Yes, "Juniata" -- same name as a river in the area and somehow derived from a Native American name.
My daughter is a freshman there with an environmental science major (or “POE”, program of emphasis, as they call it). It has a particularly strong ES program and when we attended orientation weekend it seemed like 90% of the parents I spoke with also had kids there for ES. A big feature of that is the Field Station program, where a group of 15-20 students live in cabins at the station on the lake, do all their classes together, take trips, work on research and restoration projects with the Army Corps of Engineers. DD plans to do that next year for the “restoration” theme semester. Other semesters focus on wildlife conservation, aquatic ecology, forestry, and I’m probably forgetting some.
DD only really considered rural LACs and a strong ES program was the most important consideration. She likes that Juniata doesn’t have Greek organizations but has a lot of campus activities, especially outdoors/environmental. They also have a good music program (despite not having music majors) and she plays in the symphony + small pep band and also gets an additional scholarship for that.
It was a safety for her academically and she gets a big merit scholarship. 1st semester was not that challenging because for her major she had to re-take some classes she’d done as IB so it was repetitive but 2nd semester has been a lot more challenging. They incorporate fieldwork into even the very introductory ESS classes which she was able to talk about when applying to summer jobs in natural resources. She had multiple offers for summer jobs in her major (from applying locally, didn’t use the career center which she said was pretty focused on PA jobs). She generally likes her teachers. Likes the band director. Seemed to make friends pretty quickly and says there are a lot of smart kids there. Had some concerns about diversity but really her preference for rural LACs was totally at odds with an interest in a more racially diverse student body! Still, I think a lot of students are from more rural areas in PA and that is a kind of diversity she didn't think about and has given her different perspectives.
We were talking during Spring Break about her experience and she says she glad she chose it vs. her other options, it does feel like the right fit. Her main complaint is that she’s in a bad dorm (it does look like it hasn’t been updated since the 60s).
It seems to be on an upswing. They said this year’s freshman class was one of the largest in their history, which is definitely bucking the trend of other small, rural schools. They’ve had some recent very large donations, like $5M to expand the field station, and other large donations to revamp some dorms, completely rebuild the library.
The strengths are definitely in the sciences – ES, chemistry, biology, pre-health generally (they also just got a $1m+ donation to explore feasibility/pilot a nursing program). It's just a friendly place that seems to care about the students and has good school spirit, particularly around the women's volleyball team which is the D3 national champions. I've needed to interact with administration a couple times and they've always been super helpful.
Cons IMO - the town is pretty blah (but DD says it has everything she needs, likes that it's walkable from campus), some limited class selections because it's a small school (DD just registered for Fall and many classes only have one section which was frustrating when 3 classes you'd like are all only at the same time but she was able to work out an acceptable schedule), limited food options since there's just the one dining hall (juniors-seniors can live in apts/houses and have a full kitchen), career services very regionally focused.
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