educational planner - College Admission Counseling

College of Wooster – Changing Lives

Jared Hobson — Mon, 21 Nov 2022 14:38:25 +0000

On a Friday afternoon in August, Mark visited the College of Wooster in Ohio, and was impressed by the personalized attention of the staff.
Watch this video to see how this Midwestern gem is changing lives of its students through its special liberal arts programs.

Mark Montgomery
Educational Consultant
***************

Here’s the transcript if you’d like to read:

I’m here on the Campus of the College of Wooster in Wooster, Ohio. And I could say that the College of Wooster is another one of those Mid-Western surprises. I’ve had on this trip where you walk into the campus and are really shocked by how really wonderful it is. I can’t say I was completely shocked because I knew from reputation that this is a really solid academic school. It’s kind of under the radar screen for a lot of people but a fantastic little liberal arts college in Ohio.

The thing I wanted to mention is the way I visit colleges. I tend not to go on canned admission tours. I tend to just show up kind of unannounced without a lot of fanfare or giving them prior warning of my visit. Then I walked into the Admissions Office today at 4:15, okay it closes at 5.

Immediately they said, let’s get you in touch with the person, what are the admissions reps and he sat down with me. He talked with me for about 40 minutes. He gave me kind of a personal tour of the campus as much as he could before he had to run off to pick up his wife. But really took a personalized – he gave me personal attention. And that’s really indicative of what the College of Wooster is all about spending the time and the energy and giving personal attention to each and every student.

Loren Pope put the College of Wooster in his book 40 Colleges that Changed Lives and, you know. It’s not surprising just my little experience here on an August day when the campus is pretty dead to walk into the Admissions Office and get a lot of personalized attention. We just met with the professor he was walking out of his office, stood there and talked with us for a few minutes, really impressive place.

Yes, the landscaping and the architecture yes that’s kind of a surprise to me. Because it really does kind of help to get a feel of the physical plant of a college. But really by reputation College of Wooster is one of those places that they take – maybe their students are diamonds in the rough not necessarily the tippy top academically. They will take students who have academic potential and they will mold them into scholars. That is really the hallmark of education here at Wooster, excellent education, someplace that is definitely off the radar screen for a lot of students but it shouldn’t be. This is a high value education and it deserves more attention.

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Universities Divided Into Colleges–Northwestern University in Illinois

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 Universities Divided Into Colleges–Northwestern University in Illinois first appeared on College Admission Counseling.

Class Sizes and Teaching Assistants at Northwestern University

Jared Hobson — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 14:55:40 +0000

On a recent trip across the country, Mark stopped at Northwestern University in Illinois and talks about the relatively large class size at the University. 97% of the classes have 100 or less students. But a large percentage of courses have over 40 students, which means that a teaching assistant is assigned to help with the course.

Check this video out to learn how faculty members use the help of TAs to manage large classes:

Mark Montgomery
Educational Consultant
*****************

You may read the transcription below:

I’m here now on the campus of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, just north of Chicago. It’s about 12 miles or so north of Chicago. Great location. If you get out towards the leg it’s, the campus is right on Lake Michigan. You can see downtown from the campus. So it’s another kind of, one of these campuses is like Tuffs, like the University of Chicago where you feel like you’re very much part of the city. But you’re still enough outside of it that you can have this beautiful tree lined campus, green, especially now in the summer.

Probably not so great in the middle of winter. But there are a few things to know about Northwestern. Of course, I can’t sort of in this short video tell you everything. But remember that first of all Northwestern is on a quarter system. So that means that you take only three classes at a time in ten weeks – three or four, maybe four classes – four classes a quarter in ten week quarters. So it’s a little more intensive than at some other places where you might take five or six classes over a 15 week quarter.

A couple of other things. There are about 8,000 students here, so it’s a little larger than some other private universities, the caliber here. But it’s not so large that it’s a great big huge state university. Sort of a nice size in between. This is a size that a lot of students are looking for that is difficult to find. The Admissions Office is telling us also that 97% of the classes have fewer than 100 students. That’s an important figure to know.

That’s probably more important than the student to faculty ratio, which is a 7 to 1. Ignore that statistic. It tells you absolutely nothing about the classroom experience. The percentage of classes that are certain enrollment or less, that’s better. So 97% of the classes here are 100 students or less.

However, if the class is over 40 students then there is a TA for the class that runs the discussion section as opposed to the professor. So we were, our tour guide was from a double major, Bachelor’s in Music and Performance at the Venice School of Music, and none of those classes are large, and so there were no TA’s in that school. But then she also is doing a BA degree in History, and about 50% of the student classes that she had taken in History were over 40 students and therefore had TA’s. Now of course it depends on the classes you pick.

You might be able to take History to find a lot more classes that have a lower enrollment if that’s one of your priorities. To find those classes that have maybe 15 to 20 or maybe even fewer students if that’s a priority. But also remember that the more popular the class. The larger the enrollment and the more likely you are to have a TA.

The post Class Sizes and Teaching Assistants at Northwestern University first appeared on College Admission Counseling.

Kalamazoo College – Great Value for Money

Jared Hobson — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 14:28:26 +0000

Kalamazoo College provides great value for money. Mark was able to spend some time on this campus, poking around and learning about what special characteristics Kalamazoo has to offer.
Watch this video to know more about what makes this Midwest college a good choice for students. Beyond the beautiful campus and great facilities, Kalamazoo offers a very strong liberal arts education.

Mark Montgomery
Educational Consultant
*****************
You may read the transcription below:
I am here today on the campus of Kalamazoo College, which is in Kalamazoo, Michigan. It’s a medium sized city of about 225,000 people. It’s actually a big college town because Western Michigan University is also here. The Kalamazoo College is a small Liberal Arts college and if you look around, you know, you feel, it’s a surprise. That’s one of the things about the Midwest. It’s really a surprise to see this beautiful quad, the columns, the architecture. I mean you could swear you were on a New England campus somewhere, but here we are in the Midwest, excellent college.
Kalamazoo is know for a couple of things, one, its excellent teaching. It is one of the 40 Colleges That Change Lives, and it really focuses on undergraduate education, always has since it was founded in the early 1800s, and the second thing that really sets Kalamazoo apart is its International Studies Program. Like a few other colleges, University of Denver, Dartmouth, even Northwestern, it has a trimester schedule, so that makes it possible for students to take say ten to twelve weeks off of campus, and about 80% of the students here at Kalamazoo College spend some time overseas. So, the international focus of this school is really palpable.
It doesn’t have a really, really strong and diverse community although for a Midwestern Liberal Arts college it is more diverse than many, but certainly the attitude here is expansive and looking outward into the world. That’s always been one of the hallmarks of this college. It’s a beautiful, beautiful campus and brand new student center right here to my right, and we have also walked in the library, beautiful facility. Really this would be a wonderful place to go to college for someone who is serious about academics, who really wanted to spend their time learning in an undergraduate college and who had that desire to study abroad and to be among people who have that international attitude.

Mark Montgomery
Educational Consultant

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Looking for a Strong Christian Identity? Hope May Be the Right College for You!

Jared Hobson — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 14:25:08 +0000

On a recent visit to Hope College in Holland, Michigan, Mark took a few moments to share his impressions about the academic program, the arts, and the strong Christian identity of the college.
Check out this video to hear more from him on this beautiful liberal arts college at the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, or read the transcript below:

Mark Montgomery
Educational Consultant
*****************
TRANSCRIPTION
I’m here right now on the campus of Hope College in Holland, Michigan, right on the shores of Lake Michigan. And it’s a Liberal Arts College of about 3000 students with a strong historical and current relationship with the Reform Church in America. It does have a strong religious identity – Christian identity. So, for students who are looking for that in their education this would be a great option. It’s a beautiful campus, great facilities, known for really strong science. Also, Performing Arts is great. There is a summer repertoire theatre here. So, Holland serves as a hub for the arts.
It’s not that far from Grand Rapids. It’s about 2 hours from Chicago and, again, you know, one of these Midwestern surprises. A beautiful, Liberal Arts college in a place that you wouldn’t necessarily expect, but certainly has the kind of campus that’s redolent of a Liberal Arts College in New England.

The post Looking for a Strong Christian Identity? Hope May Be the Right College for You! first appeared on College Admission Counseling.

Excellent Science and a Whole Lot More at Case Western Reserve University

Jared Hobson — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 14:23:48 +0000

On his recent trip across country, Mark stopped at the Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio to comment on its sciences and engineering programs. But Case Western has a whole lot more to offer than just the science, including excellent programs in music. And its location amidst the institutions of high culture in Cleveland make it attractive to any student seeking an excellent education in an urban setting.
Check out this short video on the high culture and urban environment of Case, or read the transcript that follows.

Mark Montgomery
Educational Consultant
***************
I’m here now on the campus of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. And behind me you can see the famous Lewis Building with its undulating walls. This is a really great place for students who are interested in technical education, engineering, scientific fields, pre med – very well known in those fields. And in that regard, Case is often compared to Carnegie Melon in Pittsburgh – same kind of urban environment in a northern industrial city and both are trying very hard to attract more arts and humanity students. Like Carnegie Melon also the Cleveland Institute of Music is right near by sharing practically the same campus and you can do a dual degree in music and in the liberal arts and sciences over here at Case.
Something that makes Case distinctive, at least geographically, is that it shares a campus called University Circle with Severance Hall where the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra plays, the Botanic Gardens, the Institute of Art. Really for anybody who’s interested in culture and wants an urban environment that’s very close to some of the best in high culture, Case Western is really hard to beat. The campus itself is pretty urban. There are some nice green patches here, but then it’s also bisected by a very large street kind of in the middle. The medical campus is right nearby. It’s really a great option for that sort of medium-sized school that is technically oriented and that’s in an urban environment; hard to find in a university. This might be the place for you.

The post Excellent Science and a Whole Lot More at Case Western Reserve University first appeared on College Admission Counseling.

Augustana College in Rock Island, 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 Rock Island, Illinois – A Pleasant Surprise first appeared on College Admission Counseling.

College Catalog – A Student's Bible

Jared Hobson — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 14:47:42 +0000

On his recent visit to Otterbein College, Mark shared his views about what helps students finding the desired information they’re looking for about a college. A college’s catalog–or bulletin, as it is sometimes called–is the source of all knowledge about the policies, programs, and procedures of a college. If you are interested in a particular place, make sure to pick up the catalog.
Watch this video and learn how a college catalog can help you find the right majors, graduation requirements or answers to any other questions you may have:

Mark Montgomery
Educational Consultant
*****************
TRANSCRIPTION
Hi, I’m here today on the campus of Otterbein University which is in the suburbs of Columbus, Ohio in a beautiful little town, a nice little center here right next to the campus but I want to take a minute just to talk about something about researching colleges and that is the catalog, the college catalog, also sometimes known as the bulletin. This is the bible of any college student and it should be the college of any student who is looking at and trying to decide which college to attend. When you’re serious about a particular college, make sure that you get a copy of this catalog. Now you can find it on the internet sometimes, it’s kind of hard and sometimes it’s kind of funky to navigate but this is really important. Why? Because while choosing a college is partly about sports and activities, you can see the stadium and the track behind me, it’s sometimes about parties and about fraternities and sororities, the fraternity houses are just down the road here and sometimes it’s also about residence halls and living on your own and growing up and expanding in those personal ways but, you know, really college is primarily about school. It’s primarily about learning. It’s tests, it’s papers, it’s all the things, going to class. This is the book that you need to have in order to understand the academic structure of a university and the requirements to your degree. So, you want to make sure that you understand that when you’re looking at a particular college and trying to figure out whether or not this college has the things that you’re interested in.
So, you know, take an example, if you want to know about how to double major or what a dual degree option might be, you need to know all of those things are listed in here. If you’re looking at, say, the politics department, you want to know about what kinds of courses are offered and what are the introductory courses, what are the second level courses, what’s the philosophy of education in that particular department? What is the emphasis? Looking at who the faculty are, that’s all going to be in this catalog. Again, you know, we have all kinds of information at our fingertips. When we go to the internet, we go to the websites of the various colleges, what do we see primarily? We see pretty pictures, we see virtual tours, we see student blogs, we see, you know, talking heads telling us how wonderful this particular college is but if you want to understand what’s going to, what’s in it for you, get the book that every student has on campus, get the college catalog or bulletin and make sure that you read up and understand how this college is structured, what its priorities are and what it’s going to mean for you academically speaking because that’s really what college is all about.

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Ohio State University – Size Does Matter

Jared Hobson — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 14:20:37 +0000

In his recent visit to Ohio State University in the heart of Columbus, Mark talks about the difference between a small school and a large school.
Watch this video as he speaks at one of the largest campuses in America or read the transcript that follows.

Mark Montgomery
Educational Consultant
********
Transcript

I’m here right now on the campus of Ohio State University which is in the heart of Columbus, Ohio. And it’s one of the largest campuses in America. Ohio is a state in contrast because there are so many colleges and universities, lots of large public universities, several large private universities, and then many small liberal arts colleges and religious affiliated colleges; a huge number of institutions.
What I want to talk about right now though is this idea of large versus small. Obviously, this campus is just ginormous. So many different opportunities, so many different programs with well over 50,000 undergraduates; there is something here for everyone. When I’m trying to explain the difference between a small school and a large school many students come to me and they say I want a large school because I want to have all kinds of opportunities. I want to have everything there. I liken that to a buffet table. Think of it like a buffet table that is miles and miles long; so many different opportunities, all of it tasty and delicious. But you can’t even see the end of the table. It’s such an enormous table. It has, you know, Russian studies, East European languages, Neuroscience, nursing, business – just absolutely everything you could ever imagine at a place like this. But when you’re an undergraduate you’re only going to be able to take advantage of a small part of that table. It may be very tasty, all the way down to the end. But you’re really going to have to have a strategy when you get there about which part of the table you are going to take advantage of, academically as well as socially. I mean you’re; there are so many people and so many different opportunities you really have to figure out where are you going to start in this great big huge buffet table.
A small college like a Kenyon or an Otterbein or a College of Wooster. Those colleges are certainly; everything on the table is as delicious and as tasty, but you can see the ends of the table. You can see exactly what’s on there. And if you know that you want to sample particular dishes from that table, well there’s everything you ever wanted there. What’s the issue here? Knowing what it is you want. As you go to select a university, don’t think large versus small automatically. Think what is it I want. What are the things, what are the opportunities I want? Yes, Ohio State has bazillions of opportunities, but which of those opportunities are most relevant to you. If you’re saying well I want an English major, well certainly a place like Kenyon or Otterbein or anyplace else will have that major. If you’re looking for something more specific maybe that’s when you need to be looking at Ohio State. Or, if you want the bustle, the level of independence that is required at a place like Ohio State well then it could be perfect for you.
But don’t think first of what, of large versus small. Think what do I want, what do I need, what are the things that I want to study, what is tasty to me, what do I find delectable. And then go out and find that. It may be on a huge table like the one at Ohio State or it might be at a smaller one like at the College of Wooster. Know what you want, go see for it.

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Ivy Covered Campus – Can You Guess Where We Are?

Jared Hobson — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 13:48:01 +0000

Take a stroll with Mark as he explores a beautiful campus. Can you guess which campus this is?.

Mark Montgomery
Educational Consultant

**************

TRANSCRIPT:

Okay, I’m on a new campus and I want to just play a little game. I want you to take a look with me here and I’m going to walk around the campus, I’m going to show you different aspects of the campus and I want you to tell me where we are. What state are we in? So as we are looking around, we can look at the architecture. Notice the red brick, sort of Neo Georgian architecture with the rectangular windows and the columns in the Doric style.

Hmm, I wonder where we are. And here we have some of the practice fields and a really nice athletic facility and business center and beyond that is the track and some more playing fields. Hmm, nice big trees too. I wonder where we are. Hmm, where are we?

Look, a stately old building, built in the last century and behind it, a beautiful chapel on a hill; a beautiful location. I wonder where we could be. And on every campus we always find the ugly building. This is the ugly building on this campus. Hmm, so that doesn’t really tell us much, if every campus has an ugly building. I wonder which campus we are on now.

And over here we have the little New England like Protestant Chapel, red brick and white steeple, and then over here we have the grand monumental church, not exactly a cathedral, still probably called a chapel. Where are we?
Behind me we have the library; it’s a little more modern than most. But notice that at least architecturally it’s trying to blend in with the surroundings of its other buildings on this nice pedestrian mall. Again, the red brick buildings, the white trim, the Doric columns. Wow, it’s just so New England.

So, yes, here we are at Cornell; not Cornell University however, Cornell College . Not in Ithaca, New York, but in Mount Vernon, Iowa. You know, it’s so amazing. Sometimes I will recommend colleges to students and say, “It’s in Iowa, it’s in Wisconsin, it’s in Michigan,” and students would look at me like, what planet are you from? I have in my mind the Amherst, the Harvard Yards, the Williams of the world. I want to go to school in Massachusetts, New England or Upstate New York.

Well, it really amounts to is geographical chauvinism in many ways because here at Cornell College you have all the same kinds of feel that you would have at a New England College, right here in Iowa. The beautiful trees, the fantastic wonderfully harmonious architecture and built on a hill and you call it Little College Town and first class education.

So before you make snap judgments about whether Iowa or Michigan or Indiana or Ohio is right for you, ask yourself whether you’re really being fair. Ask yourself whether you’ve been there. Ask yourself what you’re looking for in a college. If you’re looking for the bucolic sylvan environment of a Cornell College, you might just find it in a place you least expect.

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