• Four Year Graduation Rate: 52.2%
• Median SAT: 1095
• $18,433 expenditures per student
• 78.4% Admitted
• 86% Students living on campus

Over a third of the students participate in nationally based sororities and fraternities. The importance of Greek life comes across in the Princeton Review’s student comments. And while the campus hasn’t reported any liquor or drug violations, drinking appears to be a major recreational focus. Randolph-Macon makes the Princeton Review’s top twenty lists in “Lots of Beer Parties,” “Major Frat and Sorority Scene Parties,” and “Party Schools Parties.” This where it would be nice to know more about how other schools ranked on these lists other than the top twenty. For all we know, it may be little different than number 50 or dramatically different than number 21. Having attended a school that regularly made the party school rankings, I know that it’s possible for such a label to have very little effect on your individual experience. However, given it’s small size, it’s something I would want to check out very carefully.

While student’s comments don’t say anything specifically about the academic rigor of the classes, the college states that “since 1920, when statistics were first kept, a higher percentage of Randolph-Macon graduates have gone on to earn PhDs than that of any independent college in the state of Virginia.” I suspect this is a school worth looking into if you are interested in a liberal arts education but don’t have the scores to get into one of the more selective schools. I would just be wary of it’s drinking reputation.

R-MC :: What is the First-Year Experience?

As a new student, you’ll explore these kinds of connections through your First-Year Experience (FYE). You’ll join a small group of other students and two professors from different disciplines for a yearlong exploration of a topic in a challenging and interesting set of FYE classes. Outside the classroom, you’ll attend co-curricular events such as plays and public lectures designed to deepen your understanding of the topic. The work will culminate in an interdisciplinary analysis that might take the form of a written report, a video production, or a work of art. And through FYE you’ll make solid connections with those who share your exploration, including the faculty members, one of whom will serve as your academic advisor.

FYE Topics

The Drug Trade
Disciplines: Chemistry and Sociology

What is Life?
Disciplines: Biology and Computer Science

Biopolitics
Disciplines: Biology, Political Science

Wine, Science, and Society
Disciplines: Literature, Chemistry

In God’s Good Time
Disciplines: Religious Studies, Physics

Why R-MC: Undergraduate Research?

Randolph-Macon College views students as colleagues through their summer research opportunities that take them out of the classroom for a total summer immersion program.

Like professional scientists and scholars, Randolph-Macon students have to apply to the SURF program by writing a proposal and request for grant money to fund their research. If their project is accepted, they receive a stipend of $3,000 and free housing. In addition, funds are available for supplies and travel.

Technorati Tags: Randolph-Macon College, College Rankings, College Search, Liberal Arts Colleges

I love Albion’s “Prospective Student” page. It starts with “do you believe that your first 18 years of life can be accurately and completely reflected in one admissions applications?” Well, of course not which is why you should visit Albion. Like most small, liberal arts colleges, it’s faculty gets high marks for quality and interaction. It appears to have some interesting academic programs and has a high percentage of students going to graduate school or med school after graduation.

The Princeton Review has Albion ranked as number ten in terms of Least Happy Students which may have something to do with being number seven in More to Do on Campus. If the students are as sheltered suburbanites as suggested, it could explain why they might not find the small town of Albion very entertaining. About a third of students are part of the Greek community and comments on StudentsReview suggest that the campus is very clique-ish. Given the nature of small schools, it’s probably a good idea to make sure Albion’s social scene will work for you.

• Four Year Graduation Rate: 66.9%
• Median SAT: 1125
• 15,035 expenditures per student
• 81.9% Admitted
• Princeton Review reports 38% going to graduate school and 15% to medical school
• US News and World Reports lists an endowment of $174,464,242

The Good:

There appears to be a lot of social activities on campus and there is very little on campus crime reported. The college has made a commitment to academic excellence in its First Year Program and numerous academic opportunities.

Entertainment

The Coffee House is a nonprofit student organization which provides Albion College and the Albion community with social space in the hopes of fostering greater social and intellectual exchange. The Coffee House serves the entire gamut of Coffee House fare–espresso, cappuccino, hot chocolate, mochas, soda, etc.–and provides frequent entertainment and lively discussion. Furthermore, the Coffee House provides student volunteers with the opportunity to manage a small business first hand.

Albion College First-Year Experience

William Atwell Brown, Jr., and Mary Brown Vacin First-Year Experience (FYE)

The FYE program will enable you to make a smooth and positive transition to Albion College. Through the program you will be introduced to the liberal arts tradition and the rigors of academic excellence. The FYE program will help you establish habits of mind and patterns of decision-making that will ensure achieving optimal success throughout your four years here. We think you’ll find the First-Year Experience will meet you where you are and take you where you want to go.

Albion College First-Year Experience

Digital Portfolios

Your Digital Portfolio, which provides a detailed summary highlighting your academic and extracurricular experiences.

Albion College Foundation for Undergraduate Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity

The Foundation for Undergraduate Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity (FURSCA) was established to promote and support student research, original scholarship and creative efforts in all disciplines. Through a number of programs, taking place at all points in a student’s career at Albion, FURSCA can help students pursue independent study in their areas of interest. Students work closely with a faculty mentor to develop and carry out research or other creative projects

Flags:

Albion’s budget cuts are coming after being highlighted by the Wall Street Journal for it’s questionable statistics in alumni donations.

Trustees propose budget cut

At 7 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 12, a meeting was held between faculty committee chairs and Board of Trustee members to discuss a recent proposal by the board to cut four tenure-track faculty members to help reduce the college’s deficit.

…

Next year, the school will assume additional operating expenses of about $1.2 million. VanAken said that the largest piece of this is $850,000 in depreciation for the science complex. To help make up for these new expenses, VanAken and the administration have the goal of recruiting 525 first-year students, 45 more than this year’s 480. The extra students would increase the college’s enrollment closer to last year’s 1,950 students. Looking at enrollment a few years ahead, the college will need to recruit classes to replace the class of 2008 that came in with 559 students and the class of 2009 that came in with 571 students, an important thing to be noted, according to VanAken.

WSJ.com

Albion

College, 90 miles west of Detroit in Albion, Mich., used this tactic to increase its alumni giving rate beginning in 2003, when it reaped an artificial increase of 1.4 percentage points, to 51.6%. The college boasted of the rate in a grant application; ultimately, it was awarded the $4.65 million in funds. Albion President Peter Mitchell says the school stopped using this method for the class of 2007 and that the giving rate was just “one arrow in the quiver” for the grant.

Albion stats called into question

On March 2, Albion received attention on the national level, serving as the featured school in a “Wall Street Journal” article. Many students and faculty were dismayed to find, however, the attention was not positive.The article, entitled “To Boost Donor Numbers, Colleges Adopt New Tricks,” addressed how several colleges calculate their alumni-giving rate. Albion was used to illustrate all of the practices called into question in the article, which included limited effort to find alumni that do not have current contact information on file and the practice of considering senior gifts as multi-year donations.

I also have some concerns about the strength of its liberal arts program. I know that Albion has several programs that are design to integrate the liberal arts into management, medicine, and administration but given its five most popular majors, I would look into the emphasis of the academic programs very carefully.

USNews.com: America’s Best Colleges 2008: Albion College: Academics

Albion: 20% economics, 13% biology/biological sciences, 12% psychology, 11% English language and literature, 10% history

St. Olaf: 11% biology/biological sciences, 8% English language and literature, 6% economics, 6% mathematics, 6% psychology

College of Wooster: 10% history, 9% psychology, 8% English language and literature, 8% communication studies/speech communication and rhetoric, 8% political science and government

Kalamazoo: 24% social sciences, 13% psychology, 10% English language and literature/letters, 9% biological and biomedical sciences, 9% physical sciences

Wabash: 14% history, 13% psychology, 12% English language and literature, 11% philosophy and religious studies, 10% biology/biological sciences

College Navigator – Albion College

Majors in Business, management, marketing, and related support services 41%

Gustavus Adolphus College is a liberal arts college in Minnesota with a relatively high graduation rate, high admittance rate, and a large endowment. I didn’t see anything especially compelling about the school from available public information. My overall impression, which could be totally wrong, is a school that provides lots of individual attention to students but that the students aren’t necessarily challenged and haven’t really come together as a community.

• 72% graduation rate
• Median SAT 1165
• $16,250 Student Related Expenditures per FTE
• 60.5% degrees awarded in Arts and Sciences
• 79.7% Admitted
• Princeton Review reports 35% attending graduate school
• US News College Rankings report an endowment of over 96 million dollars and an alumni giving rate of 31%

Gustavus Adolphus – Why Choose Gustavus?

Gustavus is known for its academic quality. It’s the most important feature of a college—you are, after all, going to college for your education. You can measure Gustavus’ academic quality many ways: faculty credentials, curriculum options, average class size, graduation outcomes, hosting a Phi Beta Kappa chapter, and more.

Notable Programs

Curriculum II – Academics – Gustavus Adolphus College

Curriculum II, which is limited to sixty students, is an integrated sequence of courses focused on the development of the Western tradition with comparisons to non-Western cultures, the examination of values, and the theme of the individual and community. Retreats and trips to the Twin Cities for cultural events also foster a sense of community within the group.

Flags

• Only 3.1 % under-represented minorities (what do you expect, it’s Minnesota)
• The Princeton Reviews’ Student Says section states that apparently the school has a reputation for drinking and the administration is cracking down on it. This could explain the relatively high number of liquor law violations reported on campus in the College Navigator. This doesn’t necessarily mean that students drink more on the Gustavus Adolphus campus than others; it could mean that the administration is trying to do something about it as oppose to others.
• Comments at Student Reviews suggest some serious problems with it’s residential department.

Selections from the campus newspaper, The Gustavian Weekly

On diversity:

Is Gustavus a college for Lutherans or a college for all | Gustavian Weekly

Though the religious make-up of the college remains primarily Lutheran, the Gustavus community is experiencing a great deal of change, facilitated by its Lutheran background.

“The college’s attitude— which is long standing— is an openness to religious diversity. While we will be, for the foreseeable future, focused on our Lutheran traditions, the Lutheran tradition of higher education is inclusive of other religions,” said President Peterson.

Even though the college officially welcomes all, there is still work to be done.

Diversity appears to be on the campus radar.

Study abroad:

Study abroad program put to the test | Gustavian Weekly

This year, the way students pay for study abroad programs has changed. Students are now paying more to study abroad, which has lead to some criticism. Previously, students studying abroad simply paid Gustavus tuition. This year, however, students must pay Gustavus tuition and a program fee that varies with each program.

The previous system had inherent problems, said Pat Quade, Interim Director of International Education at Gustavus.

“Students were paying Gustavus tuition, and most of that went with them to the program. The fallacy with that is that the college doesn’t close when a student goes off campus. The budget is predicated on [a set] number of students paying tuition and the college was sending all of that tuition away for a number of students, which meant that there was not enough money left to cover the maintenance of the college, to pay staff and faculty,” said Quade. “We had to change. The other options weren’t very good: close the college or limit the number of students.”

Given the rate of alumni giving, decent but not great endowment, and above average student expentitures, you have to wonder about priorities and financial management.

On college rankings

Gustavus left unranked | Gustavian Weekly

For many prospective students, this can lead to some confusion on how to decide which school to attend. In order to help prospective students make this difficult decision, various organizations release college rankings every year. Gustavus usually places very well in these rankings. However, one of the largest of these, U.S. News and World Report’s annual ranking, left Gustavus unranked due to an error by the college.

Given that a growing number of liberal arts colleges are refusing to participate in the U.S. News and World Report’s rankings, I wonder about the student’s commitment to the liberal arts ideal over it’s reputation.

Technorati Tags: Gustavus Adolphus College, college rankings, liberal arts colleges, college search