New College of Florida VS Simmons College

[sherjohn]

I’m rejected by most of my colleges and feel frustrated now. I don’t know what to say. Just not sure which choice is better for me. My major is biochemistry, and I’m an international student. I like the environment of Boston, but I’m also used to the weather of Florida.

[PurpleTitan]

NCF is very different from most American colleges.
It’s more like grad-school-lite and sends a ton of grads to grad school.
I have it as a Near-Ivy by alumni outcomes: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1893105-ivy-equivalents-ranking-based-on-alumni-outcomes-take-2-1-p1.html

[Alexandre]

New College is outstanding. Simmons is solid, but New College is a notch above. They are also very different. Simmons is a women’s college while New College is coed. Simmons has a standard grading policy while New College does not hand out grades, only evaluations. Finally, if finances are a concern, and assuming you are not receiving any financial aid or scholarships, New College is roughly $10,000/year cheaper than Simmons.

[DadTwoGirls]

“New College does not hand out grades, only evaluations”

How does this work when applying to graduate school?

[Gator88NE]

@DadTwoGirls
https://www.ncf.edu/academics/academics-at-new-college/

Students complete seven contracts prior to graduation in lieu of credit hours. With your faculty adviser, you create a written agreement each semester and set criteria for measuring your success. Each contract usually includes three to five academic activities (courses, tutorials, internships, independent reading projects) that will develop your personal educational goals.

You also meet regularly with your faculty adviser to discuss your progress — not just once or twice in four years as happens at many colleges.

No Grades? No Problem.

Professors at New College provide narrative evaluations instead of grades for each course or project you complete. That’s because we believe that detailed feedback on your individual strengths and weaknesses — as well as suggestions for improvement and further study — are much more valuable than a mere letter grade.Through this process, faculty get to know students very well and are able to provide you with useful, informative feedback on your studies. Faculty can really look at your work holistically, rather than assigning an arbitrary grade that doesn’t tell the whole story.

Does the absence of grades impede entry to graduate school or your ability to get a job? Not at all! Narrative evaluations actually allow faculty to write strong, detailed recommendation letters for graduate school applications, scholarships and employment.

About 80 percent of New College alumni go on to graduate school within six years of graduating. For the 2010 graduating class, 86 percent of graduates who applied to a Ph.D. program were accepted, and 100 percent who applied to law school got in.

It’s no wonder that The Wall Street Journal ranked New College the nation’s No. 2 public feeder school for elite law, medical and business schools.

Here’s another plus: narrative evaluations promote a noncompetitive learning environment with no fretting about your GPA and how you rank against your peers. Instead, you focus on the ways you can improve and develop the knowledge, experience, and critical and analytic thinking skills needed in the real world.

[MYOS1634]

Simmons is in a big city and preprofessional.
NCF is non traditional - since you live in Florida, make sure you visit. It is intensely intellectual and crunchy. Very different from Simmons.
Are you still waiting to hear from any school?
You could send an application to a few colleges still accepting them, or accept one by May 1st but wait till the list of colleges that miscalculated yield comes out around May 5th and apply to a few there in case one admits you.

[sherjohn]

@MYOS1634

Thank you.
I am on the waitlist of BC and Northeastern, which I don’t put much hope on. As for sending applications, I don’t really know which colleges would be suitable.

[PurpleTitan]

Well, what goals do you have?

[sherjohn]

@PurpleTitan
My further goal is to go to graduate level for food science/nutrition or something related to biochemistry.

[Alexandre]

If you do not mind going to college located on a tropical beach and being surrounded by highly intellectual and welcoming students who do not believe in competing with each other because there are no grades to worry about, go to New College of Florida.