This is a small liberal arts college in the mediocre-to-good range. It wins on quality of the education and loses on the student culture, although there may be some people for whom the educational offerings are inadequate, depending on what they want to study.
I attended the college part-time for a full year, but I grew up nearby and have an intimate familiarity with the college, including the campus, faculty, staff, and many students.
Pros:
The professors here really care about helping the students, and are very generous with their time. Add to this the fact that the majority of students here are not very smart, and you will find that if you have even half a brain, you will get lots of attention here.
Some programs here are outstanding. Geology is considered among the best in the nation, the pre-med program is solid (it's one of the school's selling points), and in general the sciences are pretty good, and there is a very new but very exciting international studies program. The Economics program has a Marxist bent, but is good. The math department has excellent teachers, but the course offerings are not advanced and not adequate to prepare students for grad school. The Computer Science department is tiny and not a full department.
There is a small but very good music program here, with a lot of good opportunities available, including opportunities for performance as well as music composition and conducting. This school is good for people with a serious side-interest in music.
The campus is also in a nice location. It is located on the edge of Lancaster city, in a pleasant neighborhood. It is very easy to live on or near campus without a car: the downtown is only a moderate walk from campus and there is decent bus service. Lancaster offers some of the benefits of a larger city, more than one would expect from its small size. The farmer's market is outstanding, and there are many good restaurants.
Cons:
Some of the programs here are weak. There are a few majors (which I do not need to name) which are a complete joke, and which are often a fall-back for students who aren't really intelligent enough to make it in a real major, and who probably shouldn't be granted college degrees but have rich daddies who can pay to send them to this place.
Also, the dorms are rather sketchy, and I would not want to live in them. Many of them have low ceilings, are generally cramped, and are in very poor condition, partly because of how the students trash them.
The biggest con though is the lack of interesting student culture here. Student life is dominated by fraternities and sororities, and many of the fraternities are absolute animal houses. Incidents of alcohol poisoning are commonplace. In the past, there have been incidents of racist vandalism as well as one fraternity that was fire-bombed. Some fraternities have been closed due to health violations. I'd say that a little over half the students are rich, superficial, not very smart or creative, and in my opinion, not very likeable. But there's a substantial portion of nice, decent students too; if you search hard enough you will find some very interesting and intelligent people here. The interesting culture centers around a few communities on campus--international students, the music department, and the women's center, to name a few. A good student can find her way here, but with difficulty. The dominant culture here can be a bit frustrating.
Bottom line: you can get a great education at this school, but make sure you know what you're getting into. If you're at all like me, you may not be able to stand the student culture. You'll encounter quite a few spoiled rich kids, and in general, you may not find enough interesting stuff to do on campus. There are some interesting students out there but you have to search to find them. read more
