Muhlenberg Class of 2029 Official Thread

This is the official discussion thread for Muhlenberg College Class of 2029 Early & RD applicants. Ask your questions and connect with fellow applicants.

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S25 was accepted tonight with the Presidential Scholarship. Did anyone else hear EA?

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Congrats!

Yes. D25 was early action, accepted with Presidential Scholarship and music talent scholarship. No info about honors programs - we were wondering if that came later or if she was not accepted to any of the ones she checked on the app.

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D25 was accepted EA with Presidential Scholarship and Honors invitation (came with an additional $5k merit award)

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Same here for D25 - Presidential Scholarship plus Honors Invitation. We didn’t get a chance to visit Muhlenberg and we won’t be able to, as we live overseas. Would love to hear any info

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Congrats to all! Muhlenberg is a great school. My D is currently a sophomore there. Happy to try to answer any questions you might have.

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Curious, did the Honors invitation come with the acceptance letter or separate? D25 applied in Dec. and got her acceptance this week with merit scholarship, waiting now for the full financial aid package and she signed up for an admitted student day as she hasn’t toured the campus yet. We need to set up a tour for Juniata as well, as their admitted student day is the same weekend as 2 other schools she is interested in (why are they all the same weekend and all in opposite directions??!!)

The Honors invitation and merit were included with her acceptance. She was invited to the RJ Fellows program.

My daughter enjoyed her tour last year. The students all looked super happy and social with each other, the dining hall food was good and well labeled for potential allergens, and there seemed to be excellent support services if that’s a concern. The dorms also looked nice and had air conditioning. One aspect we both appreciated is that the students seemed to be “and” students. They enjoyed multiple subjects and activities, so the arts AND science vs being pigeon holed into one group or subject. Whether that was academic/major/minor focused or extracurricular didn’t matter – there were ample opportunities to pursue various interests at a level and intensity the student preferred.

I would love for my current 8th grader to consider Muhlenberg in the future. I think it’s her speed.

Congrats to your kiddo!

We got our D25 Financial Aid Grant info in the same letter as her Presidential Scholarship. If the Financial Aid office hasn’t explicitly said more info is coming, i would contact them on Monday to see if any additional is coming

Thanks. She applied regular decision, as it was a last minute application in mid-December and after their early action deadline. She wasn’t trying for honors specifically, but was accepted into Honors programs at other schools, so I was curious (and the extra scholarship money would be helpful!). Yesterday she got the acceptance packet in the mail with just the merit offer (had gotten an email earlier in the week). Waiting for the full financial aid packet to come still.

Hi all. If people don’t mind answering - for those who were admitted into the Honors program at Muhlenberg - what was your S/D GPA and SAT/ACT? If you don’t feel comfortable answering - no worries! Totally get that. Just wondering as we toured today (with S30) and was curious if he’s in the ballpark.

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I know you posted a while ago -but I’m thinking of adding this to my daughter’s application list..but trying to figure out if it is a good fit. She will likely be a Biology major -interested in research or some kind of pre-health field (not MD/DO). She likes to be BUSY -with a balance of academics and social life (not cutthroat -more collaborative). She will likely want to join a lot of clubs. She would like a bigger suburb or small city environment. Not interested in Greek life/big parties/big-time sports. Likes close interactions with her professors. From your D’s experience -does it seem like a good match? The COA calculator looked really good -hoping it’s accurate.

ETA: What does your D like best about the school? Are the dorms decent? (My daughter hates bugs)

What did you think of the tour/campus/students? It’s too far for us to get to before application season.

Of course! Glad to answer what I can.

I sent your questions to my D and this was her response:

“Our pre-health is very good we have good med school/grad school acceptance rates. There definitely are all kinds and levels of clubs to join, it’s very easy to get to Allentown center. We aren’t huge on parties and you can easily be social and still avoid drinking/hard core partying. The professors are all very passionate and love working closely with students on their projects, in fact that’s generally something transfer students say is the best about being here.”

From my perspective - my D isn’t a pre-health student but we hear a lot about those programs. They seem to be both very popular and very well-regarded at the school.

My D also likes to be busy and one of the things we did at each school she toured was she asked the Tour Guide to give three words off the top of their head that best described the school. Our Guide for Muhlenberg immediately said “over scheduled, but in a good way” and we’ve definitely found that to be true. My D is a double major (Theatre and creative writing) and is also pursuing a dance minor. She auditions for multiple dance and theatre shows each semester, is also heavily involved in the music program (pep band, wind ensemble, jazz band, voice lessons, and helped to restart the honorary co-ed band fraternity this year).

She has also had some involvement in the student newspaper, the D&D club, the historical dress society, and a program where she dressed like a princess and read to small children (can’t remember what that was called). She also had no interest in Greek life when looking at schools but joined a sorority this semester and is having a blast. She’s not really a drinker or a partyer and she’s had no problem finding tons of things to do on campus. They are what I call a “late-night campus” in that they have a lot of official student activities scheduled straight through the evenings, often until midnight or 1am.

She likes to walk to a handful of coffee shops and to the farmer’s market near campus and also takes the bus or rides with friends to go shopping or out to eat in Allentown. I really like the location of the campus -it’s mostly surrounded by a residential area of town but it’s only a few minutes from anything she’s been looking for (including great medical facilities which we needed once and I’ve been thankful that there were several good options)

I think it seems like a good match. We love the school and they’ve been great to my D. We had an issue with financial aid this year - I was laid off and lost access to the tuition exchange scholarship my D was using - and Muhlenberg has been AMAZING to us and really stepped in to help us fill that gap.

I would say the only thing that hasn’t really been that great for us were the first year dorms. There were only two options when my D started and both are way overdue for an update. But, the students (in her class anyway) bonded over being together in the less-than-ideal dorms and after the first year the living options are pretty good. My D lives in a recently renovated dorm this year as a sophomore that is really nice - updated but they left all of the original brickwork and (non-working) fireplaces in the rooms which are sunny and bright. She loves her room this year. She had lots of good options for next year too but is going to live in her sorority house (which also looks very nice and they don’t host parties there at all so it actually stays nice, lol).

Let me know if there is anything else you want to know.

ETA She’s never had an issue with bugs in her rooms

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Interesting that you said your DD bonded with other freshman about the dorms. The dorms tour was the big turn off for my DD when we went for accepted student day. I do think the overall artsy vibe was not quite her thing either (we heard a lot about the theater program in all the presentations which is not at all and area of interest for DD1), but she enjoyed the professors in the Sociology/Psychology dept. that she talked with, the cafeteria seemed nice, and it sounded like there are a lot of activities happening on campus. One of my co-workers graduated from there years ago and has lots of good things to say about the school.

Yeah, the two first year dorms are definitely the biggest drawback to the school (they used to use a third for first year students too, which is apparently at least a little bit nicer and that might be an option again this year as they had a larger fy class this past year and apparently expect another big class this coming year).

During my D’s first year, another student in her dorm was fooling around and ended up breaking a water pipe. It was in the evening and everyone had to evacuate to the campus center until pretty late. They ended up bonding that night and even commemorated the anniversary of the incident this year, lol. We were all glad when she was able to choose other housing for this year.

I think the cafeteria is pretty great. I love the look of it and all of the food we’ve had there has been really good. I work for another college - one that often is celebrated for having great dining hall food - and I would say that Muhlenberg’s dining hall food is right up there. My D also really likes the other food options there too - the grab and go and cafe options are good and they tend to have later hours which works well for her.

I totally understand being turned off by the artsy vibe if that’s not your thing. Arts are definitely a big part of campus life. We enjoy the vibe, especially the way non-performers support the performing arts students by filling audiences the same way that non-athletes do for sporting events. It’s nice to see students supporting other students in that way. My D, who has no interest in sports usually, has been to tennis and wrestling matches to cheer on her friends in those sports, and the pep band has started going to lacrosse games to support those students too. And her non-artsy friends come to her shows. It makes for a nice community.
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Thank you! That actually sounds like a pretty perfect match for my daughter! First year dorms are not typically great anywhere…I think she can manage that for an otherwise great college experience. Thanks again - this really helps us put this much higher on the list.

ETA: While she’s a STEM girl -she has a lot of theater friends -and she loves musicals. I think she’d enjoy having artsy classmates. I love how close it is to go to local coffee shops. That’s something my daughter really likes to do with her friends.

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Both my son and I really liked it. Kids were really friendly - everyone holds the door for each other. Dining area was really nice. He attended a class which he said was really interesting and all the kids seemed engaged (he said no one was on their phone!)

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