| My HS senior son was admitted to both Wake Forest and Bucknell, and just decided on Bucknell. We visited both schools and found them to be comparable in many respects.
First and foremost, he’s looking for a quality liberal arts education with engaging professors. Beyond that, he wants a school where he can see himself spending four years. That means an appealing campus environment that is easy on the eyes; bright, friendly & athletic students who also like to have fun; strong sports traditions; good campus facilities; etc. Bucknell and Wake both fit the bill, though if I were to quibble I would say Bucknell has a nicer overall campus. In particular, it has a newer student athletic center and better Biology buildings, two areas my son paid attention to during his campus visits.
He was also turned off by the “work forest” reputation that he kept hearing at WFU, not because of the work per se, but because (some) Wake students complained about excessive busywork given by certain Profs to preserve the grade deflation that Wake is notorious for.
His academic interest is Biology and possibly pre-med. He also was admitted to Vanderbilt, William & Mary, Denison, and some safeties. In the end, it came down to Wake, Vandy and Bucknell. Cost was definitely a factor, but we received no need-based aid. I was hoping he would land some merit aid. As it turned out, Bucknell did offer some merit $$, while Wake and Vandy did not. That made the decision easier.
To be fair, if Wake had offerred the merit aid and Bucknell had not, he would probably be headed to Wake. If neither, he might have moved down the list to a less expensive school.
During the process I’ve been very impressed with the professional and personal correspondence from Bucknell. They are organized and everything is first class. The recent admitted students weekend at Bucknell closed the deal for him.
By the way, we live in the western US, so access to Lewisburg is no picnic for us. But it is such a great campus setting, he figures the extra travel is worth it. |