<p>Can anybody provide insight about the major differentiating points between the three of these? I'm split threeways between my top choice.</p>
<p>Have you visited each of those schools? Since they are all in Pennsylvania and really not that far from each other, I strongly suggest you do so. I wont bother suggesting any other schools since your question is poignant and focused. </p>
<p>But here is my general perception:</p>
<p>Villanova: Catholic school (Augustinians) with a proud and strong academic and sports tradition. Its upper crust Philadelphia kids mostly but also a lot of regional kids looking for that unique experience. </p>
<p>Bucknell: A very preppy school in Lewisburg area. Very pretty. Drop dead gorgeous campus. Very strong academics. Its non sectarian. Enjoys a very good repution. Good sports school too.</p>
<p>Lehigh: A rising star in academics. Its more of a newcomer to the radar screen of highly selective schools. Its sports reputation is also growing. A very strong school near Allentown area. Some like it because its close to Philadelphia and a not too far from New York. </p>
<p>I am partial to Villanova, but that is MY personal bias. You are not me. Frankly, all three of them are really a close call on academics. I think Lehigh is very strong in engineering and math, if I recall. If that is your gig, then maybe that is what you want to do. But you really need to visit the schools and measure your "fit". Academics, social, geographical, dorms, sports, financial, etc. Talk to kids on campus and see if you see yourself among them for four years. </p>
<p>n.b., We had an epiphany last April. We visited Fordham and my kid said, "THIS IS ME!" It was the right decision. My kid is THRIVING at Fordham. But I digress.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>Bucknell 86.2%/1310/11.2%/5.2%/3,579; Villanova 79.1%/1265/9.5%/9.2%/6,717; Lehigh 74.2%/1320/11.0%/4.9%/4,640 (Four Year Graduation Rate/Median SAT/% Pell Grant Recipients/% Under-Represented Minority/Undergraduate Population). Dickinson, Franklin & Marshall, Gettysburg and Lafayette are similar institutions.</p>
<p>My son and I visited all three. We are from California. Here's his take: Villanova he loved because he liked the ambiance. Here's what he liked... He saw students interacting together, studying in groups. The business school is ranked highly (he is interested in econ/business). The building that the business school was in was nice. The gothic architecture on the campus. Plenty of parking. In a suburb, but with a metro stop to Philadelphia. Shopping district near the school. The tour guide was nice. They provided us with a free lunch. The cafeteria. The philanthropic service aspect of the college. Free computer maintenance for students. Only downside was the run-down dorm room we saw, but that's only for sophomores and the sophomores don't mind because they like the location of the sophomore dorms. He is applying.</p>
<p>Bucknell he liked pretty well. Beautiful campus. Friendly administration and professors (the ones he met). Good in econ. He met a friend who took him to his dorm. Drinking seemed to be part of the culture which he was okay with. Plenty of parking. Great athletic facilities. Good cafeteria. Downside: in the middle of nowhere even though Lewisburg is a decent small town. He is applying, but will be hard-pressed to choose between the two schools. If he is accepted to both he will have to look at the academics more closely.</p>
<p>Lehigh he liked okay at first, but on further reflection has decided not to apply. The friend from Bucknell chose Bucknell over Lehigh and says it's a no-brainer; he is so much happier than his friends at Lehigh. Also, son has a freshman friend from California at Lehigh who is unhappy and wants to transfer. The male/female ratio is not great there and even though she is a girl she doesn't like it. She also doesn' t like her classes or her profs. The shuttle to the freshman dorms is less than optimal. No parking. The town is a dump. The only advantages seem to be the strength and flexibility of the programs, the academic reputation of the school, and the closeness to NYC and Philadelphia. These are certainly important, but he just couldn't see himself there.</p>
<p>We also visited Lafayette and he felt the classrooms were run-down (I didn't see that, though), the administration was unfriendly, and it was a bit too small.</p>
<p>BTW, son's ACT composite is 33 and his unweighted GPA is 3.72 (with 4 APs, 3 honors, and two college courses) so he is a good match for all four schools. Also, we are not Catholic.</p>
<p>Lafayette 86.6%/1275/9.4%/9.2%/2,303; Dickinson 81.5%/1290/11.1%/8.4%/2,325; F & M 75.1%/1275/9.5%/6.4%/1,996; Gettysburg 68.3%/1275/12.3%/5.6%/2,486 (Four Year Graduation Rate/Median SAT/% Pell Grant Recipients/% Under-Represented Minority/Undergraduate Population).</p>
<p>Ricegal.....good for you and your son. That magical warm and fuzzy feeling of "fit" is so important. In the old days we called it a "gut check". People are usually not wrong about that.</p>
<p>of course, its important to know that even at the most prestigious schools with the most amazing faculty and facilities things will not be rosy 100% of the time. Schedule conflicts, cold professors, weird people in your dorms, tired of cafeteria food after 3 months....all these things happen.....almost everywhere. Schools cant be perfect for every kid. And people have different perspectives and interests or biases. Some kids walk on the Duke campus and fall in love. Others go away with a different feeling. And that is okay. Schools dont want you to be unhappy either. I am not into school bashing, nor any level of elitism. In fact, I encourage kids with stellar stats to look all over the place not just the super elites we all hear about. Why? One, they may just find a school that is PERFECT for them. I know someone going to Kenyon that is in that situation. Two, often the lower rank schools want you more and offer more money. </p>
<p>So if you are down to two main schools as your top choices, I congratulate you and wish you the very best. I have a bias towards catholic schools for lots of reasons. But mostly because they just do a darn good job of educating kids and emphasizing character and integrity. Its never a guarantee however.</p>
<p>catfishin: Well, these are his two match schools, but he has several reach schools as well, including Rice, and a couple of safeties.</p>
<p>Thanks for this thread. We've been trying to make the same comparison between these three plus Lafayete as well with very little information not having visited any.</p>
<p>ricegal:</p>
<p>Are you a Rice graduate as your moniker insinuates? Its a great school! I know a kid from our hometown who went there this year...he is a doctor's kid and is likely going to be doctor himself. </p>
<p>I wish you all the best! Can I talk you into applying to Fordham too? My D is up there and having the time of her life and THRIVING academically and socially. Its an amazing school in the shadow of NYU and Columbia....a gorgeous campus and really very similar to Bucknell, Colgate and Lehigh...in fact its the same football league! We WHOOPED up on Colgate and Lehigh and Holy Cross...and then dropped a shocker to Bucknell! Whoops! But from what I glean, Fordham would love to see your son's application! There are over 20 kids from California at Fordham. My D's boyfriend is from Long Island (Chaminade High) and he also got into Villanova but picked Fordham for many reasons...including scholarship money.</p>
<p>I just cant say enough good things about Fordham!</p>
<p>Fordham kids are really tight. They do everything together in groups and go into Manhattan in large groups.....looking out for each other. At La Guardia at Thanksgiving, my D said the terminal was full of Fordham kids going home! LOL. She has friends from Texas, California, Nebraska, all over going to Fordham. A couple of kids on full ride with perfect SAT scores....</p>
<p>I dont want to brow beat you......but Fordham is looking for kids from all over....good kids...where character counts!</p>
<p>last year when i was deciding on which school to go to i was between BC, Villanova, and Lehigh (i chose BC). but since i visted nova and lehigh multiple times and know a lot of people at both i can help you out a bit</p>
<p>both, bluntly, are mostly white upper-middle class kids from the northeast. both have great business schools and are upcoming in academics.</p>
<p>lehigh: BEAUTIFUL campus. i remember i was also really impressed with the dining hall. beware though, if youre lazy youre going to hate the campus because it is essentially one big hill. big drinking culture on campus, so if thats for you, youll be right at home. but i also know a person there who isnt into drinking and still loves it. acutally one of my best friends there smokes alot and i didnt thinik that was a prevelent part of the social scene but i guess its there if you want it. big frat culture. great for business and enigineering. however its in the middle of nowhere when compared to some other schools. i wound up crossing it off my list for this reason because villanova is right by philly and bc is right by boston.</p>
<p>villanova: it was extremely difficult for me to make my decision between bc and nova. i went back and forth about a million and a half times. villanova also has a very beautiful campus and is jsut a short ride away from philly. its also on the "main line" which has i think 4 other colleges within a couple of miles. sometimes called villa-no-fun and the rules regarding drinking can be quite strict. people from my grade who went there confirm that but still say theyre having a great time. big D-I basketball! catholic school too, if thats something youre looking for. but if it isnt, from what i know they dont push religion on you.</p>
<p>only thing i know about bucknell really is that a kid in my grade from high school had a really hard time choosing between it and villanova, and chose nova in the end.</p>
<p>I wish we could post pictures on this website because I have a picture of the Lehigh dining hall. In fact, I have pictures of all four of these schools. One thing that turned me off to Lehigh was the T-shirts hanging from the rafters of the dining hall when we were there. They were all protests about date rape. Didn't bode well for the culture. I do like that the school holds an organized party every weekend to try to contain the drinking somewhat. One thing that scares me as a parent about both Bucknell and Lehigh is that they have a lot of arrests for drunken behavior. I would hate for my son to get caught up in the culture and then get an arrest record. Most schools have drinking; the issues are how the administration handles it, how many nights a week the drinking occurs, what percentage of the kids are involved, and what other activities there are to do to attract kids away from drinking.
catfishin: Yes, I am a Rice grad, but my son's first choice is Northwestern. He wants a little bigger school than Rice and economics is a little better at Northwestern. He would be perfectly happy going to Rice, though, as well as Bucknell or Villanova. His list is final now so he can't add Fordham. He didn't do much research and so ended up only adding NU to the schools I orginally took him to see, and we only had time to see the PA schools back east. I threw in American at the midnight hour to give him an extra safety and that's about it. He has two other reach schools: USC and CMU. That's about all the applications he can handle.</p>
<p>I didn't say much about Lafayette in my first post because my son rejected it right away. However, I liked the school so maybe it appeals more to women. I loved the Georgian architecture and the frat houses right on campus as opposed to "up the hill" like at Lehigh. The dorm rooms we saw were spacious and very fresh looking. They had brand-new kitchens at the end of the hall as well as nice common rooms.</p>
<p>Lest I sound like a prissy mom on my talk about drinking, I did my fair share of drinking and "other stuff" in high school and college. However, at Rice the drinking was confined to the weekends and breaks. Kids were busy studying during the week. Also, the drinking age was 18 at the time so there was no issue of illegality. We were at Lehigh on a Wednesday and I overheard some guy talking to his friend at lunchtime about having just gotten up with a terrible hangover. Tuesday night drinking to the point of hangover seems a bit much to me. I didn't say much to my son about this other than to warn him that there was a lot of drinking in some colleges. He made his decision about Lehigh based mostly on his friend not liking the school. My son is pretty mature for his age and has lots of friends who are already in college. He also spent two summers in the mountains as a camp counselor with college-age counselors so he has seen it all first-hand. Plus, he has an older brother.</p>
<p>Ok.....let me make some remarks. First, congrats and good luck on the list. I hope he gets into NU. But its tough there too.....in fact I think its harder than USC. I see your list is closed and we all have to do that at some point. I cannot stress enough, however, that "fit" is more important than prestige. Some of that is academic fit, but it is also social. There is heavy drinking at NU I am also told. So be careful.</p>
<p>Fordham has a dry campus, and dry dorms. But I can tell you it goes on...bars across the street from the gates serve and dont card.....you have to be very disciplined. We just counseled our D to be responsible, dont break the rules and of course the usual discussion about health and safety risks if you do drink. Furman in South Carolina is a VERY dry campus...but there is lots of drinking there as well....sadly, its everywhere. Fordham is cracking down, I heard, though.</p>
<p>Lafayette is in the same league for football as Lehigh Colgate and Fordham. They are all pretty comparable academically.....even if the avg. sat scores are up and down a little. I am NOT a fan of the SAT as a measure of success in college. In fact I think its nonsense. The best measure of success in college is self discipline, maturity and determination. Hard Work for those who want a succinct answer. Lots of kids with HIGH SAT's have trouble in college because they are lazy, get caught up in bad behavior, and cant handle freedom very well. That can happen thousands of miles from home or it can happen just down the street. </p>
<p>Kids pick schools for sometimes capricious reasons. Its part of being a teenager. Thankfully, for the most part, they get it right and everything works out well for them...even if they picked the school solely for its sports programs and reputation! </p>
<p>There isnt THAT much difference in the overall academic experience at many colleges. The biggest difference at most schools is class size and whether TA's teach it or real profs. </p>
<p>Best of luck to you.</p>