<p>I’m not a graduate of either Lafayette or WPI, but I recruit senior executives for a living now. I evaluate people 15 to 30 years after college.</p>
<p>First of all, I see many people who major in one thing and wind up doing something completeley different in their careers. To look at my college roommates 30 years out, a chemical engineer, psychology major and a political economy major became Wall Streeters. A history major wound up in medical devices, an anthropology major wound up running a nonprofit that rebuilds slummy neighborhoods and a geology major is a project manager for a waste removal company (he’s the only one who wound up doing something close to what he majored in).</p>
<p>I see very good people coming out of both WPI and Lafayette. The two schools are both very strong. WPI has more engineering courses; Lafayette has liberal arts options in addition to engineering. So many kids change their minds on what they want to do in the first year or two that I think it is not prudent to choose a school because they have a great robotics program. I went to Princeton, and saw numerous engineers change to any number of other non-technical degrees. Because Princeton, like Lafayette, has a full set of liberal arts majors, those kids didn’t have to transfer, and somethign like 97% of those who entered graduated from Princeton. Engineering schools have a lower graduation rate, in part because a lot of kids wash out of engineering and in part because they change their mind and decide upon a different major.</p>
<p>Lafayette has an advantage in endowment per student, and that is actually a fairly meaninful figure.</p>
<p>I would lean towards Lafayette if they are giving him $10,000 more.</p>
<p>However, the most important factor is which school he likes the best. Which school is in the preferred location for him? Which school has kids that he feels more comfortable with? Will he like a school iwth mostly guys like WPI? He’s going to be able to get a top education at either school. It’s not like he’s choosing between a large state university, Northeast Nowhere State and WPI. Both schools are small and known for their small classes, and have roughly similar academic reputations.</p>