Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are Lehigh, Bucknell, Lafayette, Dickinson a cut above Muhlenburg, Gettysburg, and F&M?

I’d rank them this way:

Lehigh, Bucknell, lLafeyette

Dickinson , F&M

Muhlenbirg, Gettysburg

Where would you put Colgate?

I think Lehigh is ahead of Colgate.
Look at the rankings.

Absolutely not; and I am a big fan of Lehigh.

I went to Bucknell and am impressed by how strong alumni network is in NY. With that being said reputationally now i think i would rank them.
Colgate
Lehigh
Bucknell
Lafayette
Muhlenberg

Also, Lewisburg is definitely not a depressed town, cute little downtown area but it is in central penn and not much to do outside of campus life. It is too isolated for my DD but if someone wants work hard/play hard spirit, it fits.

Lehigh was recently tagged as an R1 research school. This will boost its overall appeal for potential applicants. I suspect acceptance rates to continue to decrease in the coming years.

just checked parchment on this as my DC is considering these two at the top of their list - surprised that parchment had Lehigh as a 2:1 favorite amongst cross-admits, which is pretty significant (and bolder in green and red, which I think means there’s a statistically relevant sample size). Any more current views on this comparison bs this thread (which granted is only a year old!). My DC just visited a top SLAC with < 2000 kids and just felt too small..

At my Westchester high school in the 1980s, Lehigh, Lafayette and Bucknell were very commonly cross applied. They were academic peers and had similar student bodies. I went to one and my brother another, and we had friends at the 3rd. The schools had more in common than not, but I’d have said the main difference was size- Lehigh the largest and Lafayette the smallest, although Lehigh was smaller then so the difference wasn’t huge. All 3 were known as work hard/play hard type schools, with beautiful campuses but in lackluster settings, and Lehigh and Bucknell were somewhat unique for liberal arts colleges in that they had strong engineering and business programs.

I think that Lehigh has grown in popularity because it made an effort to shed its liberal arts college image and be viewed as a true university, and relatedly grew its student bodyso is now a “mid sized” school.

Anonymous wrote:PP here ... I honestly did not know that Lafayette has stronger stats than Lehigh!

Maybe Lafayette is a little underappreciated on DCUM?

Lafayette and Lehigh were always considered peers. When Lehigh expanded its undergraduate class by 1,000 students, it temporarily relaxed some admission standards. This process ended about two years ago.

Anonymous wrote:None of these schools are far enough apart to be put in tiers.

Don’t say that to a Lehigh grad. Lehigh considers itself a major cut above the others with far more rigor. Some of the rigor at Lehigh is frankly ridiculous. I’m an alumna with a sorority sister who sent her daughter to Bucknell over Lehigh. To be fair, this was before the current president arrived. Social and student life has improved on his watch.

Anonymous wrote:There are peer schools, Bucknell better for students interested in business, Lehigh for engineering, everything else, tie.

Debatable.

Anonymous wrote:Went to Bucknell. Now they would be ranked

Colgate
Lehigh
Bucknell
Layfayette

Not sure Lehigh is ahead of Bucknell except maybe for engineering. Definitely not for finance and Wall Street connections.

Went to Bucknell. Now they would be ranked

Colgate
Lehigh
Bucknell
Layfayette

Anonymous wrote:The Colgate hater is out! Lehigh, Lafayette, Bucknell and Colgate are all Patriot League schools, FYI. Colgate admit rate is 12%. Bucknell is 33; Lehigh 37; Lafayette 34. Colgate SAT 1477; Bucknell 1280, Lehigh 1350; Lafayette 1403. They are not in the same tier at all. Bucknell is a typical safety for kids whose top choice is Colgate, just as Colgate is for Dartmouth hopefuls. Lehigh is a good engineering school. Lafayette has pulled ahead of Bucknell in recent years.

Also, the hate for North-Central PA is weird. It’s just a typical rural area, with nice people and a lot of nature. Rt 15 has billboards—that’s what you’re going on? Come on.

Lehigh’s most recent admit rate was 25% and it’s SAT average is 1430.

According to Lehigh’s admissions data for 2023, middle 50% scored 1400-1500, and between 32-34 on ACT.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:None of these schools are far enough apart to be put in tiers.

Oh come on, DCUM loves to make those fine distinctions between the different tiers of Ivy and NESCAC, we can surely do that for other types of schools as well.

Big difference in the kids from our high school going to Lehigh/Bucknell and Lafayette/Gburg/Mberg. Like around the top 15-20% of the class for the former to the 50% mark for the latter.

Maybe there are confounding variables or some fudging of the numbers is happening behind the scenes, but Lafayette has much stronger CDS stats than Bucknell. SAT stats, for example: the 25th percentile at Laf is 1350, and the 75th percentile at Buck is 1370. Laf also has a higher percentage from the top tenth of their high school class.

Yes, at our private Lafayette is a 3.6 school while Bucknell takes 3.2 kids.

Interesting you have such exact data on these schools and your school’s placement. Odd they give that to you. Do you think anyone hiring college grads cares about that?

NP but couldn't anyone whose school uses Naviance provide the same information?

Our school uses SCOIR, which has Scattergrams that are more difficult to read, but the X/Y intersections are approximately ...:

Lehigh - 3.9/1350
Bucknell - 3.75/1360
Lafayette - 3.6/1320

Our college counselor called Lehigh and Bucknell targets for my kid, while Lafayette was a likely.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:None of these schools are far enough apart to be put in tiers.

Oh come on, DCUM loves to make those fine distinctions between the different tiers of Ivy and NESCAC, we can surely do that for other types of schools as well.

Big difference in the kids from our high school going to Lehigh/Bucknell and Lafayette/Gburg/Mberg. Like around the top 15-20% of the class for the former to the 50% mark for the latter.

Maybe there are confounding variables or some fudging of the numbers is happening behind the scenes, but Lafayette has much stronger CDS stats than Bucknell. SAT stats, for example: the 25th percentile at Laf is 1350, and the 75th percentile at Buck is 1370. Laf also has a higher percentage from the top tenth of their high school class.

Yes, at our private Lafayette is a 3.6 school while Bucknell takes 3.2 kids.

Interesting you have such exact data on these schools and your school’s placement. Odd they give that to you. Do you think anyone hiring college grads cares about that?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:None of these schools are far enough apart to be put in tiers.

Oh come on, DCUM loves to make those fine distinctions between the different tiers of Ivy and NESCAC, we can surely do that for other types of schools as well.

Big difference in the kids from our high school going to Lehigh/Bucknell and Lafayette/Gburg/Mberg. Like around the top 15-20% of the class for the former to the 50% mark for the latter.

Maybe there are confounding variables or some fudging of the numbers is happening behind the scenes, but Lafayette has much stronger CDS stats than Bucknell. SAT stats, for example: the 25th percentile at Laf is 1350, and the 75th percentile at Buck is 1370. Laf also has a higher percentage from the top tenth of their high school class.

Yes, at our private Lafayette is a 3.6 school while Bucknell takes 3.2 kids.