<p>How would you describe the Engineering students… do they tend to work together? Study group atmosphere? Or competitive and cutthroat? Thanks.</p>
<p>Overwhelmingly cooperative. The 15-50 students in each major class really bond by the end, due to all the group work, class time and studying together. If you get a chance, come and ask them – it’s not pre-med, etc; they’re not competing for anything, as everyone is gainfully employed or headed to grad schools at the end, no matter their GPA.</p>
<p>We’ve visited and plan to come again. Is there actually an opportunity to meet with some students. I like your idea, would love to chat. Are there some “weed out” courses Freshman year? Another school we visited specfically said that they used to have the “weed out” mentality, but that their current philosphy is to promote cooperation, and hopefully prevent transfering out of Engineering. What would you say is the philosophy at Lafayette? Thanks!</p>
<p>I can’t answer any engineering questions, but my D will be a freshman at Lafayette next year. Before she decided to apply ED, she arranged through admissions to spend a day on campus shadowing a student. She went to a number of classes, ate in the cafeteria, met a lot of kids and it helped her to decide that Lafayette was the right fit. If you want to visit again, you may want to arrange in advance for a similar type of day. Good luck.</p>
<p>ReginaPhilange</p>
<p>I am a current engineering student at Laf & I can say that it is definitely not a cutthroat department.</p>
<p>As was said before the students in each major (and even inter-disciplinary) work cohesively together because the learning atmosphere is group work. I have experiences where one week my colleague is helping me with a particular concept and the following week I would be helping that person in another concept.</p>
<p>There is really a strong sense of camaraderie and community at Lafayette because the engineering students know the program is a tough one and would rather have more than less persons to finish the four years with.</p>
<p>During the first semester all engineering students take the exact same courses (unless they test out of it). These are the basic courses to engineering and give students an idea of where they want to be in the future. During the second semester, I would say some courses are more specialized and though I wouldn’t say weed out, these courses make the students aware of what awaits them in the future of engineering. Fear not though the professors, students and learning aids are extremely useful in conquering the first year engineering experience!</p>
<p>Hope that helps 
Happy hunting</p>
<p>I like your name ReginaPhilange I saw that on Friends! LOL</p>
<p>Glad you like it! I use it when I make reservations at restaurants and sometimes the maitre d’s get a good laugh!</p>