Philadelphia area colleges

<p>I want to take my 10th grader to visit colleges in the area this year just to get him to begin to conceptualize the idea. College is such an abstract idea to him that it isn't even registering with him. Since we live in the Philly area, I know there are lots of schools where can just pop up on a Saturday to just observe. I'd like some advice on ones to visit that are good examples of college "types" ie: small LAC, large urban univ, etc. I'm not concerned really about the academics. I just want to give him something to visualize when it's time to really start the search.</p>

<p>Do you have any idea how selective of a school he would be competitive for? Many of the more selective schools have more curb appeal than less selective schools. So, it may be a bit dangerous to take him to visit schools that are much too reachy, since other schools may look bad by comparison.</p>

<p>Most Selective Private Urban: Penn
PA State Supported Urban: Temple
Private Urban: Drexel
Catholic Urban: LaSalle, St. Josephs</p>

<p>Most Selective Suburban Liberal Arts: Swarthmore, Haverford
Suburban Liberal Arts: Ursinus
Suburban Catholic: Villanova
Suburban PA State Univ.: West Chester University</p>

<p>OOS but reasonable drive from Phila.-</p>

<p>Most Selective Private Suburban: Princeton
State Flagships: U Del, Rutgers-New Brunswick</p>

<p>Long Drive-</p>

<p>PA Flagship: Penn State- University Park
Some others: Lehigh, Lafayette, Franklin and Marshall, Gettysburg, Bucknell</p>

<p>For LACs in the Philly area I would pick Swarthmore as perhaps the archetype / quintessential example. For something more reasonable in terms of admissions, while still being quite attractive, I would pick Ursinus (one of the CTCL schools). If you don’t mind setting a high bar in terms of admissions standards, I might visit Penn as an example of a relatively large urban university, while Princeton could serve as a smaller, more suburban university. If you are uncomfortable with such lofty admissions hurdles, perhaps Temple and U Delaware.</p>

<p>Quakerstake has very comprehensive list there.</p>

<p>Only comment is, depending on where you live in the Philadelphia area, Lehigh and Lafayette might only be a little more than an hour drive away.</p>

<p>If you have never visited Lafayette College, you will be very impressed. The campus is gorgeous and the atmosphere is just as warming.</p>

<p>Bucknell is also very nice. Although we found that their FA was not as generous as Lafayette’s.</p>

<p>I like Q-stake’s list, too.</p>

<p>Bucknell and Penn State are not easy day trips from Philadelphia. Everything else is.</p>

<p>If your child is a girl, you may want to consider adding Bryn Mawr to the list. And depending on academic intensity and interests, maybe one of the smaller Catholic schools like Chestnut Hill College, or (secular) Arcadia University in Glenside, or supersmall Bryn Athyn, or Albright in Reading. Or the Community Colleges of Philadelphia and/or Montgomery County. Or University of the Sciences in Philadelphia (ex-PCPS) in University City, or Philadelphia University (ex-PCT) in East Falls. All of the above are great options for some students.</p>

<p>If the kid isn’t a top student, I wouldn’t bother with Princeton, Penn, Haverford, or Swarthmore, which will just tend to make everything else look a little less attractive (especially Princeton, which is gorgeous in nice weather).</p>

<p>Top student: I’d look at Princeton, Penn, Drexel, Villanova, Swarthmore, Haverford/Bryn Mawr, Ursinus</p>

<p>Middle: Drexel, Villanova, St. Joe’s, Temple, West Chester, Ursinus, Lehigh?</p>

<p>More struggling: La Salle, Bryn Athyn, Arcadia, Temple, West Chester, USP, PhilaU, CCP</p>

<p>JHS, you’re not seriously going to put Temple in the same category as the other schools in the ‘more struggling’ grouping, are you? Not to mention Drexel in the ‘top student’ category? You have Temple, Drexel, West Chester, Nova, Ursinus listed twice, by the way.</p>

<p>Thanks for the suggestions. Talking with him today, I found out that he got his ideas of what high school was like from watching the shows on Nickolodeon and he’s getting his ideas of college from a COPS like show called Campus PD. I can understand his ambivalence now lol.</p>

<p>Excellent point above about exact location determining closest schools. And I agree with not taking looks at extremely selective schools the child may have no shot at. </p>

<p>Muhlenberg and Ursinus are representative small schools; Lafayette, Lehigh, Villanova and St. Joe mid sized; Penn State is not close but a huge PA presence–it or Delware give you a large school feel and Temple a large and urban feel.</p>

<p>I would also just add that Swarthmore’s campus is really tiny, and not necessarily representative of other SLAC campuses. It was on our first college tour, and in retrospect, that was probably a mistake.</p>

<p>Suburban: Villanova
Urban: UPenn
Also might want to go further afield and look at Univ. of Delaware which is located in Newark, DE only about 40 minutes from Philly.</p>

<p>I’m not sure it’s accurate to say that Swarthmore’s campus is really tiny compared with other LACs. According to Wikipedia and college websites, here’s the data:</p>

<p>College Acres Students
Amherst 1000 1697
Williams 450 2124
Swarthmore 399 1525
Middlebury 350 2406 (main campus only)
Haverford 216 1168
Ursinus 170 1589
Dickinson 170 2300
Pomona 140 1548</p>

<p>Amherst is clearly the outlier here, but amongst the rest of the admitedly not exhaustive list, Swarthmore’s campus is on the larger rather than smaller end of the spectrum for Liberal Arts Colleges.</p>

<p>We are in Philly proper. Maybe the differences between the swanky colleges and the “less selective” ones would be motivation for him to really buckle down. He got off to a bad start freshman year so I think it’s too early to really know what’s realistic for him. But I was never thinking about Princeton, Yale, etc. Right now, my high hopes admissions wise are along the lines of Rice. His planned major is along the lines of CS with an emphasis on gaming. So I just really need to get him to understand that just any ole college won’t do.</p>

<p>For an interest in gaming, TCNJ is worth a visit. NJ public liberal arts college, only about an hour from Philly. It is a medium sized suburban school.
[Game</a> Design and Development at The College of New Jersey](<a href=“http://www.tcnj.edu/~games/]Game”>http://www.tcnj.edu/~games/)</p>

<p>Love Drexel<3 Big school in Philly. Good name in the tristate area.<br>
Doesn’t have a nice campus though.</p>

<p>I think Drexel has a nice campus. It’s an urban school and really convenient for getting anywhere into the city or out of the city via public transportation. Some of the buildings are simply stunning.</p>

<p>I find it fascinating that Amherst’s campus is 1,000 acres. It seems much smaller than Williams and Middlebury when you’re actually walking around. Does that figure include land not adjacent to the main campus?</p>

<p>Check out these google map images of Amherst, Middlebury, and Williams. All maps are on the same scale:</p>

<p><a href=“Google Maps”>Google Maps;

<p><a href=“Google Maps”>Google Maps;

<p><a href=“Google Maps”>Google Maps;

<p>Which looks larger to you (keeping in mind that Middlebury’s 1,800-acre mountain campus isn’t included in this view)?</p>

<p>I would probably visit Villanova/Haverford/Bryn Mawr - they’re very close to each other and will give you two LACs and a mid-size school with a beautiful suburban campus. For urban schools, you can visit Penn/Drexel/Temple/St. Joe’s/LaSalle (depending on how competitive your student is). For a state flagship, Delaware isn’t far away. I’d be inclined to visit West Chester as a state school that’s not a flagship. And this is without going far afield from Philly - there’s a lot more within 2 hours.</p>

<p>There are swanky, less-selective colleges.</p>

<p>I think Drexel’s campus is horrible. I’ve watched it try to improve (which is has) for about 40 years. I’ve been in buildings, walked by it, through it and driven by it more times than I can count. It hasn’t grown on me.</p>