<p>Yesterday my junior son and I visited Juniata College for an IT/Computer Science information day. Since it's a three hour drive from us, we chose to spend Sunday night at a new Comfort Inn located about one mile from campus. Got a great rate too, only $65 a night. There's an indoor pool and a small excercise room - we watched the Blues Brothers movie on tv.</p>
<p>Juniata College is located in the center of Pennsylvania, about an hour west of Harrisburg and just South of Penn State. The town of Huntingdon has about 10,000 people and is frankly, pretty boring. The college campus connects to the town but you don't get the feeling that the town caters to the students or really does anything to entice them to walk down the hill into their stores. There weren't any trendy, hip stores or coffee shops that one might expect. Least I didn't see them.</p>
<p>There are just 1400 students. Housing is guranteed for all four years. Freshman are required to live on campus. After freshman year the students give their top three choices of housing choices and then buildings are assigned with preference given in order of gpa rank. There are dorms and apartments owned by the college. There is also one all-women dorm and it is the only one that is locked. I found that amazing - you could walk into any dorm (except the one) without showing any id. There are RA's but there is no one at the doors to check id. Our tour guide told us they poll the students every year about making the dorms secure and it's always voted down by the majority. All students are allowed cars, but most stay on campus on weekends.</p>
<p>The campus is very pretty and compact. There's a huge quad in the middle of the campus where you can envision students hanging out on sunny days. Unfortunately, we visited on a misty gray day and everyone was hurrying to class. In the fall they have a Lobster fest for freshman where they serve Lobster and Steak and veggie burgers on the quad and the clubs try to intice them to join. They have quite a few quirky customs that sound very appealing. </p>
<p>We were given a student led tour with one other parent and student. Dorms were larger then many I've seen. Ample closet space, beds can be bunked or unbunked, very nice wooden desks are supplied. Microwaves and mini-fridges are allowed. Food looked varied. Nothing amazing or bad. No frats or sororoties.</p>
<p>What sets Junaita apart from any other LAC that I have visited is what they call their Programs of Emphasis (POE). Instead of having one major, students are encouraged to design their own POE. The college has lots of set POE'S and 49% follow those programs. These might include Biology and pre-health or Spanish and Hispanic culture. Some students designed POE's might be Social Work and Business Management or Computer Science and Graphic Design. Each student has two advisors, one picked by the college, one picked by the student after freshman year, and the advisors help with the course choices for a POE. I guess this sounds a lot like a major and a minor but somehow they make it sound different! </p>
<p>Forty percent of students do a study abroad, most in their junior year. This coming Spring/late summer there is a two week Southwestern experience offered. It's open to all majors, costs $1,250 and students get 2 credits. They're driving so there are a couple of days of travel and the plan is to go to Arizona to study, "The modules range in topic from water use issues to the study of mantle rocks in Arizona. Nothing is too large or too small for the professors to talk about. The largest topics consist of the atomic age and visits to meteror craters from thousands of years ago. The smallest consist of water evaporation and studies of different types of lizards". </p>
<p>Academically, (didn't think I'd ever get to that, did you?) the average student has a 3.7 gpa and a 1130 SAT. The admissions person explained to us that they re-calculate the gpa and only count academic classes: math, language, english, history, science and advanced computer science classes. I understood the last to mean programming classes as opposed to required computer keyboarding type classes. They weight AP's honors and IB classes although she didn't get into specific's. 95% of the staff has terminal degrees. At the luncheon (yes, nice buffet lunch with tableclothes, china, etc.) the Juniata students at our table told us how accessible the teachers are and one student whipped out his cell phone to show us a Prof. phone number on his speed dial. </p>
<p>I didn't hear a number but a large percentage of grads get into medical school and over the last few years 100% of the students that applied got into law school. From the class of 2003, 91% are now employed or furthering their education. A whopping 72% of students actually graduate in Four years! Just check out the 6 year graduation rate at most schools and you'll see how impressive that is.</p>
<p>Cost - No doubt this is an expensive school. Tuition is $23,720, Fees are $600, Room and Board is $6,770 for a total of $31,090. ouch! Fortunately, there is good aid and even families that have an income of $85,000- $99,000 receive an average of $17,386 award. There are also quite a few scholarships one can apply for from the college. Your fin aid package is given with the acceptance offer. By visiting the college my son was given an application waiver. </p>
<p>There was actually a lot of information about the IT and CompSci offerings that Son seemed to really like. In fact, he said he likes it more then Drexel. IT and CompSci students are expected to do an internship and a senior capstone project. He actually got the "atmosphere" thing I've been talking about. If he doesn't go here, I've at least got him hooked on LAC's. I think he liked how students similar to him that are undecided are encouraged to come and explore and then decide. Yes!</p>