Illinois - Great College Advice

Students Leaving UIUC

Jared Hobson — Mon, 05 Feb 2018 22:09:07 +0000

An article in today’s Chronicle of Higher Education (registration required) highlights the ways in which the state of Illinois has been bleeding students for years. There are lots of reasons why students in Illinois are avoiding state universities, despite moves to freeze tuition increases for the past three years.

There are attractive alternatives in other, neighboring states.
Illinois has not offered easy roads to being classified as “in-state” student for tuition purposes.
Out of state students also have many other options.
State lawmakers have eviscerated the higher education budget for year (as has been the case in so many other states).

Some of these reasons are not ones that universities in Illinois, including UIUC, can really do much about. But this may also explain the dip in UIUC’s ranking in 2018. This year it is #52, while it was #41 in 2014.
If it were a nimble private college, UIUC might be able to objectives a bit better and make the necessary changes quickly to both regain students and its ranking, But as a public university, it will take quite a long time for it to adjust its game plan and improve its fortunes.

Educational Consultant

The post Students Leaving UIUC first appeared on Great College Advice.

Northwestern University: Colleges

Jared Hobson — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 15:00:35 +0000

Mark, in his recent visit to Northwestern University talks about the various schools that comprise the university.
Watch out this short video where he also talks about some of the dual majors offered at the university:

Mark Montgomery
Educational Consultant
*****************
You may read the transcription below:
Here at Northwestern University, there are six different colleges to which students will apply. That’s like many major universities of a certain size, where you make a decision as you are applying which of the various colleges you want to enter. So there’s engineering. There’s the communication school which includes the theater department, the music school, education and social policy; I forget they have a different name for it. And I’m missing one but communications. Oh, and of course, the Weinberg School of Arts and Sciences which is the biggest school and where you would probably go if you were an undecided major.
In any case, you do apply the particular school that is most appropriate to you. As you’re thinking about universities, you do want to make a decision as to whether or not you want to have that kind of a gateway into your educational experience. However, here at Northwestern, it’s fairly easy to move among schools. It’s even possible to double major from one school to the next. For example, you could go into the school of music and you can also double major in say psychology in the school of Arts and Sciences. Or Northwestern also makes it possible that you can do say if you were in the music school, you can do a Bachelors of Music Performance but you can also take a fifth year and get a Bachelors of Arts at the Weinberg School of Arts and Sciences and get two separate undergraduate degrees in five years.
So there’s lots of different combinations of things and Northwestern, although its relatively large at 8,000 students, the administrative barriers to moving among the schools are fairly low. You still have to have an application and there are some administrative barriers that do exist, but it is possible to move among them. So think about that as you’re figuring out which kind of college to attend. Whether you want to have these separate schools of different kinds of specialties or whether you want something that everybody applies at the same thing.

The post Northwestern University: Colleges first appeared on Great College Advice.

Augustana College in Illinois – A Pleasant Surprise

Jared Hobson — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 15:27:12 +0000

On a recent trip across country, Mark stopped at Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois, on the banks of the Mississippi River.
Check out this short video to see what he discovered, or you can read the transcript below.

Mark Montgomery
Educational Consultant
*****************
TRANSCRIPTION
You know, every time I visit a college campus I learn something new, and sometimes when I visit a college campus I’m really surprised; pleasantly surprised about what I find. I am here to day on the campus of Augustana College. It’s in Rock Island, Illinois which is right along the Mississippi in what they call the quad cities, which include Rock Island, Moline, Illinois, and Bettendorf and Davenport, Iowa. Anyway, so that’s the geography, but this is a gorgeous campus. A really pleasant place. We’re here on a very hot summer day and there’s not a lot happening on the campus, but just walking around and seeing the really nice buildings. The geo-science building is over here. The biology building is not far away. The library is down the way. There’s a nice little pond in the middle of the campus; very attractive place, but academically terrific too. It’s a selective liberal arts college with about 2,500 students and the mid 50% range for the ACT is say somewhere between a 24 and a 29. So, good students come here and the strongest programs are probably in English, Biology, Music, Art, a good pre-law program, Education, what am I missing – Business. It’s also got a good Business program. This is a very nice place, very attractive location, and good academics; something that is really surprising. Again, visiting colleges can help to give you a stronger sense of what it would be like to go to this particular college, and you can learn so much by looking at the guide books, or looking at websites, sometimes you really do have to visit to convince yourself that wow, this could be a fantastic place to go to college.

The post Augustana College in Illinois – A Pleasant Surprise first appeared on Great College Advice.

Campus Safety and The Blue Light Special

Jared Hobson — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 14:04:46 +0000

Mark points out the “extra-special security system” at Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois, on his recent visit to the college. About 15 years ago, these were cutting-edge technological systems. Now they are really not so special.
Check this video out as he speaks about the importance of a security system at any college campus, or read the transcript below:

Mark Montgomery
Educational Consultant
*****************
TRANSCRIPT
I’m on the campus today of Augustana College, which is in Rock Island, Illinois. It’s in the Quad Cities. There are four cities that are along the Mississippi River, and one of them is Rock Island.
Augustana is a Lutheran College, that’s about 2,500 students and I learned just a minute ago, that only about 12-13% are actually Lutheran. This is a much more diverse place religiously than you might think being a Lutheran college.
I’m standing here next to the Blue Light, and this is always one of my favorite points on a college campus, because invariably every tour guide stops at the Blue Light and says, “We have this wonderful campus security system, and if you push this button for help, then the campus police will come in three seconds, five seconds, fifteen seconds, fifteen minutes”, however long it might be, but every campus and every tour guide tends to think that these are unique. In actual fact, they are not unique. These were security systems that were developed a decade ago, two decades ago before the invention of cell phones and security systems that the campus police uses to do sort of reverse 911. Anything you want to know about our campus, they will text your cell phone and you’ll know faster than anything, or if you’re in trouble on a college campus, it’s more like that you just call 911 or have campus police on your speed dial, than have to run over to one of these blue kiosk, push the button for help and wait while whatever is threatening continues to be around you. Well, that’s it.
On this campus, it’s a lovely tree line place, it’s gorgeous. There are not a lot of campus security problems over here but every campus system is going to be talking about safety. There are questions that you should ask, but the blue light, well, it’s a little out-dated.

The post Campus Safety and The Blue Light Special first appeared on Great College Advice.

Knox College – A Hotbed of Progressive Thinking

Jared Hobson — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 14:05:46 +0000

On a visit to Knox College, Mark took a moment to talk about how you might find plenty of unconventional and progressive thinking happening in places you might not expect.
Check this video out to learn more about this college with a beautiful campus.

Mark Montgomery
Educational Consultant

If you prefer, you may read the transcript below.
*****************
I’m here today on the campus of Knox College, which is in Galesburg, Illinois. It’s a relatively rural area; small town, agricultural town. Illinois is a very agricultural state. We always think of Illinois and Chicago, but most of the state is agricultural. Knox is a liberal arts college, and beautiful campus; and most people would think that Knox would not be a very progressive place to go to school. Actually, places like Knox, and we also visited Earlham yesterday, Earlham College in Indiana. In some ways, Knox is a hot bed of progressive thinking. The Lincoln-Douglas debates were held here, and if you think about it, the Midwest engendered some of the most progressive thinking when this area was first settled, it was anti-slavery. It was definitely thinking outside the box beyond the status quo.
Certainly in a place like this, you’re going to have people who come from the surrounding states. Many of the students who come here are within say a 300 mile drive. However, the kind of thinking that goes on here is not inside the box. It is not rural agrarian thinking; it is very much connected with the world. Knox has that tradition, and the students and the faculty here do a lot of individualized research. This is a very strong, academic environment. Yes, it’s a little further afield, shall we say, than many other colleges who may be more suburban or urban, but don’t let that fool you that the kind of thinking that goes on, on a campus like this, is relatively status quo. It’s not; you’re going to be challenged here, you’re going to be focusing on learning and isn’t that what your education is all about?

The post Knox College – A Hotbed of Progressive Thinking first appeared on Great College Advice.