Lafayette Vs Swarthmore: How different?

interesteddad
Tue, 04 Apr 2006 23:58:33 +0000

Legendben:

Lafayette is one of several “mid-tier” LACs in Pennsylvania…along with Gettysburg, Dickenson, and the somewhat larger Lehigh University. They are all good schools, but not really in the same tier as Swarthmore in terms of admissions selectivity or financial resources. For example, Lafayette’s 75th percentile SAT (1350 on the old scale) is the same as Swarthmore’s 25th percentile). Swarthmore’s per student endowment is more than 3 times the size of Lafayette.

Generally, these rural Pennsylvania LACs would be safety schools for people applying to places like Haverford or Swarthmore…or…many of them also offer big merit-aid discounts to high stat kids, so they can be a good lower-cost option. My daughter had planned to apply to Dickinson as a stone-cold safety (our state university really sucks and she wanted to make sure she got in somewhere, guaranteed), pretty much certain to get a fat merit discount as she was at the very top of their applicant pool. The people from her high school who go to these schools were decent students, but not in the top 10% of the senior class. The administrators and faculty at these schools would kill to have the resources of a Swarthmore or a Williams or an Amherst or a Smith. USNEWS has it about right, listing Lafayette and Bucknell in a tie for #27 on their LAC list. Good solid schools, but not creme de la creme.

As for campus culture, these schools will, as you point out, be somewhat more vocationally geared – offering more “business” courses instead of “economics” and the like. They tend to be less academically oriented and have quite heavy frat-boy drinking scenes compared to Swarthmore. They are, to some degree, viewed as party schools for good, but not great, students from northeastern suburbs. Lafayette, Lehigh, and Bucknell are interesting because, like Swarthmore, they offer engineering programs in a smaller college format. It must be a Pennsylvania thing because it’s quite rare.

One huge difference is that these schools can’t afford diversity. So, Lafayette is 85% white US citizens compared to 62% at Swarthmore. Basically, they are “lily-white”, which would be immediately apparent spending a few hours on campus.

Overall, I would say that Lafayette would be an excellent choice if you couldn’t get into one of the absolute top LACs or if you are playing the merit-aid strategy.