Opinions on PA colleges

College Search & Selection
1

<p>I'm going to be visiting PA soon and thought that I'd look at some colleges while I'm there. I'm a good student with strong scores, EC's, etc., etc. My main criteria for a college is that there's strong academics, but perhaps more importantly that they offer merit aid. I've found the following and want to know what you think of them, since I'm not very familiar.</p>

<p>Dickinson College
Lafayette College
Gettysburg College
Muhlenberg College
Villanova</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

2

<p>All good schools. Franklin and Marshal (my alma mater so I am a bit biased...) is also worthy of your consideration and does offer merit based aid for strong candidates.</p>

3

<p>F&M and Muhl both give pretty good aid. A lot of kids here took money at both of these schools.
Dickinson and Gettysburg are both good schools, but not nearly as popular.
Nova is simply Nova. I love the sports. The school is nice. The kids are not very diverse. My friend's mom is the prez :P Awesome academics though.</p>

4

<p>There's not huge diversity at any of them. Muhlenburg is very nurturing, Nova is as Loslobos describes it and the others have lots of wealthy white students who work hard towards their preprofessional goals.</p>

5

<p>my DD just graduated HS and we we visited at least once G'burg, Fand M, Villanova and Muhelnberg ( as well as other Pa schools ..Bucknell and Lafayette and Lehigh). She liked them all but decided not to apply to Muhlenberg, (probably because she felt it wasn't selective enough) which we thought of as a nice compact campus, and the best dorm room shown on a tour. My friends DD is a student there and loves it...</p>

<p>You can do a search and see my daughters stats..she was offered merit $ at G'burg $8,500 their top merit $was $13,500 and at Fand M which was $7,000 and their top merit $ was $12K..Villanova no merit $$ you hafta have a 1400 Sat score to be even considered. Not big sums of merit $ so we let her make her choice without regard to $$$$. She chose Boston College which is a tad bit more expensive than the F&M. Also check the GPA requirements for renewing the merit$$$.</p>

6

<p>Eagles suckkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk ;)</p>

7

<p>Here are some recent stats on the average merit grant and the % of students receiving merit aid. The schools all give merit money, and are basically in the same ballpark as far as the amount of their FA money they allocate to merit aid. The strategies differ a little--a more selective school like Lafayette gives fewer merit awards, but in higher amounts.</p>

<p>Dickinson $10.973 (10%)
Gettysburg $9.060 (14%)
Lafayette $13,421 (6%)
Villanove $11,0028 (6%)
Muhlenberg $11,600 (not reported, but higher than most of the above, if I remember correctly from a letter my D just received).</p>

8

<p>IGGLES!!</p>

<p>Anyway as long as you're in the neighborhood, check out Haverford College, and Bryn Mawr College if you're of the female persuasion.</p>

<p>There are also a dozen schools in Philadelphia, from community colleges to the ivy league and everything in between. St. Josephs, Drexel, Temple come to mind. Check out onebigcampus.com, specifically <a href="http://www.onebigcampus.com/college_profiles.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.onebigcampus.com/college_profiles.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

9

<p>No, the Iggles and Eagles are two VERY different teams.</p>

<p>-Bleed green for life</p>

10

<p>A lot of girls from my school go to Villanova, so I hear it's a pretty good school but as loslobos71 said it's not very diverse, and it's also very preppy, which may or may not appeal to you. It doesn't give a lot of aid though. Here's the website with all the different kinds of scholarships and such.
<a href="http://www.villanova.edu/enroll/finaid/scholarships_grants/index.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.villanova.edu/enroll/finaid/scholarships_grants/index.htm&lt;/a>
I also heard F&M has great aid since it's expensive. I would definitely also look at Lehigh University while your in PA. It's a great school and has a lot of different merit aid.</p>

11

<p>Good point JohnnyK, if the OP is a strong student they might want to check out Haverford, Swarthmore and Bryn Mawr.</p>

12

<p>Thanks everyone, this was very helpful!</p>

13

<p>You may also want to check out Allegheny College</p>

14

<p>If you are west to Allegheny, which is classic LAC, check out Grove City, which is so cheap you might not need aid!</p>

15

<p>Definitely check out Swarthmore! It's hard to get into but very academically oriented. Plus it has good need based aid, it's gorgeous, and it has personality.</p>

16

<p>dude check out lehigh! i almost went there...loved the place but i ended up choosing THE university of virginia over it.</p>

17

<p>By which you mean Va Tech?</p>

18

<p>Check out BUCKNELL - very competative and quite beautiful, but quite rural.</p>

<p>However, I must concur with Crazykids that LEHIGH is not only a great school, but also is the host to the Iggles training camp opens which opens tomorrow - a priceless opportunity to meet, greet and cheer on our boys in green. Go Birds!</p>

19

<p>Pardon me... Go STEELERS! (I couldn't resist)</p>

<p>St. Francis U. of Loretta is a gorgeous campus on a mountain top in mid-PA. Don't really know much about it other than it is really awesomely beautiful.</p>