<p>When my daughter enrolled in University of Cincinnati’s DAAP program over being accepted at other top schools such as Carnegie Mellon, RIT, with scholarship, Syracuse etc., people wondered why. I wanted to let future students understand why I, and others, consider University of Cincinnati (UC) one of the best places to go for college. </p>
<li><p>UC has been consistently ranked by Money Magazine as one of the best values in the country. It is also ranked in the top 60 for Medicine, Law, and Engineering. These area may not be the top in the country,but Cincinnati isn’t a slouch in these areas.</p></li>
<li><p>UC is very reasonably priced. Tuition for out of state students is around $23,000,which seems a bit high at first for a state school. However, they do give all incoming, out of state students, as little as $5,000 yearly scholarships. Thus, the UC tuition is very reasonable for out of state folks at $18,000 per year. Room and board is also very reasonable at $8,100 per year. I should note that these figures are based on 2006 rates with full meal plan.</p></li>
<li><p>Although UC has decent programs in both engineering, science and pharmacy, they really have two extraordinary programs that are extremely selective and nationally ranked amount the best in the US, They are:</p></li>
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<p>a. University of Cincinnati’s Conservatory of Music. This school’s rankings rival that of RICE, CMU, Bard, Oberlin etc. In same cases, UC’s rankings are even higher than many of these mentioned. There aren’t many schools better than Cincinnati’s conservatory. This quality program affects non- conservatory folks too. UC students can participate in a wide variety of bands and performance options lead by CCM professors even if the UC student is not in the conservatory. Examples of musical opportunities are marching band, concert band,orchestras etc. In addition, UC students get to attend these performances, which occur quite frequently.</p>
<p>b. UC’s second gem, and not necessarily second to their conservatory, is their School of Design, Art, Architecture, and Planning (DAAP). This school has some amazing rankings. Their school of architecture is ranked by Design Intelligence Magazine as one of the top three programs in the US. Their Interior Design program was ranked number one in the country for the past seven years. Recently, there were new rankings instituted by Design Intelligence for Industrial Design and UC was ranked number 2 in the US ahead of such notable and expensive schools as Carnegie Mellon, RISD, Pratt etc.
UC also has one of the best undergraduate programs in digital design as well. Should you be interested in this area, it is well worth checking out.</p>
<p>I should note that there was a publication that listed the top 25 design faculty in the US. UC had 4 of the top 25. No other school matched that number!
If you are interested in design, city and urban planning, architecture, check out UC’s course offerings. You won’t believe the wide variety of courses offered.</p>
<li><p>UC has one of the highest endowments in the US, which is just over 1 billion. This puts them in the top 70 best endowed schools in the nation.</p></li>
<li><p>UC has an amazing number of things to do, especially when compared to other schools. Don’t believe me? Just go on their web site and check out their calendars. They have ten calendars for events. True, some of them may not be of interest to you such as their admission’s calendar; however, there are a huge array of activities going on all the time on campus. Just check out their CCM calendar, main street calendar, and student activities calendars.</p></li>
<li><p>UC has great school spirit being in the Big East and having strong sports teams.</p></li>
<li><p>COOP: When students think of coop education, some schools might come to mind such as Northeastern or Drexel. However, UC was the first program in the US to start the Coop program. Today, it probably has the largest and best coop program in the country. DAAP kids, for example, get mandatory 1.5 years of PAID coop with different employers. Thus, kids graduating from UC get 1.5 years of actual experience for their resume. This is truly a significant and unique addition to the education of students. In fact, as one teacher noted, by the time kids almost finish their coop, the teachers think of these kids, not just as students, but as colleagues. These coops are available in business and engineering and science as well as some other areas.</p></li>
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<p>8.Brand new facilities: If you were to walk around the UC campus, you will rarely see a building that hasn’t been either built or renovated within the last 5 years or so. Everything is up to date, new and chuck full of the latest equipment. In fact, check out their state of the art fitness facility. They have several pools, one of which has a current, which can give swimmers more exercise if they swim against the current or can be a lot of fun if swimming with the current.</p>
<p>Bottom line: UC is one of the best deals in the country and provides a very strong educational program for almost any student. It also provides a host of social activities that are hard to match.</p>
<p>Admission to UC: I should note that UC has some “funky” admission policies that you should be know about. First, they want all application submitted with transcripts by October 1. Yes, you read correctly. Thus, you really need to get your high school to send out the required transcripts early.</p>
<p>Also, UC uses UNWEIGHTED GPAs in comparing students. According to several admission’s officers, they do not take the course toughness into account. Be aware of this. For example, the DAAP school requires an unweighted GPA of at least 3.5 to even be considered. Thus, taking all APs and honors courses and achieving a 3.4 will be considered inferior to those who get an overall 3.6 GPA while taking regular courses. This may be rather idiotic but seems to be true for many school. When I asked UC about this, they responded with," It is hard to tell how much harder honors courses are from regular courses. In addition, many economically deprived areas, don’t have the same access to honors and AP courses as richer areas. Thus, it levels the playing field. Be aware of this situation.</p>