University Of Georgia (Athens, Georgia)

 On Friday, I had lunch with the NJ representative for the University of Georgia (UGA), along with about ten other college admissions consultants. I thought I’d share some of what I heard about University of Georgia:

• If you are thinking of applying, make sure to take at least 4 years of science in high school. This is a requirement.
•  If you are planning to apply Early Action (EA), don’t get caught snoozing. The EA application is due on October 15th.
• Thirty per cent of students are from outside of Georgia. It isn’t easier or harder to get in if you are from outside of Georgia.
• The Foundation Fellowship provides about 20 students a year with a significant scholarship, opportunities for study abroad, research, conference participation and enrichment (e.g., Honors program, seminars, mentoring). For out-of-state students this translates to a $15,700 stipend (in addition to a Regents Out-of-State Tuition Waiver). If you are interested in this opportunity you must apply for it by November 1.
• Out of state students who study abroad, pay in-state tuition that semester.
• Athens, where the college is located, is a college town of a 100,000 with a big music scene, about 60 miles from Atlanta
• The college is big: about 26,000 undergraduate students, 605 acres, 170 majors, 600 student organizations. In the Fall of 2013, electrical and mechanical engineering majors are being added.
• Students are required to live on campus their freshman year. While housing is guaranteed all four years, most students move off-campus after the first year.
• The info on accepted students is: Mid-50% range for GPA of admitted students : 3.74-4.04 (the GPA that UGA calculates based on the core courses taken in HS, and looking at the actual grades on the transcript).  Mid-50% range for the SAT CR and M: 1190-1360.  Mid-50% range for the SAT Writing: 580-690.  Mid-50% range for the ACT: 27-31.  Average number of AP/IB courses: Approximately 6
• The honors program enrolled 531 students for the fall of 2011 with: Mid-50% range for GPA of admitted students : 4.0 – 4.2 (the GPA that UGA calculates based on the core courses taken in HS, and looking at the actual grades on the transcript). Mid-50% range for the SAT CR and M: 1430-1490. Average SAT Writing: 712.  Mid-50% range for the ACT: 32-33
• For more information on the college, check out their blog on http://ugaadmissions.blogspot.com

 

 

 

Barnard College (New York, NY)

If you are looking for a small women’s liberal arts college in New York City, Barnard College may be right for you. My two nieces attended Barnard and loved it.

The school is located in Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan and can be reached by subway (the 1 train to the 116th Street - Columbia University stop). The campus has a variety of building styles, is one block wide and goes from West 116th Street to West 120th Street. The Barnard campus is on one side of Broadway and the Columbia University campus is on the other side.

Barnard is the home to about 2400 undergraduate women, with 95% of them living in the dorms on campus. The freshman dorms are arranged around a quad. Housing is guaranteed all four years, as long as you don’t leave the dorms and decide you want to come back.

All students must take two first year foundation courses (English and a seminar) and nine area requirements. Barnard offers 50 majors and their students can pursue special degree programs with a number of other schools in the area including Columbia University, Julliard, the Jewish Theological Seminary and the Manhattan School of Music. Barnard students can cross-register for courses at Columbia, and Columbia students (male or female) can cross-register for courses at Barnard. The Barnard classes are small and are never taught by graduate teaching assistants.

Barnard students take advantage of all New York City offers in terms of culture, education, nightlife, and internships. Study abroad, internships, research, and volunteering are popular. There are as more internship opportunities at Barnard than students. Barnard students also can participate in clubs and sports on their own campus or at Columbia. Barnard students participate in Division I, Ivy League Varsity sports in the Columbia/Barnard Consortium.

Some memorable annual campus events include:

• Midnight Breakfast - Deans and administrators serve the students breakfast the night before the beginning of finals
• The Big Sub - Students eat a 700 foot sub sandwich
• President Obama speaking at the 2012 Barnard graduation.

About 21 per cent of Barnard applicants are accepted. All financial aid is need-based and for US students, it is need-blind. The college meets 100% of need and tries to keep loans to a minimum. There is no merit aid.

If you are a female high school student, does Barnard sound appealing to you?

Montclair State University, Montclair, New Jersey

My tour guide, Emily was enthusiastic about Montclair State University, a diverse public university in suburban Montclair, NJ with over 14,000 undergrads. She took us through the 250-acre campus, consisting primarily of Spanish mission-style buildings, some with a view of the Manhattan skyline. She was among the nearly 5000 students living on campus.

Montclair State has over 250 undergraduate programs in the College of the Arts; College of Education and Human Services; College of Humanities and Social Sciences; College of Science and Mathematics; and School of Business. The average class size at Montclair State is 23. If a class is offered as a large lecture, the school also offers a smaller class as an option.
The school has over 120 clubs, Greek Life (which is not a dominant force on campus), and Division III athletics (Go Red Hawks). There are two train stations and a bus stop on campus, enabling students without a car access to Manhattan. There are also travel abroad opportunities that range in length from one week to an academic year.


If you've visited or attended Montclair State, what was your impression?

William Paterson University, Wayne, NJ

You think you want to attend a New Jersey public college, but Rutgers isn't for you.  Perhaps Rutgers is too big for you or is too hard for you to get into.  In late March, I visited two schools in Northern New Jersey that you might want to consider: William Paterson University and Montclair State University. 

In this blog post, I'll focus on William Paterson University (shown in these photos)  The next blog post will be on Montclair State University.

William Paterson University sits on a 370-acre campus in suburban Wayne; there are one or two buildings off-campus with a shuttle bus servicing them, including the “messy” art building.

The school has a diverse undergraduate enrollment just shy of 10,000, with a quarter of the student body living on campus. Housing, made up of suites and apartments, and is guaranteed all four years. Commuters should allocate time to find parking and to walk to class.


Students attend small classes, averaging 21 students and can major in one of 48 majors in 5 colleges: Arts and Communications; Business; Education; Humanities and Sciences; and Science and Health. Four new majors are being added in the Fall: Sports Management, Criminology and Criminal Justice, Legal Studies, and Environmental Sustainability. Students need 120 credits to graduate. Forty credits make up the general education requirements. There are pre-professional programs as well as an Honors College.

Some special facilities on campus are the new science building, nursing simulation labs, financial learning center, TV broadcast studios, radio station, and redesigned student center. Travel abroad and National Student Exchange (i.e., where you spend a semester at another US college) are available.

The average high school student admitted to WPU had a 3.1 GPA and a 1050 SAT (Critical Reading and Math); credentials for the nursing school are more stringent. To qualify for an academic scholarship, students need a minimum of a 3.0 GPA and 1050 on their SATs. There are also scholarships for talented artists ranging from $1K to $10K.

The college has about 80 clubs, Greek Life, Division III athletics, trips off-campus on weekends (e.g., ski trips, trips to Canada, trips to Atlantic City), and a NJ Transit bus that takes students to places like New York City and the Willowbrook Shopping Mall. On Tuesdays and Thursdays from 12:30 – 2 PM no classes are scheduled; this is a great time for clubs to meet. The big issue in the Pioneer newspaper was that the Student Government Association ran out of funds for the remainder of the spring semester, causing many club events to be cancelled or postponed.

New York University, New York, NY

NYU is a “hot” school. If you are looking for a big, private college in the Village, maybe NYU is for you. You can join about 20,000 undergrads studying over 230 majors, in classes averaging fewer than 30 students. About ten thousand of these students live in the residence halls, and housing is guaranteed for all four years. In addition to the campus in NYC, there is a 2-year old campus in Abu Dhabi, and a campus is scheduled to open in two years in Shanghai.

NYU also owns and operates twelve other physical sites in Accra, Florence, Paris, Tel Aviv, Berlin, London, Prague, Sydney, Buenos Aires, Madrid, Shanghai, and Washington, D.C. You can attend classes taught by NYU professors in English at these sights for the same price as classes in New York. A lot of students (42%) take advantage of studying abroad.

NYU has both research opportunities and 22,000 internship opportunities for undergraduates.

What NYU doesn’t have is a campus. On the other hand, most of the undergraduate buildings are a short walk from Washington Square Park.

 

Most financial aid at NYU is need-based. The school does give merit aid, which ranges from $1000 to full tuition. Students need to submit both the FAFSA and CSS/PROFILE.

There is Early Decision I, Early Decision II and Regular Decision. Students can apply to a first and second choice college within the university.

There are 9 undergraduate schools, colleges and programs:

• College of Arts and Sciences (1443 freshmen)
• College of Nursing (63 freshmen)
• Gallatin School of Individualized Study (253 freshmen)
• Stern School of Business (552 freshmen)
• Liberal Studies (1125 freshmen)
• Silver School of Social Work (26 freshmen)
• Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism, and Sports Management (100 freshmen)
• Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development (567 freshmen)
• Tisch School of the Arts (776 freshmen)

NYU Poly, also known as the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, in downtown Brooklyn is transitioning to become the tenth school within NYU. At this time, it has it’s own application.

 

There are a lot of testing choices. You can submit SAT or ACT with writing or 3 SAT subject tests or IB scores or 3 AP tests.

Students in the arts have to audition or submit a portfolio. In addition to being talented they also need to have strong academics.

Students interested in the business school need to know Calculus.

The Gallatin School is made up of students who create their own majors from classes that cross other major boundaries.

There is plenty to do because of the city location. In addition, NYU has over 400 student organizations, two athletic centers, a gym on 14th Street, 21 Division III varsity teams, and the largest theatre south of 42nd Street.

If you are looking for a big school with dorms in the big city, and don’t mind not having a campus, NYU might be for you.

If you are a student or alum, do you have any comments to add about NYU?

 

The Cooper Union, New York, NY

The Cooper Union is a one-of-a-kind private college.  Since 1859, it has been providing a full-tuition scholarship to every admitted student.  But it’s not an easy school to get into.  Only 8% are admitted.  There are about 1000 undergrads (64% male) who study engineering, visual arts or architecture.  The school has a handful of buildings (including a student residence that houses only 178) scattered in or near Cooper Square in Manhattan.  They represent both the old and the new as you can see from my photos.

Pace University, New York, NY

If you are a student who would love to go to a co-ed college in the Big Apple, you may want to consider the Pace University campus in lower Manhattan. (Pace also has another campus in Westchester.)


For undergrads, the New York City campus has about 4000 full-time undergrads in 3 undergrad schools:

• Lubin – the Business School 
• Dyson – the Arts and Sciences School
• Seidenberg – the Computer Science/IT School.

Pace also has an Honors program, which comes with benefits like significant merit aid, special honors classes, special events, research opportunities and housing.

  

The NYC campus consists of a handful of buildings including dorms in lower Manhattan and one dorm in Brooklyn Heights. If you are looking for green lawns and trees, you are in the wrong place. Your campus is the city. If going to the South Street Seaport, soaking up Wall Street, or walking across the Brooklyn Bridge excites you; Pace may be for you. My tour guide Michael, a freshman in the Seidenberg School, lived on a themed housing floor in a Freshman Residence Hall. Housing is guaranteed all four years and there are also a sizeable number of commuters.

 

Most of the classes are given in the main building pictured below. Class size averages 28 students and grad students don’t teach classes.

 

  A second building, diagonally across the street, is the home to the bookstore and two black box theatres.

 

 

The school boasts of having a large number of internship opportunities with 56% of the student body taking advantage of this opportunity (#1 university in NY for internships per US News). Pace graduates are 12% more likely to have a job after graduation based on the Fall 2011 Salary Survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers.

  

The Division II teams are all in Pleasantville. There is a bus twice a day between the two campuses. The NYC campus has gym facilities, but no pool. There are club hours three times a week.

  

Virtually all students (97%) get some form of need-based or merit-based financial aid. Students are automatically considered for merit aid of between $4K and $28.5 K.

  

PACE has rolling admissions with a 2/15 preferred deadline. Those who apply Early Action by 12/1, will hear if they have been accepted by the second week in January. Overall eighty-four per cent of applicants were admitted. Those who are interested in performing arts have a 1/15 deadline and need to audition; admission for the performing arts spots is highly competitive.

Are you a Pace student or recent alum?  If so, add your comments.