<p>Hello, EastCoastGirl715!</p>
<p>I’m currently a freshman at Ursinus College, and I even applied for that prestigious scholarship. It’s one of - if not, the best - scholarship aimed at creative writing. They take the fact that J.D. Salinger went here very seriously, and although he only went here only for a semester, they consider it a proud moment in Ursinus College’s history.</p>
<p>That said, I did not get the scholarship, although I did work pretty hard on my selections that I submitted. (I think it was because my selections portrayed more of my fun, witty side, and I guess that they were looking for work with “deeper” meaning, but you never know what goes on inside the professors’ minds).</p>
<p>The scholarship itself is a pretty selective scholarship, but it is not too intense. Only about 6,500 students apply to Ursinus College each year, of whom about 55% get in. And then in those 55% percent of students, I don’t think too many of them applied for the scholarship).</p>
<p>One person wins the scholarship, and they are guaranteed $30,000 a year, as well as a summer fellowship (basically, an internship or project done for a few weeks during the summer at the college; in this case, working on his/her creative writing). </p>
<p>However, besides that one main winner, there are four honorable mentions, who each get a guaranteed $15,000 a year ON TOP of usually a small, but still generous amount of academic merit, usually like $5,000.</p>
<p>I am not sure if the winner can get more academic merit scholarship besides the $30,000 guaranteed in his/her creative writing scholarship, but I’ll look into that.</p>
<p>Anyway, more about the school itself.</p>
<p>Ursinus College is a small liberals college with about 1,800 undergraduates, and nestled in quaint, Collegeville, Pennsylvania. We are not too far from Philadelphia, but it is a little hike to get there, especially if you do not want to drive. It usually takes about an hour, probably a little more, to ride the bus to nearby Norristown, Pennsylvania, and from there take the SEPTA metro-rail system to Philadelphia itself. Collegeville, as the name implies, is a quaint college-town, and like the above poster said, sure, there isn’t a lot to do in the town itself, but there is a ton of activities to do on the campus. You’re going to find that a lot of these liberal arts colleges really aren’t surrounded by the hubbub of big city life, so that isn’t really unique to Ursinus. </p>
<p>Ursinus’ campus is great. It feels big for its pretty small size. It’s easily walkable, and there are a lot of trees, and pathways, and grassy greens with lawnchairs, etc. It’s very easy to learn the campus in only a week, and unlike other liberal arts colleges, the main thing to consider is that it does not feel small when going through the spread-out campus. </p>
<p>The school itself is top-notch. While certainly not THE best liberal arts college according to college ranking lists, and the like, it certainly is one of the nation’s best, and every year, it gets better. The school has a pretty flexible core curriculum that make sense for a liberal arts college, and include required classes (that you can get out of using A.P. credits) that prepare you well for the real world. Every freshman at Ursinus is required to take a freshman seminar class called the Common Intellectual Experience. It is a small group discussion class in which we read philosophical works, religious texts, poetry, etc, and relate them to our humanity, our purpose in life, yadda yadda yadda. The pre-med program at Ursinus is top-notch, attracting many students with aspirations to go onto medical school. Most people are in the sciences field, but I’m not. A lot of my classmates do have aspirations to go onto medical school, probably about 60%. The school is known for its good science programs, but that doesn’t mean that the other programs are lacking. I am an International Relations and Spanish double major, and an undecided minor, and the school has very good programs in Politics, Modern Languages, Business, etc. So while the school seems like it has a focus on the sciences, each program is kept to the same standards.</p>
<p>The facilities at Ursinus are also top-notch. They just renovated the theater, and the gym is equipped with a huge swimming pool, tons of exercise equipment, an indoor track, etc. The housing at Ursinus gets better as you advance through the years. It’s an universal trend that freshmen housing usually is just so-so, and it was like that at all of the colleges which I visited. But, there is a ton of off-campus housing, and even the upperclassmen dorms on campus are beautifully redone. </p>
<p>There are some things to consider about Ursinus, though.</p>
<p>Like most liberal arts colleges, price is a big thing to consider. With the added expense of textbooks, the annual tuition for Ursinus College is $50,000 a year. Luckily, Ursinus College is pretty generous with its scholarships. The best merit scholarship is $20,000 a year, although there are a select few scholarships which offer almost full rides, like the minority scholarship, and the Zacharias scholarships. And they give a pretty good amount of need aid, if you need it. If you prove not eligible for your need aid, (which they ascertain after you do your FAFSA, and CSS Profile), they will give you barely any, or none, at all. So, that’s still a pretty penny to be paid. As for me, I only $10,000 a year in merit aid, and a paltry $4,000 a year in need aid, and that’s it. The rest is being paid out in loans, and in checks from my parents’ bank accounts. It’s a stretch that I am coming here, and my parents are making a lot of sacrifices for me to attend here because they know that I love this school and can get a good education here.</p>
<p>Another thing that I noticed was the diversity of this school. Now, it’s not the least diverse school I’ve seen, but it’s certainly not the best. Most students are white, and come from middle-class backgrounds. Most kids come from the suburbs of Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. I guess I haven’t been here that long, but I don’t really find all of the different types of people I’m used to seeing, coming from the suburbs of Maryland, right outside of Washington, D.C. And since it’s so small, we aren’t given the plethora of students found at a big public university. We’re stuck with who we have, and there are certainly a TON of opportunities to get involved here, and meet all of the wonderful people who go here, but obviously with a bigger school, you’re going to find that there is usually a lot more diversity in the student body than what one would find going to a school with only 1,800 undergraduate students, or so.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, I love it here. The atmosphere was very welcoming. I came into orientation, worried, for some reason, that I was not going to make any friends, and I have met a ton of people. It just seems so much easier than high school to make friends. I do not know why that is, but maybe it’s because we’re all here for the same purpose - to get an education - and the fact that we’re all living together doesn’t hurt. </p>
<p>I love Ursinus College, and I definitely recommend that you check it out, when your son gets a little closer to looking at colleges. Although, there is no better time to prepare than today for college. Start working on boosting those SAT or ACT scores, because they’re usually what separates you apart from an equal candidate for a merit scholarship. Think about it; if your kid, and another kid, both with almost equal transcripts, and extracurriculars, and stuff, are both vying for the same merit scholarship, they’re going to use that test score - that numerical value - to separate your kid from other one in determining who gets that one spot for that one scholarship.</p>
<p>My last piece of advice is to play the financial assistance game to your advantage. Squeeze as much money out of the schools as you possibly can. Play the schools against each other. For example, say, “I really love this school, but X-school gave a bit more money than you guys did…” and you never know what will happen. It’s very possible that the school will give you a little more money, and every little bit counts.</p>
<p>For further reading on schools that may not always be in the public limelight, but still could be a very real option for your child, check out Loren Pope’s “Thirty Colleges That Change Lives.”</p>