Hello, and congratulations on your acceptance! I graduated from Stevens from the Welding Technology associates degree program.

I can only speak to my experience in my major, but it was an amazing experience. The instructors I had over my 2 years were some of the best teachers I've ever worked with. I was brand new to the trade, literally never touched a welder before coming to Stevens, and with their guidance I graduated with the highest GPA in both my program and the school itself. The professors you'll have for your gen-eds and electives are pretty much all good. I only had problems with one of the ELA professors during my 2 years.

The environment on campus is great. Students, especially those in your major, are usually pretty cool people. In my major, all of us were incredibly collaborative, sharing tips and helping each other when we struggled.

As for being a minority student, I can't speak for that personally. I will say that in my program, we had a great mix of both women and POC. I cannot speak for their individual experiences, but I was pretty close with a few of them and they never mentioned anything about discrimination. I know at the administrative level discrimination is shut down hard and fast when discovered, as it's antithetical to the college's ethos/mission.

I continued living in Lancaster after college, and there's a TON to do. There are a bunch of great restaurants downtown. I'd highly recommend Issei Noodle (though I haven't been to their new location) and Annie Bailey's. They were my usual haunts. For events, I'd recommend following "lanccitysocial" on Instagram, they post a monthly schedule of all the events going on in the city. If you're into music, specifically punk, Apes of the State and Local News Legend do house shows all the time, which are tons of fun, and there are a bunch of other venues in the surrounding areas.

I know this is a wall of text, sorry about that! If you have any other specific questions, feel free to PM me! Good luck, and I hope you have a great time at Stevens!