Concerns to students:Academics - Bucknell has a great reputation, good alumni network, classes are actually small (except some science lectures), a B is easy to get without doing anything if you work the system.
People - Lots of people seem to be stuck up, it feels like where ever you go and whoever you're with someone (sometimes even you) is saying "who's that person" or "what're they doing here", there are a lot of stuck up and closed minded people here also.
Faculty - generally helpful, sometimes condescending, usually accessable, there are a lot who put in the extra time and effort that they don't need to (such as offering study sessions, and reviews for tests), only one professor didn't speak english to my satisfactory
Dorms - overall very well kept, expect large fines for not keeping them clean (ex, a pizza box on a trash can lid is a $30 fine for the floor), Swartz hall is a hole, that's why most tourguides don't go through it, no cable in the rooms, usually 1-2 tvs with cable are in each dorm (exception is the new residence hall with 16 cable tvs)
Greek Life - huge part of the social scene, tour guides quote a 45% greek statistic, this is of the whole campus. Only sophomores and older may rush, the percent of people who can go greek and are is something like 61%. Fraternities are where most of the parties take place
Meals - the meal plan is a huge vacuum for money, if you can't handle losing tons of money each semester, don't go here. Always choose the minimum amount of declining balance as your meal plan ($500/semester) if possible. It works out best that way, and then you can add during the semester and not have $300 left at the end of the year to buy overpriced soda and candy.
Drinking - 3 places to drink: your room, fraternity, down town house. The last two you'll probably need to know someone in the fraternity or who lives in the off campus house to get in. All parties have guest lists, most are followed strictly. Guys, its hard to get on the list, girls can usually get in whether they're on it or not. The alcohol violations work on some point scale, see bucknell's website for how it works. Your points stay with you from semester to semester, year to year, so don't get 5 freshman year and sweat it out the next three. Getting busted down town is double trouble because you get university and town fines.
Administration - terrible, they seem to only be concerned about the university's promotion. Stef Rogers (president)says he'll see you on campus and in the dining halls during orientation, the next time you'll see him is parents weekend and yearly after that. The office of housing refused to do anything about the terrible conditions of a friend of mine's hall bathroom, even when shown pictures. They were more concerned with a possible noise violation than something the board of health probably would have deemed a violation. Another friend is a civil engineer and although the couse book says he can take a 300 level geology course to fill his science req., the registrar said he can't and now he's taking biology 100 (which is a couse he has no interest in, and its incredibly easier)
Registrar - second semester sophomore year is going to be the first time that I got all the classes I needed first time around. They always have to rework engineers' schedules over break because they're terrible at scheduling sections of classes.
Town - Within walking distance: dunkin donuts, gas station, tobacco store, 2-3 pizza places, subway, cvs (drugstore), 3 bars that serve food, 3 nicer restaurants, 2 banks (Sovereign and M&T, I believe), an art store, a small food convenience store, a bike shop, and like 5 places to get a haircut, 3 of which cut your hair terribly. Within driving distance: Wendy's, McDonalds, Pizza Hut, another pizza place, Walmart, Weis Markets (grocery store), Staples, 2 chinese restaurants, radio shack, an OK mall, appleby's and perkins. Walmart, Staples, and Weis is a far (30 min each way) walk.
Bucknell has its ups and downs, definitely visit it first and think about what you'd do there every weekend and during your free time. Remember certain things get old after so many times and other things cost money, which you might be willing to pay, but your friends might not.Feel free to email me. I wrote another review earlier, but this is my updated feeling after 3 semesters versus after 1 semester.
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