I recently visited Queens University of Charlotte in Charlotte, North Carolina, where I toured campus and spoke with the admissions office about the latest trends in admissions. Here are some takeaways from my visit:

· Once the all-women’s sister college to Davidson, Queens is now a co-ed, undergraduate-focused university of 1,317 undergraduates and growing. Queens has the feel of liberal arts college, with small, discussion-based classes, highly supportive faculty, and students living on campus for four years in a very tight-knit community. Unlike many liberal arts colleges, however, it offers the benefits of being located in one of the nation’s largest and fastest-growing cities, and the university supports students in taking advantage of Charlotte’s extensive professional opportunities.

· While a traditional liberal arts institution, Queens integrates career preparation into its curriculum. Students are required to complete one-to-two internships for credit, as well as a course in career preparation, taught by local HR and early talent recruiting professionals from local companies like Bank of America, that helps students find the best internship opportunities and hit the ground running when on the job. Global opportunities are also woven into the curriculum.

· Charlotte is the second-largest banking city in the US, and the business school (where many faculty also work in industry) has close connections with local companies like Bank of America, Wells Fargo, PwC and Deloitte. There are also extensive clinical opportunities for nursing and premed students in Charlotte. The city is also rich in cultural institutions, including over 17 live music venues and at least 29 museums.

· Although there are sororities, there are no fraternities at Queens and Greek life is not a big feature on campus. The university fields only club teams, but they compete with other colleges’ DI varsity teams. There is no football on campus, although there is rugby and sports are popular overall (50% of students are athletes).

· Service is very popular among students, and the university’s official motto is “not to be served, but to serve.”

· Despite being located in a large city, Queens has its own enclosed campus, located in the beautiful and affluent Myers Park neighborhood of Charlotte around a ten-minute drive from downtown. Queens students are racially, culturally and economically diverse. 10% are international and 13% come from the Northeast, with the majority of remaining students coming from the South.

· Distinctive majors include music therapy, health communication, data analytics, conservation biology, gallery and museum practices, interior architecture and design and exercise and sport science. There is no computer science major.

I recently visited High Point University in High Point, North Carolina, where I toured campus and spoke with the admissions office about the latest trends in admissions. Here are some takeaways from my visit:

· Unique among colleges, High Point, a private, mid-sized university in North Carolina’s Piedmont Triad, emphasizes helping students develop life skills that will benefit them throughout their professional and personal lives. These include effective communication, coachability, a growth mindset, emotional intelligence, motivation, gratitude, collaboration, adaptability, appreciation of differences and relationship building. All students are introduced to these skills through a required first-year course with the university president, and they are embedded into the curriculum throughout all four years.

· Located in the small city of High Point, the university’s gated campus is a 20-minute drive from Greensboro and a 30-minute drive from Winston-Salem. The campus has undergone continual expansion in recent years, and facilities and residence halls are more lavish than one would typically find at a college. Students can dine at one of three fine-dining establishments on campus, where trained staff coach students on proper mannerisms to help prepare them for the business world.

· A signature “In Residence” program invites high-profile figures from a range of industries to campus to teach and support students. Current innovators include Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and Netflix co-founder Marc Randolph.

· Classes average 20-25 students, and there are no large lectures. Experiential learning is woven into the curriculum and makes up 25% of every major. Students receive academic and career support at regular intervals.

· 99% of students reside on campus all four years. Over a third participate in Greek life, which includes co-ed professional and service organizations. The university completes in DI athletics and there is ample school spirit. On campus, students can enjoy a giant campus arcade, movie theater and range of student-led activities. 75% of students come from out of state.

· High Point is Methodist-affiliated, but there are no religious requirements. Most students are Christian, although there is a new Hillel House with a kosher kitchen and a growing population of Jewish students, as well as a religious space on campus for Muslim students. On average, students can be described as fiscally conservative and socially libertarian.

· The university features a range of programs and majors, including cybersecurity, nursing, engineering, communications and business. A 4+1 combined undergrad-masters program is available for many majors, with free tuition for the master’s degree.

I recently visited Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where I toured campus and spoke with the admissions office about the latest trends in admissions. Here are some takeaways from my visit:

· Wake Forest is a mid-sized, private university with around 5,500 undergraduates in the city of Winston-Salem (population 250,000). The school is known for its undergraduate focus and tight-knit, collaborative community. Students are required to live on campus three years, the accessible faculty live on “Faculty Drive” right along campus, and each first-year residence hall has an assigned faculty member assigned who regularly hosts events there.

· Given its national reputation, only 20% of students come from in-state, with students arriving from 48 states and 50 countries. Academics are rigorous.

· Despite being a mid-sized university, Wake hosts a range of successful DI athletic teams and a contagious atmosphere of school spirit.

· The average class size is 20, with 52% of classes 15 or fewer students. The largest classes top out around the high 20s or low 30s.

· While most science classes are hosted on the main campus, premeds can take advantage of the 12-year-old Wake Downtown campus, a STEM research facility home to first-year med students, medical faculty, and Wake’s new engineering and molecular biology programs.

· Research is available to all students, with 60% undertaking student-designed research with a faculty mentor.

· 80-85% of students study abroad, and opportunities are open to all students, including engineers. Wake owns three properties in Europe, including a palazzo on Venice’s Grand Canal. Students can also take part in countless partner study abroad programs.

· Wake also owns a center in Washington, DC where students can live and take classes with Wake faculty one semester while interning as part of the Wake in DC program.

· Wake’s motto is pro humanitate (for humanity), and 98% of students participate in service.

· Greek life is a big presence on campus, but not the only activity available. Interested students rush second semester of freshmen year, and there is no fraternity or sorority row: chapters wings are instead located in residence halls.

· Wake offers rolling Early Decision I, meaning that if students apply early enough and aren’t accepted, they can still apply elsewhere Early Decision I.

I recently visited Guilford College in Greensboro, North Carolina, where I toured campus and spoke with the admissions office about the latest trends in admissions. Here are some takeaways from my visit:

· Guilford College is a small liberal arts college of just under 1,200 students only eight minutes from downtown Greensboro in the Piedmont region of North Carolina. More liberal than many of its peers, Guilford was founded as a Quaker school and maintains a Quaker ethos of social justice, inclusion, equity and consensus making. The college once hosted a station on the Underground Railroad.

· With just under 300,000 people, Greensboro is the third-largest city in North Carolina, about 90 minutes from Charlotte, 2 hours from the mountains and 3 hours from the beach. Despite its proximity to downtown, Guilford’s campus features 200 acres of wooded area with walking trails and a lake.

· Guilford was one of the original “Colleges That Change Lives” and is known for fostering transformative student experiences. The average class size is 13, and faculty and staff are deeply invested in students. Advisors meet with freshmen once a month to track their progress. Faculty and administration – including the college president – go by first names. Students choose from 41 majors and may also enroll in courses at seven neighboring colleges that make up the Greater Greensboro Consortium. All students must intern or complete a professional development experience.

· A strong sense of campus community is fostered by housing that’s guaranteed for four years, with 85% of students remaining on campus for the duration of their degree. 70% of students come from North Carolina, with most out-of-state students come from neighboring Southern states (although around 10% of students come from the Northeast).

· Notable majors include Sustainable Food Systems, Cyber and Network Security, Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies and Sports Management (students often intern at the ACC’s headquarters in Greensboro).

· 37% of students are athletes, and athletic events on campus are popular. Campus life is very active on weekends. Students also spend extensive time in service-related activities, working to make the world a better place.

I recently visited Elon University in Elon, North Carolina, where I toured the campus and spoke with the admissions office about the latest trends in admissions. Here are some takeaways from my visit:

· Fast rising in popularity, Elon is an undergraduate-focused university with just over 6,000 students (and fewer than 1,000 grad students) in the Piedmont region of North Carolina. Still less selective than regional neighbors like Wake Forest, Duke and UNC-Chapel Hill, Elon shares many characteristics with those institutions: stately Georgian architecture set amidst a lush campus, a high proportion of students from out-of-state (many from the Northeast), vibrant student life and robust school spirit.

· The small downtown of Elon abuts campus, while the largest nearby town, Burlington (population 60,000), is a 10-minute drive away. Although the region is largely rural, larger cities and attractions are reachable by car: Greensboro (30 minutes), Raleigh-Durham Research Triangle (60 minutes), Charlotte (90 minutes), the Appalachian mountains to the west (2.5 hours) and the beach to the east (3 hours).

· Popular schools and majors include communications, business, nursing, public health and a fledgling engineering program. Unlike at many colleges, students can seamlessly move and double major between most schools, including business, communications and engineering. The highly competitive musical theater program sends the sixth-largest number of students to Broadway of any program in the country. Sports management majors regularly intern in Charlotte, where the ACC Conference is headquartered. Lastly, the business school recently launched a new financial technology major, and finance and accounting are popular subjects of study (the school partners with many large accounting firms).

· The average class size is 20, and students have excellent access to faculty, particularly given the small number of graduate students. There is also robust academic advising and support. All freshmen take a course taught by their academic advisor that helps them explore majors and build a tentative four-year plan. Advisors must sign off on a student’s schedule before it’s approved, which helps ensure that students aren’t navigating the waters alone, and students can seek free help from campus tutoring centers, which notify professors when students use their services so that the professors can also help.

· There is no honors college, but Elon offers cohort-based academic “fellowship” programs in different fields that award merit aid and provide students additional opportunities to take courses together, network, study abroad and receive more centralized advising.

· Like at many Southern universities, Greek life plays a sizable role on campus, with around 45% of students participating. There is also a plethora of other activities, such as clubs, acapella, movie nights every Friday at the university’s private movie theater, theater productions, painting, bingo, concerts, open mic nights and more.

· 75% of students live on campus, and those who live off-campus typically live within walking distance.

· 90% of students intern, and Elon has campus centers in DC, LA and NYC. 67% of student internships turn into full-time job offers.