<p>OP – considering you don’t want to be at the same school with your di-zygotic twin, why are we talking about this?</p>
<p>^^ Yes, I was just thinking the same thing. It all comes down to YOUR list, comparing pros and cons of the schools and then ranking the importance of those items. Everyone’s list and items on it are different and in our house, it’s constantly changing. Who knew “no good looking boys” would suddenly be on the list or “all girls wear the same clothes and seem to be in a uniform” would be a new addition! </p>
<p>Sounds like we just hit a nerve with the twin thing and that item in particular looks like it may very well be in your top 5 or higher! IMO, what we think about these two schools is irrelevant as academically they are very comparable and you really can’t go wrong with either - - but it sounds like you may have just answered your own on question on this thread. 
Best of luck to you.</p>
<p>because lehigh is probably my 2nd choice. my first would be ucla. even though ucla & lehigh have similar prices my parents don’t wanna pay the price for ucla. im not sure the expensive price tag and being in debt is worth it for my 2nd choice school even though my parents are fine with me going there</p>
<p>ahhh - so Tulane sounds like it’s your 3rd choice and they’re giving you the most money. So again, it sounds like other things are in play here other than academics.</p>
<p>yeah definitely. i wouldnt choose a school based solely upon academics…i have to live there for the next 4 yrs after all! lol</p>
<p>Well good luck with everything. If you decide on Tulane, let me know and I can connect you with my daughter.</p>
<p>k thanks so much for the help! =]</p>
<p>njmom, somehow you didn’t mention the relative sizes of the campuses. In otherwords, does one seem a little more “crowded” considering the number of students that are enrolled versus the acreage?</p>
<p>Total Enrollment <a href=“grad%20and%20undergrad”>/U</a>
Lehigh - 6,994
Tulane - 10,737</p>
<p>Size of Campus
Lehigh - 1,600 acres
Tulane - 110 acres</p>
<p>and</p>
<p>you mention how exceptionally happy the Tulane students are, while if you read around CC and ask alumni, you will rarely find a school in which the students are more in love than Lehigh.</p>
<p>this might give you a clue to how relatively happy the kids at Lehigh are to Tulane’s students:</p>
<p>Alumni Giving Rates
33% Lehigh
23% Tulane</p>
<p>Graduation Rates <a href=“6%20yrs”>/U</a>
85% Lehigh
74% Tulane</p>
<p>Tulane’s graduation rate was severely Katrina affected. It is now much higher. JohnAdams knows this because it has been pointed out to him before, so to keep bringing it up is disingenuous at best.</p>
<p>The other statistics he gives are similarly unfair. Tulane has about 2,000 students in their School of Continuing Studies (night and weekend school) that are non-traditional and do not live on campus and/or attend full time. I mean, the acreage argument is silly anyway. Tulane feels “crowded”? That’s one I never heard. Besides, there is a huge park across the street that might as well be part of campus. Tulane kids use it all the time. Finally, having New Orleans at your disposal as opposed to Bethlehem…hmmm that’s a tough one. Anyway, back to the percentages. Tulane counts the 2,000 part time students when doing their statistics, so that skews the numbers. Lehigh has something like 50 part timers, and grad students notoriously do not donate to that school, but to their undergrad. Grad school is more like a job. Been there, I feel no affiliation with my grad school. To me it is all about Tulane. But this is not anecdotal, it has been well studied. Making an apples-apples comparison of full time undergraduate students, the giving rates are comparable.</p>
<p>Tulane was also ranked #10 in Happiest Students last year.</p>
<p>Regarding the actual size of the campus, my daughter and I were expecting the Tulane campus to feel small based on the number of acres. She also was thinking that a 7000 person population seemed small - for her. Keep in mind she was not comparing it to Lehigh. She was comparing size to UNC and Clemson. Her sister was comparing Lehigh to Lafayette. Lafayette is just under 400 acres and about 3500 undergraduates… so I was expecting a Tulane campus half the size with double the students compared to Lafayette. To our the surprise, the Tulane campus felt huge and much larger than Lafayette. At one point my D asked if they may have calculated it wrong. lol By no means did it feel small. There were several large grassy quads. She also loved the feeling of seeing alot of kids out and about on campus - to that extent it didn’t seem crowded but felt like a real college campus to her (read: like Clemson). Additionally, the class we sat in on had 15 very engaged students and that number seemed quite common in speaking with students on campus. </p>
<p>I think one thing to point out that while Lehigh is gorgeous and has a MUCH larger campus by the numbers, a vast majority of it is really “unusable” because of the hilly nature - it’s VERY steep. As we drove around the campus before our tour, I had my foot on the break the entire time. Hardly any of it is flat at all. There are not many areas where one could “lay out” in the sun and because it has so many trees it is very shady. As trivial as this may seem, that was one in a list of factors for my daughter and may also be the for OP who wanted a warm climate.</p>
<p>NJ_Mom - Good luck to both your daughters, going to Lafayette and Tulane. Lafayette’s campus is actually about 110 acres - the other 200 acres are athletic fields located a few miles away. That being said- it feels a lot larger than 110 acres - probably due to the larger (flat) grassy quads, and the fact that you do not have to cross any city streets on campus. Lehigh, although much larger in acreage, is all hills and steps, and in the many visits with my first child (who came very close to attending Lehigh - a cruel irony for 2 Lafayette parents), we were always hard pressed to remember where those grassy areas were. Your daughter will love Lafayette! Does she have an intended major yet? Also - Lafayette is closer to 2400 undergrads - about 53 or 54% male, 46-47% female. One other point - the dorm rooms at Lafayette are probably the nicest and largest we had ever seen. The dorm rooms we saw on Lehigh’s tour - two people could barely turn around in there!</p>
<p>Thanks dianagirl. That’s funny about your first child. Where did he/she end up going? I didn’t think about the sports complexes being factored into the acreage at Lafayette - good point! My D is sooo excited to go. I think she may have been one of the first ED students to have been accepted so August 26th cannot come soon enough. She will be studying engineering and at this point is most interested in mechanical and chemical but luckily will be able to try them all before she commits. We never saw dorms at Lehigh. I had heard they were small but since I hadn’t seen myself, didn’t feel I could comment. She was so turned off by the hilly campus - we cut out early before that part of our tour. It was engineering students day at Lehigh, Lafayette and Bucknell (yes - all the same day/weekend) so to get a little extra time to explore somewhere else was great. She really loved South at Lafayette. Seemed very spacious as were all the dorms (and we got in to see them all) at Tulane.</p>
<p>In the end, he chose Delaware, and loved the 4 years he spent there, but it really came down to the wire between UD and Lehigh (we had made 4 separate visits to Lehigh). Interestingly enough, my 2nd came very very close to choosing Tulane a couple of years ago… Our kids must be on the same wavelength, except, neither of mine are engineers… One of the many nice things about Laf Col, is that they admit you into the college, not into a particular major or College of Engineering, College of Biz, etc., so you really have a good 2 years to explore everything before declaring a major. Engineering students take classes alongside kids in natural science, humanities and social sciences - the whole right brain/left brain things adds an interesting dynamic to class discussions. Where in NJ are you (you can PM me if you prefer)</p>
<p>I do not post very often but I have one question. You seem to spend your life on this board and always seem to know which college is the best! Are you a college counselor? You have one severe problem! You NEVER back your poor opinions WITH FACTS! Have a good day!</p>
<p>i got into delaware too but im not considering it anymore lol</p>
<p>And I agree that Tulane doesn’t feel small at all. They both seem about the same size to me. If you go up to “the hill” where all the sororities and frats are it feels really secluded and its weird how theyre still considered on campus.</p>
<p>californication9 - you mentioned sororities so my guess is you’re considering Greek life. One thing we found out about Tulane was that the sorority houses are merely meeting houses. The girls don’t actually live there. My D originally really envisioned herself living in a sorority house someday and that was very high on her initial college list. In the end, it was not nearly as important to her. I’m not 100% sure but I think the girls do live in the houses at Lehigh</p>
<p>dianagirl - we’re from south jersey (atlantic county) - in between Atlantic City and OC</p>
<p>the houses at lehigh are gorgeous
but im not sure if ill get involved with greek life or not yet…i heard its reallllly big at lehigh though</p>
<p>Another component is community service. This is a HUGE component of student life at Tulane. </p>
<p>My daughter is finishing her first year at Tulane (from NJ) and loves it!</p>
<p>any last minute advice?</p>
<p>njmom, ha!..you just broke the record. I have never seen someone state that it is negative because a campus has too many trees like you have done here for Lehigh.</p>
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