Alfond 2015 Results

Let me make my pitch for Rollins since I have a son who was fortunate enough to win several Rollins scholarships, graduate with Rollins Honors Degree, is now 2 1/2 years out and is doing great professionally. I will say at the outset I am biased because of the great experience my son had there.

I think the school does an outstanding job with motivated students. Is it a party school? I think so, but that is true of many schools including the Ivies that a lot of my family attended. In my opinion, if anything the administration and the Winter Park Police dept can be overly strict with the Rollins Students in an effort to suppress the party reputation. There are alcohol and drug issues at almost all major colleges and universities. That being said some Rollins kids get caught up in the partying, do not pay attention to their studies, and are not there long. Whether the individual student chooses to get caught up in that behavior in my opinion depends on the character of the individual student, those opportunities are going to be there at most colleges and universities.

My son was fortunate enough to graduate magna cum laude with an honors degree, play a varsity sport and participate in a fraternity (which he never intended to do.) While there are many very wealthy kids at Rollins my son for the most part was not part of that group. He made all kinds of friends frat brothers, artsy folks, jocks and some very engaged, very serious academic students, several of whom are Fulbright Scholars. Many of his friends never could afforded to attend Rollins but for the many academic scholarships the school awards. He was fortunate to do some graduate work in Finance at an outstanding major university graduate program with a partial scholarship. He was well prepared for that program by his time at Rollins. He is now a 25 yr old young adult well situated in a job he enjoys, working very hard and making very serious money without any student debt because of his Rollins scholarships. He had a great time at Rollins academically, socially and athletically. He initially was going to pursue the law but because of the well rounded education at Rollins embarked on another path. He loved the small, rigorous classes, some of which had as few as 5 students. The only knock he had on the school was that by the end of 3 years or so he was ready to move on because of the small size of the school (I have a nephew who attended Bates that had those same feelings.) He loved the school and now donates both his time and money and returns for alumni weekend as often as his work permits.

In hindsight I could not be happier with his decision to attend Rollins. At the time he chose Rollins I was not so sure of his decision because he was turning down some outstanding schools with major name recognition to accept his scholarships from Rollins. Your daughter is obviously an outstanding student, I will tell you if she seeks out the opportunities Rollins affords, she will have tremendous academic, community engagement and social opportunities. The academic mentoring at Rollins was second to none, Should she so choose, the faculty will work hard to help her secure post graduate positions or professional school opportunities. She will be well prepared for law school by Rollins should she choose to embark on that path as most of the Rollins classes and exams are writing intensive and not graded by computer as in the case of large universities.

I attended college and law school at night and only wish I had the academic gifts that our children have that would have afforded me the opportunity to spend 4 years in a beautiful place, have the great academic, community engagement and social social experience that Rollins afforded my son because of his scholarships.

Good Luck to your daughter, it is a very exciting time.

Rollins has an outstanding pre med program. A few of my son’s friends went through it. I will caution it is extremely rigorous (which is should be) that being said if your son survives it he will likely get into med school. The program has a great success rate but many kids drop out because they find it too rigorous. I believe the school wants it that way to guarantee successful med school admissions. The classes will be very small, lab intensive and rigorous. Good luck to your son

@laxdad1953 Thank you for taking the time to post your thoughts. I greatly appreciate it. As my son had very high sat scores, and not so high grades, he did not get the Alfond scholarship. I joined the thread as I wanted to learn more about the school and who was applying. Many drop out of pre med after organic chemistry, so I am not concerned with the drop out rate. I am more concerned with how many get into medical school, and which schools. He has acceptances at some large well rated universities, and we need to give this a lot of thought.

if he is considering Rollins I would call the head of Pre med advising and ask. I can recall one of his friends went to UCF med school which at the time just started their program and her admission came with a full academic ride to med school which I understand is highly unusual. good luck with your search

@canIgoback I’ve read many times on CC (and think this to be true as well) that acceptance into med school has little to do about college reputation and everything to do about GPA and MCAT scores. Recommendations from university staff are also important. Some colleges may actively cull pre-med students (by not writing recommendations) that don’t make an internal cut. I don’t know if Rollins does this or not.

  1. gpa, MCAT's, recommendations I can speak to since we have 3 mds in the family. Absolutely correct as of 2013 at least
  2. I do not know and and do not know whether they would provide that information.

A call to Dr. Zimmerman (http://www.rollins.edu/prehealth/) would likely give a person the pre-med information.

@dadof1 and laxdad1953 My dad made the phone call today. It seems that those accepted into medical school attend in Florida. UCF= University of California? It would be great if she would add her thoughts to the thread.

ucf is the university of central florida.

@laxdad‌ Thank you so much for taking the time to share this information with us! It is so reassuring to read your words. Your son sounds like an amazing young man.

Do you mind sharing what state you’re from. We have visited Rollins, but have not visited Rhodes yet. I know Rhodes is religiously affiliated and I was wondering if you could speak to the religious vibe on campus (i.e., religious symbols in classrooms/on campus, a religious academic requirement, etc.). My Junior S is from CO and a Chemistry major.

@ireneb I’ve visited both Rhodes and Rollins (we’ve lived in several regions of the country). I didn’t get a religious vibe on either campus.