help S2 choose among full ride/near full ride Bucknell, Lehigh and Syracuse

Parents Forum
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<p>S2 got a 4 year ROTC scholarship to Bucknell, Lehigh and Syracuse.</p>

<p>The army pays tuition, feel, books, and stipend for four years.</p>

<p>Bucknell and Syracuse provide free room and board to ROTC scholarship cadets. Lehigh does that on a case by case basis, but given that S2 got the scholarship as the first wave (out of three), his odds of getting free room and board are very good.</p>

<p>We need to make a final choice decision in 30 days and notify the Army where he is taking his scholarship to. </p>

<p>Currently, we are leaning toward Bucknell, but I would like wise input from the parents on this board. Some relevant data points:</p>

<p>(1) His stats are already within 10-15% of the enrolled student body at Bucknell and Lehigh. In both schools, ROTC scholarship is considered a major hook (based on my son’s conversation with the battalion officers). In Syracuse, his SAT is about 400 over their enrolled student average. In short, his odds of acceptance from all three schools are pretty good.</p>

<p>(2) he is thinking about political science or international relations. However, his preference in major is very soft. He can easily change later. So, the strength of a particular major at this point is an issue, but not a major one. Besides, he plans to serve at least 10 years, perhaps a life long, so the strength of a particular major from a particular school is much less of an issue for a career Army officer.</p>

<p>(3) S2 wants an academically exciting school that will give him a good academic foundation for future graduate schools and what not (again to be financed by the Army :slight_smile: ). He is NOT into heavy duty school spirit based on athletic teams. He gets all the camaraderie he wants/needs in the company of like minded young people (ROTC community) so he does not need the athletic team and fraternity brothers to give him that sense of belonging.</p>

<p>(4) he gets along with all types of people: jocks and academic stars, rich and poor. Pretty adaptable guy.</p>

<p>So far, these are my impressions for these schools, pros and cons.</p>

<p>Bucknell: seems like an outstanding institution with very intimate, academically challenging and rigorous environment. Everything I heard tells me "outstanding faculty. Much much caring university staff. excellence service - academically and otherwise. cons: a bit of a rural environment. </p>

<p>Lehigh: outstanding academic institution. The thing that really turns me and my son off is the reputation for its domineering Greek system and heavy drinking that goes with it (getting sh*** faced several times a week). He is not interested in such a heavy Greek school. Granted, all three schools seem to have a heavy Greek presence, but Lehigh seems to stand out.</p>

<p>Syracuse: less academically challenging institution. They have reputation for being military friendly, and their IR department seems to be strong.</p>

<p>Currently, the real choice is between Bucknell and Lehigh.</p>

<p>The final decision is his, but i do have an advisory role.</p>

<p>Any input and thoughts would be greatly appreciated.</p>

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<p>op - I’m not clear, has he applied and been accepted to all 3 schools? How did you narrow the possibilities to those three in the first place?</p>

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<p>The Army gave him an option to use the scholarship to any one of these three schools. He has not applied to any of these schools yet. He will do so within a few days: applications are ready; just need a “sumit” button. The odds are good that he will get accepted into these schools are pretty good because he is already a very competitive candidate for these schools to begin with and the fact that getting the 4 year scholarship from Army works as major hook.</p>

<p>He has 30 days to notify the Army where he is going to take the scholarship to. And then he will have to be accepted into that final choice school to be able to use the scholarship. As I said above, the odds are very good that any one of the three schools he can chooses, he will get in.</p>

<p>So he needs to pick one school where he will use the scholarship.</p>

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<p>it sounds like your heart says “Bucknell.” go with your heart.</p>

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<p>Congratulations to you and to your son!</p>

<p>Could your son take a couple of days off school to make a quick, final decision making visit to each these schools now? </p>

<p>Has he gone through the bulletins of each school to check out the academic plan for the majors he is considering at each of the schools? Is there something he particularly likes or dislikes about any of them?</p>

<p>Will he be applying ED with the ROTC scholarship in his pocket, or will he be applying RD?</p>

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<p>given that he needs to finalize on his scholarship school choice by Dec 15 or so, it makes sense that he applied ED. For these schools, ED deadline was yesterday (Nov 15). Additionally, Bucknell and Lehigh have ED II with a deadline in January. </p>

<p>For bucknell, he applied RD anyway, with a possibility to convert it to ED within a few days from the ED I deadline: the Army ROTC officers at Bucknell said they would advocate for this special consideration given the unusual circumstance (couldn’t apply ED without the scholarship decision which came out only yesterday, and the OFFICIAL notification is a couple of days later still). </p>

<p>For Lehigh, S can apply ED II if he choose Lehigh over Bucknell, or get a special dispensation for a late ED I application given the circumstance (late by a few days). </p>

<p>We need to make a decision regarding Bucknell vs. Lehigh pretty soon. It will be ideal if S applies ED to Lehigh or Bucknell, get accepted, and then with that certainty, notifies the Army that he will use the scholarship to either school - all by Dec 15. </p>

<p>Then we will be done for the whole season with the knowledge that he now will be a full ride student at a pretty outstanding/expensive school.</p>

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<p>I vote for visits at all three before making decision; Bucknell and Lehigh both have VERY strong Greek systems and are not all that diverse; Syracuse is actually quite diverse but, yes, less selective…</p>

<p>But for international relations/public affairs, Syracuse Maxwell School is actually excellent (the grad program itself is ranked #1 in the country)…</p>

<p>can you take him to visit one last time before making that decision?</p>

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<p>How much does location matter? Bethlehem is a nice town with a cosmopolitan feel and a relatively easy trip to NYC and Philly. Bucknell, the better school, is next to a federal prison in the middle of nowhere. I live in PA and if it were my son, I’d hope he’d choose Bucknell, but we’re used to rural. And I would choose Lehigh over Syracuse, again, because I think its academics are stronger. Congrats to your son, and thank him for his service.</p>

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<p>check out any transportation issues.
How hard to get from school to airport. frequency of transportation.
Airport a major hub or commuter plane.</p>

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<p>Agree you need to consider transportation, especially if he will be travelling for ROTC in addition to the normal coming and going. Bucknell is probably less accessible.</p>

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<p>We visited both Bucknell and Lehigh. yes, the transportation will be a bummer for Bucknell - in the middle of nowhere. Luckily, we live in NJ, and it’s about 3.5 hours driving distance. So, we can drive him back and force for school recess, or he can take a bus to NYC and then from there to NJ (a pain in the butt, but can be done). </p>

<p>Anybody with input on quality of academic experience? An officer or not, I would like to recommend a school that really works to give the excellent, quality education to its students in an environment where faculty pays attention to students and are easily accessible.</p>

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<p>We’ve visited all three. To me, it appeared that when it came to academics, Bucknell was first, Lehigh a very close second and Syracuse the lowest of the three. Bucknell is a gorgeous campus and their advisory program seemed really good. They do try very hard to get the kids to graduate in 4 years and give them all the help/advise they need to do so. Good alumni network as well. But in the middle of nowhere!! If he has a car, transportation is less of an issue - but Bucknell came off our list primarily due to its location and inaccessibility. Lehigh - seemed like this was in a rough neighborhood. D didn’t like the location/hilly campus and was even less fond of the overwhelming Greek culture. I know Bucknell is Greek as well - but it didn’t appear to be as imposing as the one at Lehigh.</p>

<p>We visited Syracuse with cousins who teach there. Nice campus. Journalism, IR departments have a good reputation. School spirit - sports play an important role. Cousin’s D who’s there seems to be enjoying her experience. They have staircase tunnels to get from one building to another - good workout !! Academics seemed like the weak point of this school for D - her stats would have been well above the average accepted stats. Also, she thought the school was a bit bigger than she would have liked.</p>

<p>As of now, D is not applying to any of these. But I think all of these are good schools, each with their own pros/cons. Good luck to your son in making the decision!</p>

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<p>I don’t think Bethlehem is a nice town with a cosmopolitan feel. It’s a depressed, run down industrial town. It’s trying to improve. I am also from PA. Lehigh sounds too Greek for your son. </p>

<p>Just a note. Co-worker’s son had full ROTC scholarship and Vanderbilt was a choice. He did not get in. Your son sounds like a strong candidate, but just note that the ROTC scholarship is NOT an auto-admit. (co-worker’s kid is happy at Tulane)</p>

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<p>I’m not sure if I agree with the description “…next to a Federal prison in the middle of nowhere…”</p>

<p>There’s a prison in Lewisburg, yes…but you’d hardly know it unless you really did your research.</p>

1 Like
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<p>Re: the federal prison…</p>

<p>Haha, this was a good one. </p>

<p>thanks everybody for sharing your thoughts…</p>

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<p>we visited all three, DD applied only to Lehigh, was accepted, is matriculated at RPI (currently on gap year)</p>

<p>Main reasons for not apply to bucknell was no Arch (her interests were arch and Engineering, and Bucknell positives not strong enough to overcome no arch - that said if she’d had more time and energy to apply, she might have, but as it was she applied to nine schools, and ran out of time). Syracuse turned her off generally - though she recognized how strong its Arch program is. </p>

<p>We were concerned about Greek life/drinking, but our impression is if you have an alternate social base (for DD it would have been arch dept, hillel, and maybe South Mountain College) its not THAT bad - and most of the drinking is on weekends - work hard/play hard culture. Not optimal for my DD, but not as bad as some schools, and she would have gone if she didnt have a better (for her) alternative.</p>

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<p>Syracuse has some very strong academic programs, although the university as a whole isn’t as academically rigorous as the other two. </p>

<p>Where do you live? If you’re in Pennsylvania, as your son’s choices suggest, the greater cost of transportation to Syracuse might be a factor. It’s not a hard city to get into and out of, though. There’s a fairly big airport, and there’s Amtrak.</p>

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<p>we are in NJ. Transportation is a hassle, not for a financial reason. He is getting a full ride deal. We can certainly spend some money to move him back and forth. thanks for your input.</p>

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<p>Big congrats to your S for getting the ROTC scholarship.</p>

<p>I visited all 3 schools 1.5 years ago with my S. Bucknell was the only one of the 3 that he liked. If he hadn’t been accepted to his ED school, he would have applied to Bucknell. </p>

<p>Both Bucknell and Lehigh are big with the greek system, but I get the sense that Lehigh has much more of a hard-drinking experience. At Lehigh, during our tour, the guide gave a lot of emphasis on the various dining options, and less about the academics. I read some reviews that at Lehigh the engineering and business schools got the most resources and the colleges of arts and sciences suffered.</p>

<p>At Syracuse, there was a lot of emphasis on sports, and the Newhouse school. During the tour, we didn’t set foot inside a classroom building, making me worried that class sizes would be very large.</p>

<p>Bucknell had a pretty campus. The students we met seemed very engaged. I recently attended a college night at my D’s high school and we stopped by the Bucknell table. D asked if Bucknell had an equestrian team. The Bucknell rep said yes, and he said that if they didn’t, some students would have just started one. Not that your S cares about an equestrian team, but I like the idea that students there will start whatever team/club that they want, if it doesn’t already exist.</p>

<p>Bucknell is the smallest school of the three, and the most rural. If your S is OK with small and rural, I think Bucknell has a lot of advantages over the other schools.</p>

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<p>A vote here for going with the strongest program, even if it is at a weaker school (Syracuse). If his graduate ambitions are along similar lines, the particular strength of the major will make the difference in admissions. </p>

<p>And having a “soft” committment to a major might become more firm at a school with the best department as opposed to a place where that isn’t a top department.</p>

<p>As to the small school vs. big school issue. Goaliegirl spent 4 years at a small boarding school and is now at a medium size state school (~10K students). She has her built in communities (hockey/ROTC) and this makes the school plenty small. Sounds like your son.</p>

<p>You might check out public transportation options (depending upon where you are in NJ) for Syracuse as well, if you consider that a show stopper.</p>

<p>Congratulations, BTW.</p>