<p>please see title</p>
<p>Lafayette is - in my opinion - located in a boring area (on a hill above Easton, PA - a city with very little going on for young people) The academics are well-rated, but my tour guides were bad and no one I met there seemed smart.</p>
<p>I have, however, heard good things about Dickinson.</p>
<p>I applied to both before ultimately being accepted ED II to GW. I never visited Dickinson, but I really liked Lafayette when I was there. It has a really nice campus and is a good school academically. I agree with chalk though. The surrounding town of Easton isn't great and there's not much going on.</p>
<p>I've also heard really good things about Dickinson.</p>
<p>Don't have any real insight into Lafayette, but Dickinson is a very strong liberal arts school with excellent social science and foreign language departments. Biology and English are solid departments as well. Minuses?. . .maybe not the greatest school for math or physics and pretty homogeneous (read: white suburban) student body.</p>
<p>Any more thoughts out there on Lafayette? What are the strong programs? How would you compare it with Colgate? Thanks.</p>
<p>Engineering</p>
<p>Anyone actually go to Lafayette?</p>
<p>I've heard lots of rumors about this school but I'm not sure if they're true or just rumors... lots of people say its one big rich frat boy school or an extended prep school. I had a GREAT tour and really like the atmosphere. Which is odd because I'm NOT the type to like the big party/greek atmosphere. I'm concerned that I got the wrong impression from the school and my tour(s). </p>
<p>Anyone?</p>
<p>Both Dickinson and Lafayette tend to attract career-focused students. Both have traditionally been stereotyped as "preppy rich kid frat boy" type schools and, like every stereotype, there is some element of truth to that image. Both schools have made an effort to diversify over the past few years and Dickinson has done a very good job of turning itself around from a little known LAC into a school on its way towards being more recognized nationally.</p>
<p>That said, with the exception of engineering and business (which Lafayette offers but Dickinson does not), both schools have similiar academic strengths. They are particluarly strong in science and pre-law (history, political science). Dickinson has a strong international relations program, with some great study abroad options. Dickinson also has an amazing language department for a smaller LAC.</p>
<p>The town that Dickinson is in is no great shakes - kind of in the middle of no-where with not much of interest to college students. Like Lafayette, this means that many students focus on campus activities. Dickinson has one of the nicest libraries of any LAC I have seen. The male-female ratio at Dickinson is a little more skewed towards female than at Lafayette. </p>
<p>Overall, I think they are fairly similiar schools that attract career-oriented and ambitious students rather than the type of "intellectual" students one might find at say Swarthmore or Wesleyan. Nothing wrong with that, just something to think about to see if they are a "fit" for you. An overnight at both would highlight some of their differences more clearly.</p>