Which is the best college overall?
It’s really of which is best overall “for you.”
What are you looking for?
I am a Lehigh Grad, so not necessarily unbiased. We are looking at all 3 for my daughter. It depends on what you value. All three are fine schools. Lehigh is probably best for business (especially accounting or finance) or engineering. Lafayette impresses me for liberal arts. Lafayette campus is nicer than Lehigh and alumni may be tighter. I know Nova less. It’s larger. Close to Philly, which is good for visits (I did my MBA at Penn). Sports are bigger at Nova. I have a neighbor with 2 daughers there who love it. Net, net, net you can’t go wrong with any of them.
I am actually want to do business, and I am gonna apply to wharton like you did, but for undergrad.
But thanks, and I will keep Lehigh in mind. I only live about 25 minutes away from lafayette and lehigh.
Work hard in school OP the next three years. Those are great options if you do great. Visit them and see if they have programs you can get involved in to see how you like the schools.
Villanova was actually just ranked #1 for best undergrad business school by Bloomsberg Businessweek. It also placed over 98% of its graduating students into full time jobs or graduate programs. I’ve been to all 3 campuses and would say Villanova is nicer looking. Lehigh may beat Nova for engineering, but Nova beats Lehigh for business.
Note that survey supposedly is Bloomberg’s last for undergraduate business schools. Villanova was 24th in 2015 and the rankings didn’t have Wharton in the top 10 in 2016. Not sure what was going on there.
Mendoza and CSOM at BC have also done very well for years in Bloomberg rankings. Don’t know what it means exactly.
Three great choices so I agree that fit should be the priority when choosing. FWIW my D just graduated from Lafayette and absolutely loved it–she was targeting her search towards LACs from the start. I know people who have been happy at all schools.
And agree with @ClarinetDad16 – the last Bloomberg rankings of undergraduate b-schools was out-of-wack that Bloomberg has said they will discontinue their undergraduate b-school rankings. Villanova has a fine business school, but it is not above Wharton, Haas, Ross etc.
But most importantly, you are a freshman. It is too early to target specific schools. Do you best academically, learn from your classes, study for standardized tests when the time is right, get involved in activities you enjoy, find friends, have fun. HS should not be a four year exercise in getting into college, it should be an experience to be appreciated on its own merits. I would stay away from CC until your junior year.
Ok haha thanks a lot for the advice, but I can’t really promise that I’ll stay away from this site. @happy1
I would give the overall edge to Villanova as it has been escalating in academic prestige the last year or so and winning the National Title should help it even more.
2016-2017 CDS class profile statistics:
GPA 4.02 with 80 percent over 3.75; 62 percent in top 10 percent and 90 percent in top 25 percent of class; 1320 SAT (old) and 30-32 ACT. These statistics; are overall, a bit better than Lehigh and Lafayette (and Bucknell).
In addition, I think here is an advantage to being closer to big city in terms of year round internship and networking opportunities. Fedsmith
@villanovarising where did you source those numbers?
The numbers are apparently from Section C of the Villanova Common Data Set (CDS) for 2016-2017, at:
https://www1.villanova.edu/villanova/enroll/statreports.html
Most (not all) schools post data in the standardized CDS format. You can usually find the CDS for a given school by googling.
Lehigh hasn’t posted a 2016-2017 CDS yet. For last year (2015-2016), Lehigh’s stats appear to be the same or slightly higher than Villanova’s. For example, the 2015-2016 CR+M SATs were 1230-1420 Lehigh, 1200-1400 Villanova.
All of these schools (Lehigh, Lafayette, Bucknell, Villanova) are basically in the same league in terms of selectivity and prestige. Other differences are much more significant. Villanova, for example, differs from the others in its larger size, Catholic affiliation, top-tier basketball, and proximity to the Big City. Lafayette is the smallest and offers the most traditional liberal arts college experience, with no business major (like most LACs, they offer economics instead). Bucknell is slightly larger than Lafayette, and has a somewhat more applied focus, including a school of management that offers business degrees; it is located in a rural small-town setting, far from major cities. Lehigh is larger than Bucknell or Lafayette, but smaller than Villanova; it is the best-known of these schools for engineering or computer science, and is good at integrating these technical fields wth business studies.