Transcript from PCACAC StriveScan Sept. 19, 2021

My name is Christina Bertie and I am the Senior Associate Dean of Admissions at Salve Regina University. This is a picture of our campus. We are located in Newport, Rhode Island. So literally on an island surrounded by water, in an incredible historic district of the city. Salve has a very unique campus, and we certainly use our environment and our community to our benefit being completely integrated and making sure that our students are able to take advantage of the benefit of this incredible space that we occupy, and many of our students come back saying that it is this incredible location that really inspires their academic excellence while they’re at school.

Salve Regina, in the Catholic liberal arts tradition, was founded by the Sisters of Mercy. And so we are very much a mission-driven institution that really takes this, the founding of the Sisters of Mercy in mind. They were a group that began in Ireland, who really wanted to go out into the world and impact positive social change.

The line of our mission that almost every student can repeat back to you is “working towards a world that’s harmonious, just and merciful.” So that’s what we hope to do, and that’s what we hope to teach inside the classroom and outside the classroom. What you’re looking at here is our strategic compass. So certainly, we are driven by our mission but we need to put that into place in a very practical way so that it benefits our school today. So this compass is really sort of our promise to you the type of experience that a student would experience with us at South Bay, which includes of course a rigorous education, first and foremost, teaching adaptive resilience, which is a skill that we have seen needed greatly in the world over these past years, certainly with a lens of compassionate mercy, leadership, developing more of the leaders our world needs, all in an inclusive community that helps with your learning and understanding and worldview.

We’re located right in Newport, which is a beautiful colonial city. We’re a small school 2100 undergraduates. That allows for a nice small academic environment as well, with a 13 to 1 student faculty ratio, and then an average class size of just 19. But we really have great one-on-one advising, and a lot of great support for our students as well. Again, both inside and outside of the classroom, and most of our students are coming from out of state so you will be among students from across the nation, and the world.

And what is most critical to our academic programs is that you build those skill sets that you need to launch you into the next step. And so for our programs which we have them in over 40 academic areas are participating and hands-on learning that is helping them to build their resumes, but also to really be able to realize their passions, as well. And so whether you’re at Salve studying the sciences, nursing, something like English, history or political science, the visual or performing arts, administration of justice or business, or even one of our most unique majors, culture and historic preservation. This will be a hallmark of your education.

And certainly our students are well prepared for their future as they come out of Salve. Our most recent first destination survey put 98% of our students either in grad school or within their career field within six months of commencement, doing very well coming out. And we’ve also been rated as number 18 for transformational experiences. So certainly speaking to that mission, and how Salve really educates the whole person, both inside and outside of the classroom 

A little bit about our application process. We are a Common Application school. We look at that as well as your high school transcript, two letters of recommendation and Salve is test optional. We were historically a test optional institution but have in the past required testing for our nursing and education programs. This past year because of the pandemic as well as this year, we are fully test optional for all of our programs. So you’re able to select whether or not you’d like to send that into us. It’s why we list these middle 50% on the left side of the screen to give you an idea if you might want to send in that testing to us or not. We’re always happy to have those conversations as well. 

Last year only 25% of students sent in their test scores, and they were admitted at the exact same rate as those students who did not.

We have our first deadline coming up on November 1–that’s both early action one and early decision, and that early decision is the binding option. Early action one is nonbinding, meaning you still have until May 1 to make your college choice, but that’s early deadline. It gets you a decision by January 1. So, it’s a real nice benefit to have that decision back early.

And we do know that college needs to be a financial fit for you as well. So 99% of our families do receive financial assistance from us in the form of both merit scholarships, as well as need based aid, and that all happens automatically through the application process, and then the need-based aid using the FAFSA.

So we do hope you’ll come visit our incredible campus and see it for yourself.