Juanita College

[Anonymous]

Tell us everything there is to know!

[Anonymous]

First, it's Juniata. It is not a Spanish feminine diminutive for John.

[Anonymous]

Of course, thank goodness DC is a better speller than their parent!

[Anonymous]

I'd search the forums since this has been discussed before. You'll find some good info. Eventually, the Juniata College hater will come in here and say that we're too pro-Juniata.

My child considered the school, and we visited twice. They have a good environmental program that has good placement for jobs in Pennsylvania. The woman in charge of the museum was interesting, and I'd visit their on-campus museum if your student has an interest in that topic.

My kid is a city kid, and the rural location was not ideal.

Their dining hall is attractive and the food options appeared to be good.

I could tell you more but not sure what would be useful to know. They seem like a solid school. You will see snobby people enter this thread to trash the college though.

[Anonymous]

I agree with 16:54. It's small and not really well known, but the kids I know who have gone there are very bright and all interested in a specific academic program where Juniata shines. Worth checking out!

[Anonymous]

We loved it on tour but chose a college closer to home. The professors seemed really engaged, the merit aid was a lot, and it was one of my DD’s top choices. She got into her #1 though so chose that.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

17:25 thank you so much for taking the time to write in detail. Exactly the type of info we need as we look at colleges.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Of course, thank goodness DC is a better speller than their parent!

[Anonymous]

College is about 45min south of Penn State that's all our kid's friend told them.

[Anonymous]

Any insight on the strength of the math department? It’s early days for us, but DC is interested in math and environmental studies so Juniata has been on the radar to check out.

[Anonymous]

I've noticed that small, rural LACs with no Greek life tend to be very woke. Is that the case with Juniata?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've noticed that small, rural LACs with no Greek life tend to be very woke. Is that the case with Juniata?

I sure hope so! Look forward to it.

[Anonymous]

There are several posters who are just obsessed with this no name college, and it doesn’t make any sense. So your kid goes there, great. That doesn’t make it Harvard.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, imagine enjoying your school even someone else wanted something totally different. Makes not sense.

Found the Juniata hater.