Franklin and Marshall College

Date: Sep 25 2006
Major: History/Histories (art history/etc.) (This Major's Salary over time)
While I made great friendships at the school and learned alot, having been exposed to life at a different school I feel quite confident in saying that I would NEVER come to F&M if given the oppurtunity to do it again.

Academically, I really have no complaints. The workload is pretty heavy compared to what my friends had at other schools, and CLASS ATTENDANCE is factored into your final grade which seems pretty absurd to me, but I thought I received a good education once I started putting effort into it. I currently attend law school and I felt that F&M was good preperation for it, largely due to the small class sizes and socratic nature of the classes. I had maybe one or two classes during my entire time at the school that were lecture-oriented.

That is about all the positive things I can say about the school. The social life was downright awful. I was in a fraternity, and I can deal with a frat dominated social life, but the frat scene at the school was terrible. The student body is extremely cliquish,(sp?) and the frats make it alot worse. I think the problem stems from the fact that most of the students were not popular in high school, and as a result they try to fit in to a certain fraternities stereotype and then act snobbish and exclusive about it once they are "in." The fact that there were guest lists to get into parties was pretty rediculous. It is a school of under 2000 students, yet the insecurity of the average frat brother(again, stemming from the fact that most of the students were not popular in high school) leads to a snobbish, cliquish system where the same group of people are crowded into the same dirty basement every week.

Additionally, there is a large portion of the student body consumed with bragging about the wealth of their parents. The facebook group

collars down are for poor people

pretty much sums it up. And I'm not going to go into detail, but lets just say that cocaine plays a central role in the school's social scene, which is astonishing and disgraceful.

As for the city, Lancaster has alot to offer if you know what to look for. I'm from a big city, but I rarely felt burdened by the location. There is one MAJOR problem however, and that is the fact that the natives absolutely HATE the students. This extends to the police, who are more intrested in issuing drinking citations and breaking up parties than to protecting the students.

I got alot out of the school, including lifelong friends and a good education. However, when you consider the cost, the social life, lack of quality sports, and the fact that no one outside of the northeast has ever heard of the school, rendering your degree pretty useless, you would be wise to consider going elsewhere.