<p>Not much chatter/excitement here about getting into Bucknell.
Is this school the second choice of many that are applying to more
prestigious LAC. To current students, what did you turn down to
attend Bucknell and why? Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>bucknell is DEFINITELY not a lot of people’s “second choice” school. at least 30% or 40% of each class is made up of students who applied early decision and didn’t have the oppurtunity because of the ED commitment to see what other schools they were accepted to.
to me, bucknell has a great balance of kids who are really smart and interested in getting a great education, but still know how to have a good time and don’t take themselves too seriously. i did apply ED, but i do know a handful of people who turned down better schools (yale sticks out in my mind) because they wanted a less competitive or cutthroat atmosphere. you’ll find that a lot of people just love the community here and feel at home.</p>
<p>Also Bucknell had a very high yield last year - about 40%.</p>
<p>alex: that includes ED whose yield is 100%…just to let u know…</p>
<p>yes, the 40% includes those who applied early decision, but it is still a high yield for a school of bucknells selectivity. to put the number into context, only 11 usnews top 50 lacs had yields north of 40% for the class of 2011. that includes the us military and naval academies and does not include the likes of swarthmore, pomona, carleton, haverford and wesleyan. looking at national universities, schools including caltech, chicago, northwestern, washu, johns hopkins, emory and rice also had yields short of 40%. carnegie mellon came in at 23%. peer schools colgate and lafayette were 33% and 27%, respectively. popular safety schools like boston u (21%), fordham (19%), tulane (18%) and american (15%) came in lower yet.</p>
<p>in other words, there arent many schools that arent either much more selective (think harvard), highly specialized (think the service academies or, to a lesser extent, womens colleges) or much less selective (where students are less likely to randomly apply) that have yields much better than 40%. its actually a very, very good number.</p>
<p>I am guessing that yield will be lower for most private college and higher for public institutions for the next few years.</p>
<p>I did RD, and I turned down Emory and an almost-free ride to my good state uni for Bucknell. When I visited, I felt “right” there. I’ll honestly say that I’ve considered transferring out a few times, but only because I feel guilty using so much of my parents’ money for tuition (and they continually say I shouldn’t be feeling this). Otherwise, I absolutely love it here. I have classmates who have turned down Hopkins, NYU, Villanova, and similar-ranking LACs (Lehigh, Lafayette, Colgate, Holy Cross, etc.). Not really sure about other schools since we don’t really talk about that stuff.</p>