How about Fairfield vs. Muhlenberg vs. Gettysburg?

Imherdad
Wed, 23 Mar 2011 13:20:10 +0000

My daughter looked at all 3 and ended up going to Muhlenberg. Here are some observations from my point of view. Fairfield: a nice Catholic university in CT. with good facilities and academics. Campus is a mix of some new and old buildings. Dorms were OK. Not the biggest or smallest. THe student population was very homogenous. The campus “vibe” seemed sudued with the students friendly, but not out going. Gettysburg: Pretty campus had much more of a college feel/vibe. Nice facilities. Students were a bit more preppy than Fairfield surprisingly to me. The tour was informative and our guide said she was happy there and found her professors helpful (psychology major). Dorms looked similar to Fairfields and the food got good reviews. Academically strong in the liberal arts tradition. Muhlenberg: (Biased because that’s where my daughter is). Small, but pretty campus. Friendliest students of the 3. Dorms for freshmen were a little smaller, but once you get into the sophmore and up dorms, nicer and larger. The students were ALL very friendly and didn’t mind giving a full answer to a random question along our tour. Small class size (Gettysburg similar class sizes). Food was rated good to very good by the 3 kids we asked. My daughter has found her classes to be interesting and her professors very available and easy to access. It is the smallest of the 3 schools and is a small campus on the edge of Allentown (nice surrounding neighborhood). The downside to that is the usual everyone knows about almost everything immediately. Gettysburg is slightly bigger , but has the same situation socially. Sports were more important at both Gettysburg and Fairfield. Muhlenberg has a differnet vibe as there is a strong theater program their with a lot of creative kids. Fairfield gave my daughter and I the impression that all the students were going for business or med school. Again, our impressions and not a bad thing. Personally, I would have been happy with any one of them. All are excellent schools. The final straws for my daughter were the students answers at Muhlenberg and the one professor we stopped and chatted with. He was very enthusiastic and encouraging.