Category Archives: Admissions

A Visit to Elon University

Despite having approximately 6,000 undergraduates and 700 graduate students, Elon feels like a much smaller liberal arts college. My tour guide, Wil, is currently in his senior year, majoring in finance and accounting. He is a tremendous ambassador for the university and did a great job sharing all that Elon offers. Here’s what I learned…

At the center of Elon’s educational philosophy is the belief that learning happens everywhere. As a result, their signature program, the Elon Experiences, offers a natural extension of the work done in the classroom. Students are required to complete two units of experiential learning which may be done through Study Abroad, Research, Internships, Service and/or Leadership. Based on the numbers, it’s clear that students take advantage of the offerings beyond the basic requirements. Of recent grads, 74% spent at least one term abroad, 92% took part in at least one internship, 24% conducted faculty-mentored undergraduate research outside the classroom, 47% held at least one leadership position and 92% engaged in service. Other highlights of the academic programs:

  • For those interested in pursuing professions in medicine, there are two designated human donor labs for undergrads and a pre-health advising system.
  • Engineering is offered through a 3+2 program which supports students in working toward two degrees: one from Elon and one from an engineering university. The school currently has affiliations with North Carolina State University, Georgia Tech, Pennsylvania State University, Virginia Tech, Columbia University, University of Notre Dame, Washington University in St. Louis, University of South Carolina and North Carolina A&T State University.
  • Through the Mooney School of Education, students spend their first year observing and their last year teaching in a classroom. The school has a dedicated library on the first floor. Outreach to the community can be done through the Village Project which offers the chance to tutor English or Math in the local schools.
  • All students receive an academic advisor on day one of freshman year. A new one is provided once a major is declared.
  • All students are assigned a dedicated librarian. The Belk Library offers space for group work along with writing and tutoring centers.
  • About 20% of students study in the School of Communication and it’s easy to see why. The new building overlooks tiny downtown Elon, NC and includes a state-of-the-art studio donated by Brian Williams of NBC which produces several TV shows staring and produced by Elon students. Strategic Communications is the most popular major on campus.
  • The business school is expanding but classes are relatively small and capped at 33.

I had the opportunity to meet Kate Upton, Assistant Professor of Finance, when we were touring the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business. When I asked her what she liked most about her Elon experience, she said it’s the value that the school places on mentorship. Mentoring students isn’t just encouraged; it’s something on which professors are evaluated.

The student body is 42% Greek but it’s predominately made up of sororities. Wil is not in a fraternity and said that not joining may have impacted the development of his social life initially but he does not feel that not participating in the Greek system has held him back. He did say that not going Greek might be more of an issue for females than males.

College Coffee is a cherished tradition on campus. Every Tuesday morning, the community comes together for conversation over coffee and pastries. Another Elon tradition is the lighting of the luminaries during exam time in the lead up to the holidays. Elon was named after the Hebrew word for oak and two traditions have developed in celebration of these roots. New Student Convocation for first year and transfer students is held “Under the Oaks” behind West Dormitory. Each new student receives their own acorn at the close of the ceremony to symbolize their beginning at Elon. At graduation, each student receives an oak sapling which symbolizes their growth at the university.

Students are required to live on campus and participate in the meal plan for two years. Wil is so fond of both that he is participating all four years. Food must be good! In addition, to offering seven residential neighborhoods, Elon also offers 26 living learning communities to enable groups of people with shared interests and goals to live together. Examples include Gender & Sexuality, Leaders in a Global World, Interfaith House, Creative Arts and World Languages.

Elon offers several need and merit based scholarships. In addition, the university offers six Fellows Programs which include additional scholarship opportunities. To be considered, students must submit an additional Fellows application which will be reviewed by faculty committees. If selected, you will be invited to attend Fellows Weekend during which students participate in a seminar and write a response to the topic discussed, interview with faculty and attend information sessions about the program. From this weekend-long process, Fellows are selected.

According to Wil, diversity is an initiative of major importance to university president, Leo Lambert. The school is proud to have achieved 20% racial and ethnic diversity in the Class of 2020. In the summer 2017 edition of The Magazine of Elon, Lambert says that the school is “now in the early stages of meeting the next great long-term challenge for Elon: building our endowment for the primary purpose of increasing student financial aid”. Earlier this year, Lambert announced that he was stepping down after 18 years. Wil described Lambert as personable, said that he’s done a good job of representing the student body and has helped the school to gain name recognition.  During Lambert’s presidency, applications for undergraduate admission have doubled, enrollment has grown from 4,000 to more than 6,700, and full-time faculty numbers have increased from under 200 to 425. During this period of growth, student academic credentials increased, average class sizes dropped and the student-faculty ratio decreased from 16-to-1 to 12-to-1. In the days following my visit to campus, Elon announced Dr. Connie Ledoux Book as the university’s ninth president.  Dr. Book comes to Elon from The Citadel where she served as Dean & Provost, the first female to hold either title in The Citadel’s 175-year history.

Rankings are an important component of the university’s branding and marketing efforts. Elon has successfully transformed itself from a regional, religious college to a selective, nationally recognized university. It will be interesting to see how the university evolves under the leadership of Dr. Book in the years to come.

A Visit to Wake Forest University

It was a beautiful fall day in NC when I visited the Wake Forest campus. The trees had not yet turned dozens of shades of oranges and reds but the air had shed the weight of summer’s humidity. I stopped by Byrum Welcome Center to listen to the morning’s Information Session, hosted by Thomas Ray, Wake’s Coordinator of Diversity Admissions. Thomas is an alum and he maintains the passion of an undergrad for his alma mater. The takeaways from my visit are simple: Wake Forest could truly be a fit for a variety of different students. It is small enough to be manageable but large enough to provide a diversity of coursework and extracurricular activities.

Walking the campus, you can’t help but notice the gorgeous Georgian-style buildings. With 350 acres, it’s big but manageable on foot. While the university does have several graduate programs, the focus here is clearly on the undergraduate experience and the building are arranged to that end.

While the campus is beautiful, it’s the students who make this campus come to life. Although not mentioned during our info session, Greek life is a big part of the social scene at Wake Forest. 35% of men and 57% of women go Greek. The Student Involvement Fair is a great way to understand everything else that Wake offers from bass fishing and a cappella to Christian drama and sustainability.

Wake Forest’s motto, Pro Humanitate (For Humanity), is a calling for students to use their knowledge, talents and compassion to better the lives of others. That calling seems to permeate every aspect of the campus and the experience at Wake Forest. One in four undergrads participates in Wake N’ Shake, a 12-hour dance marathon that benefits cancer research ($336,000 was raised in March 2017). While wandering the campus, I stopped by a table where a student was encouraging people to sign up for Project Pumpkin, which provides a safe trick-or-treating option for area youth. This year’s theme is Heroes vs. Villains. Another popular option among students is a service mission program called Wake Alternative Break. During the week, students will focus on a social justice issue, engage in readings, reflections, and blogging and participate in direct service. Since 2003, students have “Hit the Bricks” around Hearn Plaza to raise money for the Brian Piccolo (Wake Forest ’65 and the subject of the multiple Emmy winning “Brian’s Song”) Cancer Research Fund which benefits the local Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center Comprehensive Cancer Center.

We can’t talk about Wake without talking about sports. Wake is part of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) and is one of the smallest school in the division. The school has 48 ACC Championships in 11 sports. Enthusiasm for Wake sports can be measured in toilet paper. Students, alumni and other fans take to “rolling the quad” to celebrate athletic victories. While Wake Forest is known nationally for their basketball success, the Demon Deacons have made waves in football as well; in 2007, they exceeded all expectations and earned a bid to the prestigious FedEx Orange Bowl. The men’s soccer team has appeared in the NCAA Tournament every year from 2011 to 2016.

During my conversations with students, several commented on how supportive and approachable the professors are. 99% of courses have < 25 students in the class. As a result, students form strong relationships with their professors. Those relationships are important to ensure a student’s success at the school that’s been dubbed “Work Forest”. The path will be challenging but students are supported from day one with multiple academic and peer advisors.

The liberal arts education offers courses across the humanities, literature, fine arts, social sciences and math and natural sciences. Students are required to take classes across all divisions as well as satisfy a cultural diversity requirement. There are 35 majors to choose from: accountancy, biology, art history, music in liberal arts and women’s, gender & sexuality studies to name a few.

In January 2017, Wake Forest debuted Wake Downtown, a 151,000-square-foot center (former R.J. Reynolds space) in downtown Winston-Salem, a 13-minute shuttle ride from Reynolda Campus. The space is dedicated to newly approved courses of study in engineering, biochemistry and molecular biology, and medicinal chemistry and drug discovery.

Going global is an integral to the Wake experience as well. 70% of the student body studies abroad at least once during their time at Wake. In addition to Wake Houses in London, Vienna and Venice, the school offers 400 programs in 200 cities. That global spirit can be felt on campus as well, with a 10% international student body and organizations like the African and Caribbean Students Association, which hosts an annual event full of cultural food, fashion and entertainment and Friendships Beyond Borders, which provides a community for international students by pairing them with upperclassmen in mentor relationships.

According to the campus student newspaper, Old Gold & Black, here’s what’s happening on campus:

  • “Rethinking Community” initiative: a series of conferences, dialogues, speakers, performances and events exploring the “polarized, diverse, virtual, and global” nature of life in the second decade of the 21st century
  • A new virtual reality class at Wake Downtown (http://wakedowntown.wfu.edu/)
  • Teach-ins facilitated campus discussions on Charlottesville
  • Orientation for first-year students, including the Convocation and Pros vs. Joes, which clearly succeeded in bonding the new students

Having worked with many Career Services offices in my time as a recruiter, without a doubt, The Office of Career and Professional Development at Wake Forest is among the best. The staff works hard to develop strong relationships with employers. In fact, there was a career fair going on in Benson Hall the day that I was there; there were approximately 80 companies in attendance. Career Treks offer students valuable opportunities to learn about companies, industries and careers in a personal setting. Students travel to Atlanta, DC, New York and San Francisco to engage with industry professionals, expand their networks, and increase their awareness of career possibilities. The office engages early with contact starting day one of freshman year. The results are clear: students understand how to engage with employers, how to write a strong resume and how to utilize their network; 98.5% of Wake Forest graduates are employed within six months of graduation.

Wake Forest University could be a good match if you are seeking a smaller school (but not too small), with strong academics, a support network from peers, professors and staff, and a deep commitment to enriching the lives of others.

Why your job search is a lot like getting into college

A shout out to Colby College, pictured above, for providing me with a great foundation for exploring my passions and pursuing my goals.

Do you remember sitting down to write essays for your college applications? Neither do I. For many of us it’s been a long time (or really long time, but who’s counting?). However, if you think back to all the great advice you received about applying to college and writing those essays or your personal statement, many of the same rules apply today when looking for a job and writing your cover letter:

  • Be selective. Just as some students apply to as many 40 colleges, many people on the job hunt apply to far too many jobs and then wonder why they never hear back. It’s because you couldn’t possibly 1) be equally qualified for 100 different unrelated jobs or 2) have done enough research to write a convincing cover letter articulating why they can’t live without you or 3) have taken the time to utilize your network so your resume just went into a black hole. Invest time customizing the cover letters for the select handful of jobs that you really want (and are actually qualified for) rather than blasting out generic applications for countless jobs that you haven’t researched and at the end of the day, probably aren’t really interested in. When it comes to your job search, more is not always more.
  • Be your authentic self. Choosing the right college is about finding the place that has the right environment, culture, classes, activities and professors for you. You won’t find it if you don’t take the time to understand what’s important to you. Same is true in the job search and the interview process. It’s a two-way street and it’s important to do your homework and ask questions to make sure that the company and role are the right fit for you.
  • Build real and lasting relationships. For high school students, that means building relationships with college reps, alumni, your interviewer and your counselor. For those of you on the job hunt, that means building and most importantly maintaining connections with your network. According to a recent survey, 85% of all jobs are filled by hiring managers and candidates leveraging their personal networks. I suspect that number got your attention! You need to cultivate your network; statistically speaking, it is the key to finding the next opportunity. In addition, take the time to identify the hiring manager and recruiter. Connect with them on LinkedIn with a thoughtful message and address your cover letter accordingly.
  • Demonstrate your interest. Colleges are looking for demonstrated interest because they care about their yield. Showing a college that you are interested is the opposite of dating. Don’t play hard to get and pretend that you aren’t interested. Recruiters and hiring managers want you to want them too and not just because you need a job but because you want their job at their company.  Generic cover letters don’t work. I know, I know. Customizing each cover letter, doing your homework and building relationships (see above) take effort and time. But if you are selective (again, see above) then you can spend your time researching the company and articulate in a cover letter, LinkedIn message, and during your interview why you are interested and why you are a great fit.

P.S. My favorite tool for developing a manageable target list of companies: the 2 Hour Job Search.