 1bn 85mil
Bucknell = 600mil</p>
<p>Not many people are aware but the US News rankings are essentially a compilation of relative endowments, in descending order of endowment. So I think it’s important to consider first and foremost how much resources a university has, for that’s where all the superb faculty, dorms and campus facilities get funded from. You might not agree with me on this, as I am sure most people won’t. But I’d like you consider what has partly make Harvard great. Endowment.</p>
<p>I got a very strange vibe from Bucknell. It seems academically elite, but there wasn’t really all that much around campus that screamed “social” at me and along with the fact that there are fewer students, I am a bit worried.</p>
<p>Lewisburg is another negative. I don’t think it has anything but chain restaurants and a Wal-Mart in it. I really loved the Bethlehem/Allentown area and the atmosphere at Lehigh.</p>
<p>i was essentially choosing between lehigh and bucknell during my whole college search, and made extensive pro/con lists comparing the two in the meantime. both are excellent schools, and from the beginning of my search, i planned to apply ED to lehigh. as an engineer, i loved that they had a strong engineering program as well as a business and liberal arts school. it basically came down to an overnight i did in october at bucknell- i stayed over and the people i met made me realize that this was the right community for me.
that being said, i’m not really sure what the poster above me is talking about. i’m wondering when they visited, because we are known to have an actively social campus, with a large greek system similar to lehigh, and a campus activities office that bends over backwards to offer 4 or 5 events each weekend night.
lewisburg is small, but what fetou is talking about with the chain restaurants and wal-mart is on rt 15, where you drive in to get to bucknell. downtown lewisburg is the area that is within walking distance of campus that students actually go to, and while it’s not amazing, there are a surprising amount of nice restaurants and cute shops. ([Lewisburg</a>, PA - There’s still a place…](<a href=“http://www.lewisburgpa.com/]Lewisburg”>http://www.lewisburgpa.com/))
one thing i didn’t really consider while i applied was that lehigh has grad students and bucknell essentially doesn’t. this is obvious, but my professors at bucknell are primarily interested in teaching undergrads, so the focus is entirely on us. the professors are still involved in research, and its easy for anyone to get involved in research if they are interested.</p>
<ol>
<li>don’t know</li>
<li>don’t know</li>
<li>lehigh is very flexible about transfering… you don’t need to fill out an application for that.</li>
<li>don’t know</li>
<li>work hard play hard, all drunk tho…</li>
<li>50mile from NYC, 70Miles from philadelphia and Lehigh stuck in the middle</li>
</ol>