Allen's College Admissions Blog

Today's college spotlight features one of the great undergraduate science and engineering colleges in the United States. While places like M.I.T. and Stanford often top the rankings of best engineering programs, some future engineers prefer a more intimate and personal educational setting. With an entirely undergraduate focus and a mere 735 students, Harvey Mudd College provides just that. The school's 9 to 1 student / faculty ratio means that students get to know their professors well, and undergraduates won't be competing with grad students to do research with the faculty.

Harvey Mudd's curriculum emphasizes the liberal arts and sciences as an essential part of an engineering degree. As a member of the Claremont Colleges, Harvey Mudd gives its students access to all of the academic offerings of the member colleges. The five undergraduate colleges in the consortium mean that a Harvey Mudd student can easily take an English class at Pomona, Sociology at Pitzer, and a language class at Scripps. Library, dining, and other resources are also shared between colleges.

Harvey Mudd College has a hefty price tag, but they do pretty well with financial aid. 85% of students receive aid, and the average institutional grant is over $20,000.

To learn more about the costs and admissions requirements of Harvey Mudd College, be sure to check out the Harvey Mudd profile and visit the official Harvey Mudd website. If you're familiar with Harvey Mudd, please share your thoughts in the Harvey Mudd College discussion thread in the College Admissions Forum.

Every week I spotlight a great college that might be off the radar of college applicants. If you'd like to recommend a school for a future spotlight, please do so here in the forum.

Last week saw a lot of attention on the SAT and ACT when NACAC, the National Association for College Admission Counseling, presented a report criticizing the over-emphasis of standardized test scores in the college admissions process. The heads of admissions from top colleges and universities including Harvard noted that the exam scores aren't the best predictors of college success, and that many institutions place too much weight on the tests when making admissions decisions.

This criticism is good news for students who aren't fans of the ACT and SAT. Despite all the media play, however, the NACAC critique won't have much impact on students applying to college this year. If a school's admissions officers have historically placed significant weight on test scores, chances are they still are.

Non-seniors, however, are likely to see the list of test-optional colleges grow in the near future. I've created a list of the most selective test-optional colleges, and FairTest.org maintains the complete list of over 775 four-year test-optional colleges here.

Sewanee, The University of the South, is certainly well known in the southern United States, but the school deserves to be on the radar of any student looking for a strong liberal arts college. Although technically a "university" because of its graduate programs in English and Theology, Sewanee has the feel of an undergraduate college. With an 11 to 1 student / faculty ratio and small classes, students at Sewanee get a lot of personal attention. The university has produced 25 Rhodes Scholars, a remarkable number for such a small school.

Owned by the Episcopal Church, the 13,000 campus stands on the Cumberland Plateau between Chattanooga and Nashville in Tennessee. Of the many attractive stone buildings on Sewanee's campus, the All Saint's Chapel is the most remarkable. Construction of this European-style cathedral began in 1894, and the last stained-glass window was not put in place until 100 years later.

English study is particularly strong at Sewanee. The university is home of The Sewanee Review, one of the country's top literary magazines, and every summer the school hosts the well-known Sewanee Writers Conference. The university also owns the copyrights to the works of playwright Tennessee Williams.

To learn about the costs and admissions requirements of Sewanee, The University of the South, be sure to check out the Sewanee profile and visit the official Sewanee website. If you're familiar with Sewanee, please share your thoughts in the Sewanee discussion thread in the College Admissions Forum.

Every week I spotlight a great college that might be off the radar of college applicants. If you'd like to recommend a school for a future spotlight, please do so here in the forum.

The news is horrifying to some students: a Kaplan survey found that 10% of admissions officers at top colleges visit social networking sites to get more information about college applicants. What colleges find online is more often bad than good: 25% of the time the web information made a positive impression, while 38% of the time the impression was negative.

Does this mean that you should run out and shut down all of your social networking sites for fear that something online might sabbotage your college applications? Of course not. But you should be aware that your online image does matter. If approached thoughtfully, Facebook and MySpace might actually help you get into college. The strategy is simple -- make sure anything an admissions officer might find online makes you look good. Be sure to check out this article on Facebook and MySpace that outlines what you should and should not do to make Facebook and MySpace work in your favor.

More College Admissions Tips

• Write a Winning Essay
• Get Good Letters of Recommendation
• Avoid These Interview Mistakes
• Keep Track of Senior Year Deadlines

About 25 minutes north of Center City Philadelphia, travellers are often surprised to see a massive stone castle dominating the landscape. This is Grey Towers Castle, a historic landmark and part of Arcadia University in Glenside, Pennsylvania. Arcadia has several strong Masters and Ph.D. programs, but the school's primary focus is undergraduate education. Indeed, both Arcadia's size and curriculum give it the feeling of a small liberal arts college. The university is proud of its 13 to 1 student / faculty ratio and its average class size of 16.

Arcadia University (named Beaver College until 2001) has a national reputation for its excellence in study abroad. Nearly all Arcadia students study abroad, and the University has a long history of organizing study abroad opportunities for other colleges. The Center for Education Abroad runs programs in Australia, China, England, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, Scotland, South Korea, Spain or Wales. Even select first-semester first-year students can take a semester abroad in England, Scotland, or Ireland.

Arcadia University was recommended for a spotlight in the College Admissions Forum by Jane, an alumna of Arcadia. You can read her description of her alma mater and share your own impressions here in the Arcadia University discussion thread. Also feel free to make your own recommendations for future college spotlights.

The recent bad news on Wall Street is also bad news for the country's business majors. As a recent Newsweek article discussed, the floundering of Lehman Brothers, Bear Sterns and other major firms means fewer internship and employment opportunities for college students in business and finance. Many Wall Street companies are cutting back or freezing their recruitment of students.

Does this mean that prospective college students should shy away from a business track? Probably not. When today's college applicants are handed their diplomas five years from now, the current financial chaos is likely to be a thing of the past. And even with the current uncertainties, students graduating from top business schools will find many employment opportunities if they're willing to explore options outside of the struggling Wall Street firms.

For more business school information, be sure to visit Karen Schweitzer, About.com's guide to business schools.

This week's college spotlight takes us to the southern border of Wisconsin where we find Beloit College. A lot of college professors and administrators have heard of Beloit because of the Beloit Mindset List, a list that characterizes the experiences of the current generation of 18-year-olds who are heading off to college. But Beloit College is also a top-rate liberal arts college that is worth a closer look.

Beloit College is proud of its 15-student average class size and its 11 to 1 student / faculty ratio. The curriculum emphasizes experiential learning, fieldwork, interdisciplinary study, independent study and lots of interaction between the students and the faculty. The attractive tree-filled campus is home to two museums -- the Logan Museum of Anthropology and the Wright Museum of Art. Beloit College ranks highly for the number of its graduates that go on to earn a PhD. Loren Pope included Beloit in his important book, Colleges That Change Lives, and the school also gets high marks for its value. While the price tag for this private college may not seem cheap, in 2007 90% of students received financial aid with an average award of $22,528.

Beloit College was recommended for a spotlight in the College Admissions Forum by a current student. You can read her praise of her alma mater and share your own impressions here in the Beloit College discussion thread. Also feel free to make your own recommendations for future college spotlights.

To learn more about Beloit College, visit the Beloit College profile and explore the official Beloit College website.

As you consider whether you want to attend a small college or large university, realize that a college consortium can provide the best of both academic environments. Consortia allow colleges and universities to pool their resources and offer their students access to far more educational and social opportunities. For example, within the Claremont Colleges in California, an engineering student at Harvey Mudd College can easily take top-rated humanities courses at neighboring Pomona College.

Many colleges and universities are members of consortia, but you may have to do a little digging around on their websites to see how easy it is to take classes at member institutions and what kind of transportation the schools provide between campuses. The Claremont Colleges are unusual in that the campuses all adjoin each other. More typical is a situation like the Five-College Consortium in the Amherst, Massachusetts area where shuttle buses run frequently between schools.

photo by Mllerustad / Flickr

Back in July I ran a spotlight on Scripps College, and this week I return to the Claremont Colleges to look at Pitzer, a private coeducational liberal arts college located in Claremont, California. Founded in 1963, Pitzer is a young college that nevertheless frequently finds itself high in the rankings of small colleges. Pitzer College takes pride in its educational philosophy. Students don't have required general education classes they need to complete; instead, they work with advisors to develop a study plan that meets educational objectives such as interdisciplinary learning and intercultural understanding.

For a school of about 1,000 students, Pitzer College has a remarkably diverse and international student body. The curriculum is particularly strong in the social sciences, and a significant number of students participate in study abroad and community service. Also, potential applicants shouldn't be fooled by the small size of Pitzer. As a member of the Claremont Colleges, Pitzer students have easy access to the classes and campus resources of all seven schools in the consortium. And for those urban yearnings, Pitzer students can take a short walk to the Metrolink for easy transport to Los Angeles.

Pitzer is highly selective. You can learn more about the costs and admissions criteria in the Pitzer College profile, and be sure to poke around the Pitzer website. If you have impressions of Pitzer to share with our readers, please do so in the College Admissions Forum.

Every week I spotlight an excellent college or university that might be off the radar of many college applicants. If you'd like to recommend a school, please do so here in the Forum.

Related Links:

• Top Liberal Arts Colleges
• Claremont McKenna College
• Harvey Mudd College
• Pomona College
• Scripps College

photo by Whoaboy / Wikimedia Commons

The college admissions cycle is starting to kick into high gear, and a large percentage of high school seniors take the October SAT and ACT exams. Don't lose track of the registration deadlines -- they come weeks before the actual exams:

• October 4th SAT: Register by September 9th
• October 25th ACT: Register by September 19th

For a late fee, you can register for a week or so after these deadlines. To find online registration information and forms, visit the SAT website and ACT website.

SAT and ACT Related Links

• SAT Test and Registration Dates
• ACT Test and Registration Dates
• What's a Good SAT Score?
• What's a Good ACT Score?
• SAT Scores for the Ivy League
• ACT Scores for Top Liberal Arts Colleges
• Practice Sentence Completion Questions