Opportunities for Freshmen at Case Western Reserve University

Colleges and Universities A-Z Case Western Reserve University
1

I was asked in another thread to respond to a comment I made about some of the opportunities that Freshmen have at CWRU. My daughter is a freshman student this year. Frankly, I did not know much about CWRU until about a 1 year ago when involved in the college search. But after visiting quite a few colleges (read more about my daughter’s journey to CWRU here: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/case-western-reserve-university/1816795-case-western-reserve-university-ea-2020-fit-p1.html). It was absolutely a wonderful choice. Our whole family continues to be amazed by all of the opportunities she has had at CWRU (which she tells us her friends on campus pronounce “crew”).

It is probably easiest to list some of the opportunities she has mentioned to us.
-she was able to participate in a lab doing research with a faculty member and some graduate students in a engineering lab right from the start of the fall semester. It was an amazing opportunity that helped clarify working in a research lab would be like.
-she has been able to volunteer and do service opportunities in a variety of settings. She loves being involved in community service, and there are a huge amount of possibilities at CWRU. She tells us that the office that runs the program is great, as they always have different opportunities being posted.
-she told us that all of her professors have been wonderful about suggesting ways to get more involved with their subject matter, through special events and speakers. She says the courses have been challenging and she feel like she is really learning a lot.
–My daughter is heavily involved in music and has found the entire music department to be outstanding, She has taken advantage of CWRU’s relationship with the Cleveland Institute of Music (which is located next to the CWRU campus), being able to take classes through the conservatory experience they offer. She has seen the Cleveland symphony (for free), participated in a special daylong master class with a guest artist, and been able to participate in several musical ensembles.
-Her SAGES class did some field trips to the local several museums which at located right next to the campus. She said the natural history and art museum were both very interested in having CWRU students work or intern at the museums. She thought it was pretty cool that they got to see the actual artwork in their textbook at the Cleveland Art Museum.
-Several of her classes were heavily discussion based, which she really liked.
-She says her dorm is filled with an incredibly dedicated and supportive group of fellow students who really care about the world and each other. She said the culture at CWRU is one of “academics first.” Whereas, some of her HS friends at other schools talk about the partying really getting in the way of getting the most out of a college experience.
-Her friends have utilized the free regional transportation pass that all students get to visit the downtown area of Cleveland and some other nearby areas, as well to get to the airport when she flew home.
-She has found the upper classmen she has met to be equally supportive and welcoming and has found herself involved in a couple different clubs.
-She has attended several different activities fairs and international fairs on the campus and is planning out a study abroad experience, She tells us a lot of students at CWRU go on study abroad.

-About her only complaints have been about the food (sometimes) and the quality of the freshmen dorms. The dorms are not terrible, but are a bit outdated compared all of the other ones on the CWRU campus and at many of the other colleges we looked at. She tells us that her HS friends at other schools also generally complain about their food too, so that might just be a thing.

In addition to these, I also want to say that CWRU’s communication with parents is excellent. They send out email style newsletters periodically (FYE FYI - which stand for First Year Experience FYI) and they provide a nice taste of the big things going on at CWRU. Always lots of exciting things. In fact, just today there was a mention about a Lunar New Year Party with fireworks (tomorrow), an Italian film festival, a Women in STEM panel, a speaker about the value of the humanities in Media careers and the author Hidden Figures (book and recent film about team of African American women at NASA) will be speaking on campus.

2

A couple of programs specifically for first- and second-year students:

CCEL Fellows ([link](https://students.case.edu/community/groups/fellows/academic.html)) — semester-long paid community service program.
Career Connections ([link](https://students.case.edu/leadership/career/)) — shadow a professional in your field over spring break.

3

I wanted to mention these outstanding summer research opportunities that are being pitched to CWRU first year students:

Arts and Humanities: http://case.edu/provost/source/opportunities/source-ahss.html

STEM: http://case.edu/provost/source/opportunities/source-stem.html

Biological Sciences: http://case.edu/provost/source/opportunities/P-SURG.html

Energy and Sustainability: http://case.edu/provost/source/opportunities/SURES.html

4

@Wizard2 I have many good things to say about CWRU and our son is a senior. He has found great friends, explored his academic interests, gone apple picking in Ohio, gets a season pass to the Cleveland Orchestra that a great deal
and enjoys his city experience very much. Service projects have included tutoring middle school math students at the big church on Euclid. He lived one summer in a sublet duplex in Coventry with another CWRU student, who was working in Cleveland at a software firm. My son won a SOURCE grant in economics and worked with the Cleveland Federal Reserve bank to learn how to use econometrics software tools.

On housing: Upper class (junior and senior) suites are much more roomy over on 115th Street. Sophomore housing is similar to freshman housing although some sophomores live on South campus which has a nice view of Lake Erie, in the winter, its up on a large hill overlooking campus. My son’s friends also rent apartments at a reasonable cost, walking distance to campus. Some of those students are doing a fifth year masters program at CWRU.

CWRU physics and CS faculty have helped my son get into an REU at a major physics research university last summer. My son has had very good math TA experiences starting in sophomore year that helped him decide to become a college teacher. He has had full support of the physics department during his grad school applications and got into more than four top physics programs! We have been overjoyed with the support for his career decisions. He started out in math and economics and landed in physics after some research opportunities.

My son was encouraged by CWRU faculty to apply to Goldwater, NSF and DOD fellowships. Waiting to hear!

5

@Coloradomama Thank you for that additional information. I’ll keep my fingers crossed that your son gets one of those major awards. it is wonderful that the faculty were offering encouragement to him to apply. For a university with such incredible scholars on it faculty, I continue to be impressed throughout my daughter’s freshmen year with the faculty’s level of undergraduate student focus and support. When I talk with my friends that have kids at other colleges, they are amazed at all service opportunities and other support that CWRU offers its students. My daughter also said those dorms at 115th street are really nice.

6

All these opportunities are pretty much offered at lots of state schools and private universities across the country. There’s nothing unique about any of what was mentioned here.