UC Irvine

 I've been wanting to visit here for ages as I've had several students attend UCI and been very happy there.  I got my chance on Friday and was pleasantly surprised and impressed! Irvine is located 10 minutes from the beach, just south of Los Angeles but close enough to Disneyland to be able to see the nightly fireworks from the tallest building on campus.  I would characterize Irvine as a suburb of LA and the campus as feeling that way too.  Laid out in a circle around a beautiful park with wireless internet access, the buildings are a mixture of impressive modern "green" design and 1960's architecture. It all fits together rather nicely and, when coupled with a surprising amount of landscaping for a public university, the effect is quite pleasant.  Housing is guaranteed for the first two years and residence halls are clustered into groupings, most notably Middle Earth, where everything is named after locations and characters from the Lord of the Rings.

The campus was buzzing when I was there.  Student groups had set up tables lining the main campus walk and were there to fund raise, raise awareness and publicize events.  There were students outside studying, chatting with friends and meeting with teachers. There are 21,000 undergraduates and only 4000 graduate students at UCI.  The most popular majors fall under social sciences and the social ecology but Engineering (with an earthquake simulation lab, a wind tunnel lab used by Nike to test fabric and a combustion lab used to test jet fuel), creative writing (Michael Chabon is an alum), art and drama are also quite strong here.  The computer science department has graduated students who have gone on to give us the "http" protocol and create World of Warcraft (a new major at UCI is computer game design).  Nobel laureates teach undergraduates in the chemistry and physics departments.  While introductory courses can be as large as 500 students, our tour guide told us that for every large lecture there is a smaller (30-40 students) discussion class.  He emphasized the importance of going to a professor's office hours as a way to get to know the professor and also to get help.  Amazingly, he said few students do this and those that do reap multiple benefits.

Of course, proximity to LA means that there is always something to do although it was not clear to me how easy it is to get into LA without a car.  Students seemed to be quite spirited, loving their anteater mascot and enthusiastically cheering on their sports teams, particularly men's water polo and volleyball.  There appeared to be plenty to do on campus and significant ethnic, cultural and religious diversity. 

If you are looking for a large university environment where the focus will be on undergraduates, you would be wise to check out UC Irvine.  For California residents, it is an attractive and affordable option with few disadvantages!

Agnes Scott College

Science Building, Agnes Scott

Located in Decatur, a suburb of Atlanta, Agnes Scott is a highly selective college for about 1000 women.  The family that donated the land asked that the college be named after their mother.  A well blended mix of old and new buildings, Agnes Scott is a college with a range of traditions revered by its students and alumnae who become involved with undergraduates.

Students I spoke with could not suppress their enthusiasm for their classes and professors.  Classes are small, which allows professors to get to know students and to participate fully in the life of the college.  Students found their coursework demanding and professors supportive.  Students are required to live on campus all four years, which solidifies the college community.  Among those who wouldn't do well here are social butterflies, someone not willing to engage or go to class, back row kids, followers and someone wanting to be anonymous.  A California student we interviewed said the biggest change she encountered at Agnes Scott was how friendly and polite everyone was!

The women we spoke with did not initially intend to go to a women's college but found everything they were looking for and more at Agnes Scott.  They were quick to note that Georgia Tech is 75% men and only 15 minutes away and both Emory University and Morehouse College are very close.  They also commented that there are usually more men than women at campus parties.

The admissions process at Agnes Scott is personal.  They are test optional, asking for a graded essay or a Skype interview to replace the testing requirement.  Serious applicants will want to make an effort to get to know the regional admission representative. 

Oglethorpe University

I will admit it it right away - I had never heard of Oglethorpe University before I was invited to visit it along with other colleges in Atlanta.  Of the five colleges we visited, it was one of the standouts.  Most of the 1100 students are from the south and mid-Atlantic states but there was one student on our student panel from Los Angeles.  The students on the panel impressed me as being quite genuine, relaxed, friendly and surprisingly balanced young people, in contrast to the many college students I meet on campuses who seem over committed and stressed. 

Named after the founder of Georgia and its first governor, Oglethorpe occupies a lovely wooded campus within the Atlanta city limits and walking distance from the light rail transit system.  Classes here are small and personal and everyone seems to know each other.  Faculty are here to teach undergraduates first, develop their own scholarly interests second. The President had just returned from leading a spring break trip to Ecuador. Oglethorpe offers the usual liberal arts majors and biology is most popular at the moment.  New residence halls have recently been built but everyone agrees that a new student center is needed next.

Relationship was the word that kept coming to my mind during my visit to Oglethorpe.  The relationships between people were highly valued and honored and I observed this in the interactions between people and in the way I was treated.  This focus translates to a more humane admissions process that includes rolling admissions and an attempt to provide as much financial aid as possible for needy families.  Oglethorpe's not the right place for everyone, but it would be a great place for someone who wants to build relationships at a small, diverse college in a city.

Emory University - Emory College and Oxford College

I often hear students say they want to go to a medium to large size university and have small classes where they will get to know their professors well.  Those characteristics can be hard to find but Emory University provides a creative answer.  Located in the heart of Atlanta on a peaceful and pastoral campus, freshman applicants to Emory University can choose to apply to Emory College or Oxford College.  Emory College is located in Atlanta while Oxford occupies the original Emory University location 40 miles outside of the city.  Oxford can be described as academically equivalent to Emory but environmentally distinct with faculty devoted to teaching undergraduates and involvement in the community.

Oxford College

The Oxford campus is exclusively for freshmen and sophomores (a total of 800 students) and there students get the individual attention and small classes they seek.  After two years, they automatically transferred to Emory College, where they assimilate easily into the fabric of city life and the pace of a world class, research oriented university.  Over 40% of the classes at Oxford have a service learning component where students apply the knowledge they have gained in the classroom to real world situations.   In addition, leadership skill development is stressed at Oxford where student organizations are run by freshmen and sophomores, not juniors and seniors.  Emory professors think the Oxford students stand out with well developed writing and research skills and welcome them enthusiastically when they transfer to the Atlanta campus.

Dooley, the unofficial mascot of Emory University

Emory University, which refers to itself as a "pre-professional university", has 5000 graduate students (business, law, medicine, public health, theology, nursing) and 6000 undergraduates.  It has strong academic and financial connections to Coca Cola, the Center for Disease Control and the Carter Center.  The required freshman seminar class is capped at 15 students and our tour guide, who was from Palo Alto, said her other classes freshman year were about 75 students.  Student supported research is a very important part of Emory and it appeared that most students took advantage of this opportunity.  About a third of the students join a fraternity or sorority.  There is no doubt that Emory students take their studies seriously but they also have serious fun, taking advantage of a generous array of college-sponsored activities and all that Atlanta offers.