Maryland - College Admission Counseling

McDaniel–A High Quality, High Value Liberal Arts Education

Jared Hobson — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 13:53:37 +0000

On a recent trip to eastern Pennsylvania to visit colleges, I made a little detour down into Maryland to visit McDaniel College. I had always wanted to visit the campus, ever since a young woman I met while visiting colleges in Minnesota told me that her first choice was McDaniel. Of course, I had read about McDaniel College in Loren Pope’s Forty Colleges That Change Lives, and I had talked to some admissions representative at the Colleges That Change Lives fairs in Colorado.
But I was very pleased to get a good view of the campus. Unfortunately, I took my walk around the campus on a Sunday, which is never an ideal time to visit a campus. But I made the best of it, poked around in the various buildings that were open. I also headed into town to find a cup of coffee and a bagel…with success!
I took a few minutes to ruminate on the relative cost of McDaniel College in comparison with some of the other campuses I had been visiting. McDaniel, with its relatively low tuition price and its general financial aid packages for top students, offers an excellent education at a bargain price. For students who want the liberal arts experience but are unable to afford colleges that do not offer much in the way of merit-based financial aid, McDaniel could be an excellent choice.
Here is the short video I recorded. If you prefer, you can read the transcript below.

Mark Montgomery
Educational Consultant

The post McDaniel–A High Quality, High Value Liberal Arts Education first appeared on College Admission Counseling.

Loyola University of Maryland–A Dose of Jesuit Education

Jared Hobson — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 15:35:46 +0000

I recently visited the campus of Loyola University in Baltimore, Maryland. I recorded this short video about Jesuit Education.

If you prefer, you can read the transcript below.
Mark Montgomery
Educational Consultant
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I’m here now on the campus of Loyola University of Maryland and Loyola is a name that can be somewhat confusing in college admissions and college searches. Because there are several of them, Loyola of New Orleans, Loyola of Chicago, Loyola Marymount. As you might expect these four institutions as well as several dozen or so more are members of sort of the Jesuit community of universities.

Jesuit education was started by the Society of Jesus, not to evangelize or proselytize but to educate and so there are 21 universities in the United States that have a Jesuit model of education. Some of the big names including Boston College, Marquette, all of the Loyolas, of course, the Jesuit model, Regis University in Denver, my hometown.

The idea here for the Jesuits is educating mind, body and spirit so you will find in Jesuit universities that religion is taught. It’s part of the requirement of finishing your degree here but it is not religion in the sense that you must believe any certain set of religious precepts but you need to train your spirit, train your, think more about what it means to be a human being, what is your responsibility to your fellow human, what is your responsibility to your community.

And so you can take those required courses in all manner of religious thought including religious ethics, Islam, Judaism, other non-western religions. I mean it’s a fairly broad requirement but again the idea here is that you will be taught in a religious context, not that you must be a specific religion or that you must ascribe to a certain set of beliefs. There are plenty of colleges that do require that kind of thing but Jesuits do not.

So you’ll find that the Jesuit universities, many of them are in relatively urban areas like Loyola Maryland in Baltimore. You’ll find that they’re sort of medium sized universities with graduate schools as well as a solid undergraduate education. So when you start thinking about your own religious affiliation and your comfort zone in talking about those big issues of what is it to be human.

What is our responsibility to our communities even if you’re not a religious person or in the catholic faith. The Jesuit universities are certainly a place where we’re going to talk about God, we’re going to talk about what it is to be spiritual and that can be a really important part of an undergraduate education.

The post Loyola University of Maryland–A Dose of Jesuit Education first appeared on College Admission Counseling.

The Economy Affects College Enrollments and Admissions Strategies

Jared Hobson — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 11:12:58 +0000

An excellent article from the Baltimore Sun analyzes the way in which colleges are reacting to the economic downturn. Here are some of the trends.

More private colleges are turning to their waiting lists to fill their classes.
More families are making deposits accepting admission to more then one institution, then bargaining hard for financial aid, pitting one school against the other.
More students are questioning the value of a private education in a time of economic uncertainty.
Enrollments at community colleges seem to be increasing.

Mark Montgomery
College Admission Counselor

The post The Economy Affects College Enrollments and Admissions Strategies first appeared on College Admission Counseling.