Did You Know? Weekly facts and advice from the experts at Options for College

Did you know that the Albert A. List College of Jewish Studies offers a joint program with Columbia University and a double degree program with Barnard College?

Options for College — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 12:00:54 +0000

The Albert A. List College of Jewish Studies, known as List College, is the undergraduate school of The Jewish Theological Seminary. List College’s dual-degree programs with Columbia University and Barnard College provide its students with a rigorous education in both the liberal arts and Jewish studies. The program is open to all qualified students and does not discriminate based on age, sex, race, religion, sexual orientation or national origin.

For more information about List College, visit http://bit.ly/List_College .

Where did Frodo go to college?

Options for College — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 20:08:46 +0000

The staff at Options for College, tapping into their inner selves (read: “nerds”), challenged OFC President Keith Berman to match the characters from Lord of the Rings to colleges. Results:

Frodo — Hampshire College. Maple sugar shack, five campuses to choose from, very green, sparsely populated and spread out like the Shire, lots of writing — laid back and serious

Samwise — wanted to go to Hampshire like Frodo, but it was not his burden to bear. Ended up going to Lehigh, taking internships, and having a solid middle management career

Gandalf — Princeton, but picked up his drug habit during a crazy semester abroad that he quietly took back with him for his senior year

Saruman — Harvard

Aragorn — somewhere overseas. Doesn’t matter — his college won’t define his destiny

Gimli — University of Minnesota. His beard is an asset there, and for most of the country, U. Minnesota might as well be underground caves for all people know about it

Legolas — Berkeley. His wit and hair were a huge asset on the dating scene so he was nicknamed “The Player”

Smeagol — Penn State

Meriadoc — Penn State. Was a good guy until he got drunk and was nearly expelled for campus crime senior year which may or may not have involved Smeagol.

Peregrine — went to Oberlin for two years, got straight A’s and needed something bigger. Finished at Chicago with an econ degree and is a political adviser.

Arwen — Wellesley

Eowyn — either went to Vassar and hated it or Sarah Lawrence and loved it. Can’t decide.

Did you know that the Whiting School of Engineering at Johns Hopkins has top-rated departments in Biomedical Engineering and Geography and Environmental Engineering?

Options for College — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 12:00:16 +0000

Engineering at the Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering encompasses topics ranging from cryptology and game theory to tissue engineering and environmental pollutants. There are numerous opportunities for students to engage in research and internships through the Provost’s Undergraduate Research Awards program, Student Initiative’s Fund, Vredenburg Scholarship and Summer Internship programs. Alumnus New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg graduated with a degree in electrical engineering from the Whiting School of Engineering.

For more information about the Whiting School of Engineering at Johns Hopkins, visit http://bit.ly/Whiting_Engineering.

Did you know that Carnegie Mellon has one of the top schools for fine arts in the country or that it also has an innovative studio laboratory for “atypical, anti-disciplinary and inter-institutional research”?

Options for College — Mon, 03 Jun 2013 17:44:09 +0000

The College of Fine Arts at Carnegie Mellon offers programs in architecture, art, design, drama and music. The cutting-edge Media Initiative at the Center for the Arts in Society, Co-organized by Jim Duesing of the School of Art and Kathy Newman of the English Department, supports several major projects, such as “Listening Spaces”, “Gender/Sexuality/Media” and “Occupy Facebook”.

Carnegie Mellon also houses “a laboratory for atypical, anti-disciplinary, and inter-institutional research at the intersections of arts, science, technology and culture”. Carnegie Mellon’s innovative Frank-Ratchye Studio for Creative Inquiry is a flexible laboratory for new modes of arts research, production and presentation. The Studio’s current emphasis is on new-media arts and builds on a twenty-year plus history of hosting interdisciplinary artists.

For more information about The Frank-Ratchye Studio for Creative Inquiry, visit http://bit.ly/Creative_Inquiry .
For more information about the Media Initiative at the Center for the Arts in Society, visit http://bit.ly/Media_Initiative .

Did you know that the Thomas R. Pickering Foreign Affairs Fellowship provides up to $40,000 per year to current juniors for their senior year of college and first year of (required) graduate school?

Options for College — Mon, 27 May 2013 12:00:44 +0000

The Thomas R. Pickering Undergraduate Foreign Affairs Fellowship program provides funding to college juniors who are preparing academically and professionally for entry into the Foreign Service, which is a division of the United States Department of State. The program encourages women, members of minority groups historically underrepresented in the Foreign Service and students with financial need to apply. Underrepresented minority groups in this context include Asian Americans, Hispanics, African Americans and Native Americans.

There are multiple requirements specific to this fellowship. One requirement of the program is that selected fellows must pursue a graduate degree in one of the following fields: international studies, international affairs, public policy, administration, economics, political science or foreign languages. Each successful candidate is also contractually obligated to devote three years of service as a Foreign Service Officer. Fellows must also attend one of the pre-approved and participating graduate schools (see link at bottom of email.)

For more information about the Thomas R. Pickering Foreign Affairs Fellowship, visithttp://bit.ly/Thomas_R_Pickering_Fellowship.
For more information about participating graduate schools, visit http://bit.ly/Participating_Grad_Schools.

Did you know that all 4-year colleges and universities in the United States accept the ACT?

Options for College — Mon, 20 May 2013 19:49:28 +0000

The ACT, first administered in 1959, is a standardized test for high school achievement and college admissions and was created as a competitor to the more widely-known SAT. Many believe the ACT to be the more straightforward examination, as it seeks to measure high school students’ general educational development and their capability to complete college-level work. The ACT covers four basic skill areas – English, Mathematics, Reading, and Science. The test also has an optional Writing component. In recent years, the ACT has dramatically increased its number of test-takers. In fact, in 2011, the ACT surpassed the SAT as 1,666,017 students took the ACT and 1,664,479 students took the SAT.

To learn more about the ACT, visit http://bit.ly/actinfo .

Did you know that the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy recently launched the Center on Policy Entrepreneurship?

Options for College — Mon, 13 May 2013 14:55:53 +0000

The new Center on Policy Entrepreneurship at the University of Chicago will focus on “the politics of the policy making process.” What does this mean? Professor Ethan Bueno de Mesquita, the academic director of the Center, explains that it is important for students to learn how political realities impact policy ideas in order to change public policy effectively. The program will boast a guest speaker series, a visiting fellows program and the funding of full-time summer internships in policy making environments. University of Chicago alumni include community organizer Saul Alinsky, Pulitzer Prize winner Katharine Graham, and Nobel Prize winner Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar.

For more information about the Center on Policy Entrepreneurship at the University of Chicago, visit http://bit.ly/UChicago_Center_on_Policy_Entrepreneurship.

Did you know that the Rhode Island School of Design is creating an endowment supporting visiting scholars in the painting department?

Options for College — Mon, 06 May 2013 14:02:43 +0000

The very pleased parents of a recent graduate funded this endowment through a generous gift, the largest gift from an international donor in the school’s 136 year history. In addition to funding visiting painting scholars, the Rhode Island School of Design, known affectionately as RISD (pronounced “RIZ-dee”), will also use the endowment to promote Indian art and culture amongst students. RISD alumni include fashion designer Nicole Miller, producer and animator Seth MacFarlane and artist Kara Walker.

For more information about RISD’s new painting endowment, visit http://bit.ly/RISD_painting_gift
To learn more about the Rhode Island School of Design, visit http://bit.ly/RISD_homepage

Did you know that Harvard University has graduated a total of 8 U.S. presidents, more than any other university?

Options for College — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 16:05:40 +0000

Harvard proudly boasts the following presidential alumni – John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Rutherford B. Hayes, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama.

Interested in the details of presidential times on the quad? Visit http://bit.ly/prezalums to learn more!

Did you know that Muhlenberg College is home to one of the most advanced theatre and dance facilities at a liberal arts college, offering its students access to two proscenium stages, two fully equipped studio theatres, six dance and acting studios, video editing and pilates studios, a new rehearsal house, and production facilities that include costume and scene shops, state-of –the-art lighting and computer design equipment?

Options for College — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 14:19:57 +0000

Students who are serious about theatre and dance from across the country travel to the small town of Allentown, Pennsylvania to attend Muhlenberg College. Their student organized, run, and performed productions are top quality, with such notable alumni as Michael Biren (Billy Elliot) and George Psomas (South Pacific), to name a few.

To learn more about what Muhlenberg’s theatre and dance programs, visit http://bit.ly/muhlenbergheatredance.