Worcester Polytechnic Institute Karen A. Hott, June 2022 I visited WPI in April and attended an IECA webinar with Patrick Deane of WPI in June. On campus, the deep-red brick buildings are punctuated by newer ones, like the recreation center and Unity Hall, a shiny new building that connects the upper and lower parts of this hilly campus. Unity Hall

Jacksonville University raised its profile by focusing on the student experience and investing in leadership. President Tim Cost assembled an impressive team of leaders, from the dynamic provost, Dr. Christine Sapienza, to the country’s youngest athletic director of the year, Alex Ricker-Gilbert. I met these and other JU leaders during an independent educational consultants (IECs) visit May 9 and 10,

A Friendly Rhode Trip How you get treated when you arrive on campus at the busiest time of the year tells you a lot about a place. The University of Rhode Island treated me, a single counselor, like someone special. April 20 is a busy time at any campus: High school students on spring break are touring. College seniors are

Washington College, in Chestertown, Maryland, on the scenic Chester River, makes full use of its history and its location on a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay. Recent land purchases along the waterfront have expanded its footprint and facilities, including a revamped boathouse and the new Semans-Griswold Environmental Hall, which reclaimed a site that was once storage for petroleum and chemicals.

Rick Clark is the admissions director at Georgia Tech, a selective university that has become more selective each year. He wants kids to know that they should not fear the process of getting into college. Most colleges accept most applicants, so think of abundance rather than scarcity. Here’s his March 8, 2022, blog that was triggered by an email he

Congratulations! What? The University of Maryland has a somewhat bewildering array of offers of admission to their Early Action applicants. (You pretty much have to apply Early Action because UMD selects 90 percent of their freshman class from that pool.) One possibility is that you get into one of their 12 Limited Enrollment Programs (LEPs). Another is that you didn’t

Early action applicants to the University of Maryland, College Park, got their answers the end of January. Several positive outcomes were possible, but what do these outcomes mean? Limited Enrollment Programs Students who applied to a Limited Enrollment Program (LEP), like engineering, psychology, or computer science, may have been admitted to the university but not the LEP. If you’re told

Syracuse University has a strong support system for students with learning differences. Staff point out that students transitioning from high school to college should expect to find differences in student responsibilities, parent roles, types of accommodations, and teacher engagement. However, landing at Syracuse might be softer than landing at a school that provides only what the law requires. If you’re

Harvey Mudd College is the STEM school of the five undergraduates schools within the Claremont Colleges, joining Pitzer, Scripps, Claremont McKenna, and Pomona. These schools, plus two graduate institutes, lie within a square mile 35 miles east of Los Angeles. With about 6,000 undergraduates among them, the Claremont Colleges share 2,000 courses for cross-registration and run the same schedule. In

The bottom lines:  1. Be careful about the conclusions you draw from numbers showing that a greater percentage of admitted students submitted test scores. Test scores often correlate to achievement in the classroom, so those with high scores most often have high GPAs in rigorous classes. 2. Test scores don’t drive admissions decisions.  3. Private schools have more latitude in