Princeton University is one of the Ivy League schools and they claim to have coined the term “Ivy” when graduates began planting ivy cuttings at the foundation of Nassau Hall during the early days of our country. Located in Princeton, NJ, the school has been around since colonial days and is on the site of the Battle of Princeton (said to have been won by the Revolutionaries when they sent a canon ball through Nassau to scatter the Brits holed up in there…). The campus is pristine and has the feel of a British university like Oxford with stone buildings, archways and stained glass everywhere, and the lawns are green and even. It is hard not to become mesmerized by it all – if you saw the movie “Beautiful Mind” that is Princeton’s campus (with a little Hollywood magic). Today Nassau Hall is the location of the admissions information sessions. Some 100 people filed into three rows of wooden benches that faced each other for the admissions presentation.

Students are required to take 10 classes in several areas to graduate, 2 semesters of a language, and complete an Independent Works or senior thesis, in addition to completing the requirements for their major. Freshmen are also required to choose from 75 or seminar classes (15 students around a seminar table) and take an expository writing class their first semester. There is a 5:1 student:faculty ratio, the average class size is 30 with lectures having 300 or so students in an auditorium. Full-professors actually teach classes. Princeton has its share of Nobel Prize winners – Toni Morrison is one of them.

Freshmen live in one of six Residential Colleges – where you sleep and eat for two years – each college has an identity and a “Master” (a faculty member who lives at the college) to help students negotiate life at Princeton. After sophomore year students can apply to Eating Clubs, non-university affiliated dining halls that encompass social networking (served by private chefs…) that they pay annual dues to. 90% percent of students go this route and others are “independent” or join fraternities or sororities (also off campus).

The Princeton “Tigers” are Division IAA sports and they have garnered a few championships here and there. Sports are point of pride, but certainly not the main focus at Princeton. Interestingly, Princeton has far fewer graduate programs than the other “Ivies” and cites that as a demonstration on its focus on the solid education of undergraduates. Students go on to medical, law, business and other graduate education at much the same rate of other similar programs.

Princeton is a highly selective (one of THE MOST selective), liberal arts college. 1100 students enrolled in last year’s freshman class. The admissions officer said that students are looked at in the context of the curriculum offered at a student’s school and the course that students chooses to take. So, if honors and AP are offered, it would be expected that a students would enroll in many of those classes and dual enrollment as is available. Conversely, Princeton is looking for a “wise” course choice. SAT I and two SAT IIs or the Act with writing are required for applicants (the middle 50% scored 700-800 CR and 700-790 Math). The essay is designed to get to know students and what “they are passionate about”, three adjectives that friends would use for you, and list a favorite quote from a movie and why. Interviews are optional and with alums. Each application has two or more readers.

Financial Aid is “the best in the country” no students have loans when they graduate from Princeton! Students submit Princeton’s own financial aid application.

The New School Welcome Center is just below Union Square and located in a funky, airy building. Multi-media abounded. I met with Eric Sherman (see the video), the admissions officer responsible for MA at the New School’s Eugene Lang College: The New School for Liberal Arts prior to the information session and tour. Eric was great – friendly, informative and just not rote at all (I loved his fun plaid shirt). He emphasized that Eugene Lang College is a small (300 freshmen), liberal arts college that students tend to self-select because they consciously choose a non-traditional, urban education. The student:faculty ratio is 8:1 and courses are all taught in seminar style. 40% of the students are international students. Eric was excited to hear about The Springfield Renaissance School and undaunted by our standards based grading. He mentioned that he has seen lots of different transcripts and would rely on school counselors to help decipher anything on a student’s application. The school is fairly new (1980’s) and has a fair amount of flexibility within its liberal arts curriculum. I hope some The Springfield Renaissance students take a look.

Eugene Lang is one of eight schools housed in the New School and was founded in 1985. Parsons School of Design (of Project Runway fame) is one of those schools, and students have some access to classes within those program. There are 5 year dual degree programs with Parsons and the Jazz and Contemporary Music Programs. The information session was across the street in a small auditorium, I’m not sure how we didn’t lose anyone in the traffic…The host outlined the eight schools within the New School and let the film roll. The presentation was pretty spectacular, I guess that is a perk of having a premier film school under your umbrella. The New School was founded in 1919 and points to progressive educator John Dewey (who said, “children learn best by doing”) as a linchpin in its philosophy.  A couple of Columbia University professors frustrated by the “old thinking” of Columbia went downtown and founded the New School. It was home to many persecuted intellectuals from Europe after World War I. These “Exiled Thinkers” founded a school that emphasizes:

• Critical thinking
• Debate
• Public engagement
• Social Justice
• Contributing to society (positively)
• Theory AND Practice
• Creating change
• Being good citizens

One thing consistently emphasized is the experimental nature of the school. Students can sign up for class that allows them to design and build a boat  and put it in the Hudson to see if it will float (I wonder if they have to get shots)! (see comment thread…)

Financial Aid is both need and merit based. As with all these Big City schools, the cost of studying in NYC makes the REAL cost pricier for sure.

Flickr Video

The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey is located on the New Jersey Shore in the middle of acres and acres of pinelands. Atlantic City and miles of beaches are the closer landmarks. The buildings have a space aged 70s feel and are interconnected and the school is in the middle of a huge building project on a student center. A small, liberal arts state college with just under 7,000 students attending. Admissions are competitive (SAT CR/M1130) and admitted students are in the top 25% of their high school class. An interesting feature of the school is Instant Decision Days – show up with your admissions materials, meet the criteria and you are in! Otherwise, when your file is complete, you receive a decision (latest application submissions for this fall was May 1^st). It is a Div III school and seems to have a bunch of “Osprey” spirit – Men’s soccer has done very well.

Academically, Stockton describes itself as hands on. There is an Honors Program that allows students to work directly with a professor on a research project and present at a conference prior to graduation. There is a General Studies requirement that makes up 25% percent of the courses a student will take in order to graduate. Criminal Justice, Nursing, Dance, Literary Studies, Business, Computer Science, Biology and Marine Biology are some of the majors that students can choose.

Tuition with room and board for out of state students in 2008-2009 was $26,153. There are both need based and merit based scholarships.

There are colleges similar to Stockton closer to Springfield, so a student interested in Stockton would have to want to attend for a specific major or to be in this location (i.e. Marine Biology).

New York University is in the middle of everything Greenwich Village, Union Square and SOHO; Washington Square Park, Broadway, hip hop performance art, street vendors, the coolest of the cool stores and restaurants, and a wide array of people – 8 million. Step off the R Train at 8^th Street or the A, C, B, D at West 4^th and WHAM you are in the heart of gritty Gotham. Nestled amongst all that grit is NYU. When you start to look carefully you see that many of the buildings hoist the purple flags of NYU. The NYU Welcome Center is a building on the southeast corner of Washington Square Park. You have to register online to book a spot and the seats fill quickly. Once you sign in and get your name tag you join 120 or so students and families (maybe some school counselors) in an auditorium. Two LCD screens straddle the podium, the admissions office introduces themselves, the lights dim and a sophisticated film featuring four NYU students begins. Each featured student speaks of his or her experience at NYU with volunteerism, science research, film studies, or HIV/AIDS activism in Ghana. The theme is resources. What is made clear is that the resources made available to NYU undergrads are vast; sky is the limit.

NYU is a large, highly selective university. 90% of admitted students carry a 3.7 GPA and gain combined SAT (CR & Math) of 1400 and SAT II around 600. Two recommendations are required; one recommendation from a school counselor and one from an academic teacher. The admissions counselor made it clear if you submit a ton of recommendations, they are only going to read two! Basically, she said that the admissions process is looking for students who are taking advantage of what is offered at their high school. So, enrolling every AP offered is not necessary, but challenging yourself wisely and being involved in your school community is a plus.

Financial Aid is available. Tuition is over $50,000 dollars. The FAFSA is due on February 15^th.

There are over 21,000 undergraduate students (17,000 men and 25,000 women, when you include the grad students). Students are from all 50 states and 140 nations. Obviously there is tons of diversity and lots of ways to measure it; there are 5% African-American students and 6% Hispanic. There are 1,000 or students who are admitted into the college of Arts and Sciences. Some students may not be admitted to the school of his or her choice but gain a spot in the Liberal Studies program (study at one of the other NYU campuses and guaranteed admission to the school they’d originally applied to in a year).  Engineering students gain a dual degree in a 3+2 year program with NY Polytechnic. There is support for students interested in medicine or law, but no “pre” programs and a high rate of acceptance into graduate schools. Other schools students can apply to are The Tisch School of Drama, Stern School of Business, Nursing school (within liberal arts curriculum). There are general education requirements and all freshmen must take an expository writing course.

At the end of the information session four tour guides fanned up to the front of the group and introduced themselves. We broke into smaller groups and I picked up with Oren, who remembered I was a school counselor (seems college admission folks love school counselors because we ask questions…). No photos or video. Oh, well (I took pictures of buildings afterwards…). The tour group headed to the library, which is huge and has millions of materials. The president lives on the uppermost floor. Housing for students ranges from traditional dorms that surround Washington Square Park to luxury apartments in Gramercy Park for upperclassmen. (I have to admit after having lived in NYC 12 years, it hadn’t really fully registered to me that there was a college right in the middle of The Village! I walked by some of these building everyday. What a wild college experience!). NYU makes itself smaller with a heavy duty residential system and by establishing learning communities. Oren described the school as having a large dose of academic support with opportunity programs for low-income students, a Campus Learning Center, Writing Center and office hours for professor and Teaching Assistants (TAs). We showed our id to the security officer (security is high on campus – swipe cards, safety boxes, and “green light” safe havens) in the Arts and Sciences building and went in a well-apportioned classroom that had any technology imaginable. Oren spoke of the majors, internships, Study Abroad and other academic opportunities available. One thing he said that stuck with is that rather than Googling Degas, students are told to get their subway pass and head to the Metropolitan Museum and look at the actual Degas! Oren actually gave us his email if we had further questions.

No interviews. I did learn that the admissions counselors for our area are Jonathan Beauford and Christopher Perlongo. I will send an email introducing The Springfield Renaissance School to both of them. I’m guessing they’ll visit the school in the fall.

Marymount Manhattan College is located in the posh Upper East Side of Manhattan. It is a small (2,000), liberal arts college. The student:faculty ratio is 12/1 and classes generally have 16 students in them. The college is housed in two buildings on East 71^st Street. Security was tight and I had to provide my license to gain entry. I received a nametag with my photo on it – serious stuff! I was greeted by the admissions office’s administrative assistant, Nicole who was incredibly helpful and knew everyone that entered the office by name. She made sure that I was able to meet with admissions office from our region, David Thomas (see video), after the tour and information session.

The information session highlighted the curriculum, which has a core requirement. Students need 120 credits to graduate. The cool thing is that Manhattan is very much the school’s campus and many students have access to an incredible list of possible internships (only school with an internship at the United Nations), something the college considers a particular strength. Marymount Manhattan has your typical Majors (Accounting, English, Psychology, etc.) and has dual programs that allow students to gain Masters degrees in several areas. Marymount also has pre-professional programs in Dentistry, Law, Medicine and Veterinary Sciences.

The college was in the midst of a 25 million renovation that made the tour a little bit difficult, but our tour guide, Freddie’s enthusiasm made the tour enjoyable. Freddie was a drama major (musical theater) and he said theater, and dance was a strength of Maymount. At one point on the tour we were able to hear a student belt out a show tune and it was pretty impressive!

Housing guaranteed at Marymount and students live in traditional dorm, apartments and suites (one is the tallest dorm in the country). It is truly city living. By the same token, there are no official school sports (although the club soccer team won the trophy this year). Students seem to know each other and Freddie said that professors know their students well. There is a Writing Center to support students, all courses are taught by professors who have office hours, and free tutoring is available as well. Additionally there is a substantial ACCESS program for students with learning disabilities. Another program called Jump Start gets Freshmen on campus during the summer so that they can take a class, and learn “how to do Marymount”.

Admissions is rolling. Tuition is around $35,000. Financial Aid is provided to 85% of students. There are merit (3.0+ GPA and 1150 combined SAT gets students $6,000) and leadership scholarships. Tuition is around $35,000.

David Thomas will be in town for the National Hispanic College Fair at HCC on November 3^rd and he’ll visit Renaissance at 2:30pm on that date. Check MMC out.

Flickr Video

Columbia University is located smack dab in the middle of a neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan called Morningside Heights. In fact, in some ways it is Morningside Heights as it is on of the top three land owners in the city (Catholic church and the state of NY are the others!). You emerge out of the 1/9 subway at 116^th Street and you have to step lively into the hustle and bustle of the big city. Once you enter the campus gates, things slow down a little and the place looks like any other college campus with quads of grass, you are surrounded by a square of buildings. Well, it is a SUPERSIZED “any other campus”. What immediately catches your eye is a massive staircase and a VERY LARGE domed building. Between you and the door is Alma Mater a majestic sculpture that is in any movie that has Columbia in it. I headed past Alma for the admissions tour. The crowd of people in the room was incredibly diverse. I was the only person from New England and students and families had traveled from China, Mexico, Chicago, Oregon and Arizona for the tour.

Columbia is considered an Ivy League School and is Very Highly Selective. 25,000 applied last year and 9% were admitted. Nearly 50% of admitted students scored between 1400 and 1540 on the math and critical reading sections of the SAT! In addition to that students are the top 10% of their class or have the top GPAs in their schools’ grade distribution. Students apply to either Columbia College or the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

The admissions officer, Diane McCoy had worked in admissions at Columbia for nearly 30 years. She admitted that there was no need to convince that Columbia was the place for you, but she wanted to talk about opportunities at the school and the admissions process. Around 4,100 students are in Columbia College and 1,400 are in The Fu Foundation of Engineering and Science. More than 25,000 students at Columbia University are graduate students working on Masters and PhDs.

Basically, Diane McCoy said that students need to demonstrate who they are as students and make clear why they feel that they want Columbia specifically “Columbia, Columbia, I love you!” were her words. The Common Application is not accepted. So, it is important that students know what is offered at Columbia specifically. 500 students sent essay with the WRONG NAME to Columbia – Uggh. She also said students should take the interview if they are offered one, refusing the interview doesn’t look so good!

Students must take a Core Curriculum (and 2 semesters of P.E.) – books from what is called the Western Canon (sometimes called Dead White Males because they are all dead, white and male…). Everyone reads The Iliad and The Odyssey and there is a common experience for all the students in Columbia College. The idea is that students gain a sense of the texts that underline the philosophical basis for politics, ethics, science and education in our society. Science and Engineering students take ½ of the Core Curriculum.

Financial Aid is Need Based. Students must fill out the FAFSA and CSS Profile. Tuition is over $50,000 a year! Families that make under $60,000 a year will be funded for all four years with the expectation that they will have work study and summer work. NO LOANS!!! Families that earn $60,000 to $100,000 expect to pay a percentage of their tuition. $100,000 may have access to low interest loans. There is a National Opportunity Program for low income students who demonstrate potential that provides summer support and 5 years of financing for school.