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A GRINNELL EDUCATION

At the center of a Grinnell education is intensive mentoring of students by the faculty. This mentoring begins in the First-Year Tutorial, the only required course at Grinnell College. While faculty members from all academic departments teach the tutorial and their topics vary widely, every tutorial emphasizes writing, critical thinking and analysis, oral discussion skills, and information literacy. Each tutor also serves as adviser to this group of students until they declare a major field of study. Thus, students receive guidance from an instructor with personal knowledge of their academic interests, aptitudes, and needs. The tutorial is usually limited to 12 students, making it somewhat smaller than the average class, though similar in intensity to the rest of the curriculum. Grinnell classes generally are small, with an average enrollment of 17 and fewer than 6 percent of classes above 30 students. Many academic programs offer a Mentored Advanced Project (MAP), either as independent study or in the context of a seminar. The MAP, closely guided by a faculty director, gives upper-level students the opportunity to culminate a sequence of academic work by completing a highly advanced project in research or creative arts.

At all levels of the curriculum, Grinnell College students receive an education rooted in active experience. For example, students in science classes engage in discovery-based learning, even at the introductory level. Each area of the fine arts offers opportunities for creative practice alongside the study of history, theory, and formal analysis. Outside the classroom, the Career Development Office has coordinated more than 400 College-funded summer internships forstudents over the past five years. About one- third of students participate in intercollegiate athletics through membership on varsity teams. Residence life, another important feature of a Grinnell education, teaches students the pragmatic social skills of self-governance as they live together in community. The College offers a calendar packed with cultural events and activities, including concerts, lectures, theatre, films, and opportunities for volunteer and civic involvement. Grinnell has never had fraternities or sororities; social events are open to all members of the College.

Grinnell’s emphasis on active learning extends to participation in the global community. With international students making up about 10 percent of our student body and domestic students representing every state, Grinnell offers a geographically and culturally diverse environment for living and learning. A flourishing Center for International Studies coordinates and highlights the many courses and programs at Grinnell College with a global perspective. Even without a language requirement, nearly all students elect to study a foreign language. Roughly half of Grinnell students (a number matched by very few other colleges) spend a semester in Off-Campus Study. Nearly all of these students decide to live and study in an academic program outside of the United States.

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Johns Hopkins University Mission Statement

The mission of The Johns Hopkins University is to educate its students and cultivate their capacity for life-long learning, to foster independent and original research, and to bring the benefits of discovery to the world.

A Brief History of JHU

The Johns Hopkins University opened in 1876, with the inauguration of its first president, Daniel Coit Gilman. "What are we aiming at?" Gilman asked in his installation address. "The encouragement of research … and the advancement of individual scholars, who by their excellence will advance the sciences they pursue, and the society where they dwell."

The mission laid out by Gilman remains the university’s mission today, summed up in a simple but powerful restatement of Gilman’s own words: "Knowledge for the world."

What Gilman created was a research university, dedicated to advancing both students’ knowledge and the state of human knowledge through research and scholarship. Gilman believed that teaching and research are interdependent, that success in one depends on success in the other. A modern university, he believed, must do both well. The realization of Gilman’s philosophy at Johns Hopkins, and at other institutions that later attracted Hopkins-trained scholars, revolutionized higher education in America, leading to the research university system as it exists today.

After more than 130 years, Johns Hopkins remains a world leader in both teaching and research. Eminent professors mentor top students in the arts and music, the humanities, the social and natural sciences, engineering, international studies, education, business and the health professions. Those same faculty members, and their research colleagues at the university’s Applied Physics Laboratory, have each year since 1979 won Johns Hopkins more federal research and development funding than any other university.

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About Vassar College

Quick Vassar Facts: Founded in 1861, Vassar College is a highly selective, residential, coeducational liberal arts college. Consistently ranked among the top liberal arts colleges in the country, Vassar is renowned for pioneering achievements in education, for its long history of curricular innovation, and for the beauty of its campus.

Location

In the scenic Hudson Valley, 75 miles north of New York City, in Poughkeepsie (area population, about 100,000). Vassar is in a residential area three miles from the city center.

View the interactive virtual tour or campus slideshow

Students

2,450 students; approximately 60% come from public high schools, 40% from private schools (both independent and religious). In recent freshman classes, students of color comprised 22-28% of matriculants. International students from 50 countries comprise 8% of the student body.

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About Union College

Founded in 1795, the first college chartered by the Board of Regents of the State of New York, Union is an independent, liberal arts college.

Its name reflects the sense of community felt by members of various groups who were instrumental in its founding.

The things we value

At Union, you’ll find a vibrant community of learners and scholars, of people whose ambition, energy and desire to make things happen are contagious. In our academic buildings, Minerva Houses, labs, library, studios and recital rooms – pretty much anywhere you go on this historic campus – you will feel the intellectual and creative spark. Our tradition and history provide a rock-solid foundation for innovation and inspire us to do great things.

• We are committed to the life of the mind.
• We are small and personal.
• We care about our communities, local and global.
• We are guided by innovation, inspired by tradition.
• We seek diverse perspectives.
• We embrace the meaning of Union.

The Mission of the College

Union College, founded in 1795, is a scholarly community dedicated to shaping the future and to understanding the past.  Faculty, staff, and administrators welcome diverse and talented students into our community, work closely with them to provide a broad and deep education, and guide them in finding and cultivating their passions.  We do this with a wide range of disciplines and interdisciplinary programs in the liberal arts and engineering, as well as academic, athletic, cultural, and social activities, including opportunities to study abroad and to participate in undergraduate research and community service.  We develop in our students the analytic and reflective abilities needed to become engaged, innovative, and ethical contributors to an increasingly diverse, global, and technologically complex society.

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Research and Teaching

Williams is consistently ranked as one of the nation’s top liberal arts colleges and its faculty noted for the quality of their undergraduate teaching.

Faculty are distinguished by the number of prizes won, including MacArthur Fellowship, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Robert Foster Cherry Award for Great Teachers, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching Professor of the Year, Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, Princeton University’s 250th Anniversary Visiting Professorship for Distinguished Teaching, American Astrophysical Society Award, Elliot Rudwick Prize, American Academy of Religion Award for Excellence, Lannan Literary Prize, National Book Award, National Poetry Services Manuscript Competition, Kurt Weill Award, Julia Child Cookbook of the Year Award, and the Deborah and Franklin Tepper Haimo Distinguished Teaching Award of the Mathematical Association of America.

Virtually all faculty members engage in research activities that complement their commitment to teaching and the achievement of academic goals includes active participation of students with faculty in research.

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Adrian College Quick Facts

Founded: 1859

Location: Adrian, Mich. (pop. 22,000). Located 45 minutes from Ann Arbor and Toledo, Ohio, and 90 minutes from Detroit. [directions]

Description: Private, co-educational college of liberal arts and sciences related to The United Methodist Church. It is a traditional four-year, residential college that focuses completely on undergraduate education.

Accreditation: North Central Association of Colleges and Schools

Mission statement: Adrian College, a liberal arts College in the United Methodist tradition, is committed to the pursuit of truth and to the dignity of all people. Through active and creative learning in a supportive community, students are challenged to achieve excellence in their academic, personal, and professional lives, and to contribute to a more socially just society.

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