College Spotlight: Lafayette College

During the last week of summer, I was lucky enough to be invited to Lafayette College along with four other NYC college counselors. I hopped into a minivan with the four counselors, and the Lafayette College admissions representative behind the wheel, and an hour and twenty minutes later I arrived in Easton, PA to Lafayette’s beautiful suburban campus.  I spent the day there, learning more about the school’s academics, admissions, and overall community.

Here’s everything you need to know about Lafayette College, plus my personal perspective below.

Key Stats:
·         Location: Easton, Pennsylvania (the first exit leaving New Jersey)
·         Type: Medium-sized, private liberal arts college with a very strong engineering program
·         Size: 2,500 students in a residential campus/suburban setting
·         The total cost of attendance is just over $64,000 per year, but they have a $900 million endowment, and meet 100% of demonstrated family need

Admissions Stats:
·         ACT Middle 50% :27-31    SAT Middle 50% :1270-1430             Admit rate:28%
·         Minimum classes they love to see on high school transcripts: 4 years of English, 3 years of math, 2 years of lab science, and 2 years of foreign language
·         Application Deadlines: Early Decision: Nov. 15th, Regular Decision: January 15th, Early Decision 2: February 1st
·         Five years ago, the admit rate was 42%; it is now 28%, so it is easy to see how popular and competitive Lafayette has become. 50% of their students come in through early decision, but Lafayette is a Division 1 sports school, so many of those students are athletes.

What’s special about Lafayette College:
The first thing that comes to mind when I think about Lafayette is the fact that it is a small-ish college, with a liberal arts core, that has an extremely strong engineering program. For students who know they want to go into engineering, or are just considering it, it is valuable to have an overall education, not just a specialty in one area; Lafayette will give you a whole education and will prepare you for life after college. In fact, Lafayette has a Common Course of Study in which all students must take, which “creates an outcome based, all-inclusive academic core”.

Lafayette has a variety of majors offered on their main campus, but recently just opened their brand new Arts Campus down the hill. This is an incredible new campus with three state of the art buildings that house a theatre, performance center, thousands of square feet of space to work on art projects, computers with top of the line graphic design programs, and so much more. This is an incredible new addition to Lafayette that will definitely help it continue to grow!

Finally, Lafayette, although small in size, has 23 division 1 sports, and school spirit is huge on campus. Often, students need to attend huge universities to get the college athletic experience; not at Lafayette, where you can truly get the best of both worlds.

Personal Perspective:
During my trip to Lafayette, there was time set aside to meet and chat with current students. There were six different students from all years, who had one thing in common: they LOVED Lafayette College.  There were two things they talked about really stuck with me. For one, they all mentioned just how friendly everyone is on campus and how “they all hold doors for everyone”. I noticed this too, as I walked around campus, everyone seemed to be interacting with others, smiling, and just seemed genuinely happy to be there.

Also, they all said that to be happy at Lafayette, you must love the campus lifestyle. Easton is a fairly big town, and is actually incredible cute, with a lot of shops and restaurants within walking distance from campus, but it is no New York City. Pretty much the entire student body lives on campus, or within steps from campus, so most of the action is happening around there. It is a picturesque campus though, with great facilities, which is why Lafayette has a ridiculously high retention rate of 95%. Students there are supported, challenged, and are given all the opportunities in the world to succeed.

 If you are looking for a school within ear shot of New York City, but a completely different scene than the hustle and bustle of the city, and houses crazy good academics, that specializes in educating the whole person while preparing them for the “real world”, then you may just want to give Lafayette College a look…I think you just might like what you see.










Joseph D. Korfmacher

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