UD Honors vs. Bucknell?

Ashelia
Sun, 04 May 2008 14:26:56 +0000

Sorry I haven’t been here in forever. You know how end-of-the-year is for seniors… prom, AP exams, all that nonsense. I just sent a PM to K9Leader, but I will post it here as well. I realize much of it has been largely based on my experiences only, but both my parents and I are satisfied with my decision.

I decided on Bucknell. I visited UD during one of the Decision Days, and I was simply not impressed. The Honors panel session was basically comparing “regular” UD students and classes to the honors students and classes. One of the student panelists was very full of himself (though I admit I did like two of the other student panelists), and the parents of the honors students (when they asked questions) seemed overly-concerned about the actual caliber of the program and who their students would be around typically. Very elitist if you ask me. Also, as I put myself as an English major, I had to attend the English session hosted by an English prof. He seemed very unorganized, and whenever he was asked a question, 60% of the time he would never actually answer it but go on some unrelated tangent about who-knows-what… It gave the impression that he really didn’t know what he was talking about. And also, he never even made a PowerPoint or poster or whatever; he just had a projector showing the website (and of course, this was after he was bragging about his students making PPs… which isn’t even much to brag about in the first place). I mean, come on, I was supposed to be there to learn what I can’t learn at home about UD… Finally, just watching a number of students walking in late into the session (plus just my overall impression of the students in general… and the fact that I saw maybe 10 of my classmates there, which was amazing to me since my school, Padua, is pretty small) gave me a sour taste. It just told me a little something about my would-be-future classmates. I was just so disgusted with my morning experience that I decided to leave right after lunch instead of stay the whole day. I will admit that three things I liked about UD were (obviously) the money, the study abroad program, and the winter session. Other than that, I was not impressed.

A few days later, I visited Bucknell for the second time (the first time was last year). It basically sealed in the deal for me. I fell even more in love with it. Campus is beautiful and secluded; IMO I want a campus enclosed and not having roads going through it. It seems safer and homier to me. The students (both accepted and current) certainly appealed to me. It was so easy (and a bit amusing) to see the difference: these students are serious and responsible about their studies, but they are also very nice, passionate about their school, active in a lot of things, and balance work with play. Now I never got to see any of the UD dorms (though it probably would have been convenient…), but I’ve heard they’re hit or miss. At BU, I’ve frequently heard students say that there really are no “bad dorms”; some are just newer, but all are good. When I saw some dorms again this visit, I agreed–and there are just so many options too for housing (CHOICE housing, residential college housing, single/double/triple/quadruple housing, single-sex floor housing, etcetera). The tour guide (just like the last one) was great, and it was wonderful running into the president of the school and seeing him call the tour guide by name (after an affectionate joke towards him). The entire day was so organized compared to UD. Everyone knew what they were doing, and they were genuinely happy that we accepted students were visiting. And yes, I did decide to stay the whole day, haha. At the end of the day, actually, I turned in my deposit…

I think the number one thing that sold me at BU was everyone’s passion. The staff, the faculty, the students, even the cafeteria cooks (by the way, they have great food!). It really showed me that people at Bucknell love Bucknell. I really got that personal community feeling.

(On a side note, Bucknell PR is awesome. They really, really go out of their way to help you. I had both a student intern and an alum email me back and forth to help me with my decision. I’m not sure if the student intern was specifically for me, but I know that with this alumni relations program BU has, the alum who has kept in contact with me (both through email and phone) was assigned specifically to me only. And, by the way, she is a very genial Bucknellian who is now a dentist!)

The only bad thing, of course, is the money. However, my mom, dad AND GC figured that they know I’m going to one day have a high-salary career (whether with an M.D. or Ph.D), so I can pay it off eventually. My parents will certainly help. They also figured that education is an investment. It may break the bank in the short run, but in the long run, it will rebuild and refill it. Loans are not bad as long as you are responsible and smart about handling them, and I’m confident my family will handle them well.

Whether or not I am going to be 7 or 10 times happier at Bucknell, I feel it is the right place for me to be. Things may not financially work out exactly as planned, but I think we will be able to handle whatever comes our way. We’ve certainly persevered from worse financial situations than this, and we haven’t been better off than now.