Picture this, atop the beautiful and charming college hill. I am Nicole Aaron and that is what we are touring today at Lafayette College, which was originally founded back in 1826 was a private all male liberal arts institution. In 1838, Lafayette became one of the first colleges in the country to implement a teacher's training program. Lafayette is located in eastern Pennsylvania, which is a little over an hour west of New York City and an hour north of Philadelphia. Lafayette's beautiful campus sits on 110 acres and features a mix of 60 classic college and modern buildings. There is also a 230 acre athletic complex. Lafayette enrolls approximately 2,300 students with a population that is about 52 percent male, minority, and international students make up 17 percent of the student body.

What students like most about Lafayette is its friendliness, the school is small enough to get to know everyone, but not too small offering a wide variety of things to do.

Lafayette requires that students applying for admissions submit either the SAT reasoning test or ACT. If taking the ACT, the writing section is required. The college looks at many other factors for admissions including your class rank, your high school GPA, quality of classes taken and personal character, along with other qualities. Just to give you an idea, 80 percent of the class of 2011 graduated in the top 10 percent of their class. Tuitions and fees at Lafayette, including room and board, are the same for all students. It runs about 44,000 dollars per year. Need based grants and merit scholarships, as well as financial aid are available to students. In fact during the last school year, Lafayette provided more than 26 million dollars in scholarships and grant assistance over half of enrolled students. There are 46 areas of study across 4 divisions of the college, including natural sciences, humanities, engineering and social sciences.

It is a terrific place for a student to come and take engineering, because we have incredibly strong programs. We offer 4 BS programs in engineering, chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, electrical and computing engineering and civil engineering. We also have a bachelor of arts in engineering, which is a newly unique type of program that allows students to take about half their courses in engineering and the other half to truly take advantage of the liberal arts environment and the fields that we offer there. Our class sizes are small. There are a lot of interaction between the faculty and the students, a lot of hands on, a lot of work with students doing research and independent studies.

The school is unique in that it is one of the few colleges that focuses exclusively on undergraduates with 63 percent of classes having less than 20 people, students can get the most from their education.

The first thing that comes to mind when I think of Lafayette is this tightly woven community that involves the faculty, the students and the alumni and also the administration is totally committed to giving the faculty the resources they need to train students, to get them intellectually prepared to manage the difficult problems and challenges that are going to come due on their watch.

Lafayette has nearly 200 faculty members and an astonishing 100 percent of them have a PhD or the highest degree in their field. Also with a very low student to faculty ratio of just 11 to 1, students can tap into their professor's experience and knowledge and really get to know them on a personal level.

How do you feel that Lafayette has prepared you for your future and the career you want to take?

Well, I haven't official declared a major yet, but I am interested in psychology and Lafayette's small class sizes, particularly is what really drew me to come here and the fact that the professors can really focus on you. They know like who you are and you are not really a number, like in a bigger university.

Don't be fooled by the size of Lafayette, its athletics is NCAA Division I with 23 varsity sports in the Patriot League. Its college football rivalry between Lafayette and Leahy is the most played game in college sports. With 2,300 students, 98 percent of them live on college grounds making it a close knit family. First year students are required to live on campus, about 30 percent of upper-class students live in sorority or fraternity houses. 12 resident halls are available for freshman and upper class students have their choice of resident halls with double occupancy, singles and suite style accommodations.

My first time in the dorm I lived in Watson Hall and I am an only child, so I kind of had that only child syndrome going on for a little bit, but it is a lot of fun. Lafayette really doesn't have this big questionnaire when it comes to roommate agreements about I would say 20 questions or so and they really helped me expand my horizons of what I am used to, what I am used to living with, but it also allowed me to be comfortable at the same time.

Looking for stuff to do after classes, take your pick. Lafayette offers students more than 250 clubs and sports to choose from. You may be interested to learn that Lafayette has the fourth best chemical engineering program in the US and the twelfth best overall engineering program according to US News and World Report.

The big advantage at a place like Lafayette is that you are working with professors. The students work with me, they don't work my graduate students. This is strictly undergraduate and I use students in research. The other big advantage of a small place is that you get to know faculty in other disciplines and that is a tremendous advantage.

If you are looking for a high level education at a classic northeastern college with a strong tradition, be sure to check out Lafayette. Thanks for joining us on our tour of Lafayette College. We will see you real soon.

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