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.

I recently visited Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York. Here are some takeaways from my visit:

· With around 5,500 undergraduates and under 1,000 graduate students, Marist effectively operates as an undergraduate-focused liberal arts college: there are no TAs, the average class size is 20 (with classes capped at 30), faculty must hold a minimum of five office hours each week, students can access research from year one, and there is a range of required liberal arts coursework. Hands-on, experiential learning opportunities abound.

· Marist combines the liberal arts with pre-professional preparation. Business and communications are the two most popular fields of study, with other STEM fields trailing not far behind. Each academic department has its own internship coordinator, and Marist hosts semester-long internship programs in Manhattan, DC and London. The college has a long-standing research partnership with neighboring IBM, where students often intern. There are many interesting on-campus work opportunities, such as the famed Marist Poll, the Center for Social Media and the Center for Sports Communication, which benefits from Marist’s relationship with ESPN.

· The scenic Hudson Valley campus overlooks the Hudson River, with large glass windows allowing students to take in the view wherever they are on campus. 88% of students live on campus all four years. School spirit is strong. New York City is just under two hours away by train or car.

· Despite its Catholic founding, Marist is non-denominational, and most students are not actively religious. That said, traces of the school’s Catholic heritage are evident in its emphasis on service, ethics and character.

· Marist also has two overseas campuses in Dublin and Florence, and students can elect to spend their first year in either. Students can also complete all four years at the Florence campus if they choose.

· The honors college features special housing, coursework and research opportunities for the top 10-15% of incoming students.

· Marist hosts a fashion design program, and student-designed creations are sold at the on-campus Emporium store, which is managed entirely by students.

I recently visited Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, where I toured the campus and spoke with the admissions office about the latest trends in admissions. Here are some takeaways from my visit:

· Vassar is a small liberal arts college with just under 2,500 students located in the scenic Hudson River Valley. The liberal arts are prized here, with students participating in a wide range of majors and no one major representing more than 6% of students. The average class size is 17 and student research opportunities abound.

· Vassar is known for its open curriculum, which has minimal requirements: one freshman writing seminar, one quantitative analysis class, and completing (or placing out of) a language requirement.

· Although Vassar went co-ed in the 1960s (it was formerly the sister college to Yale), women make up 60% of students. The campus vibe is artsy and intellectual and there is no Greek life. Similar to Yale, freshmen live in one of nine residential houses, each with its own particular flavor. Each house features a “parlor” with a Steinway piano, as well as a resident House Fellow: a faculty member who lives at the house and organizes regular social events for its members. 97% of students live on campus.

· The main campus is 400 acres, but the entire campus also includes a 400-acre farm where some science students will complete lab work. The campus is also a nationally registered arboretum, which also opens up avenues for scientific research in environmental science.

· Located in a suburban area of Poughkeepsie, students can take public transit into the city. When not attending activities on campus (which has five separate theaters and over 150 clubs), students can choose from multiple off-campus options, including hiking, biking and kayaking, the Bardavon Opera House (which features performances and talks), nearby art centers like Dia: Beacon and Storm King, eating at local restaurants staffed by chefs from the nearby Culinary Institute of America, or shopping in the Poughkeepsie Waterfront Farmers Market. New York City is also about 1 hour 45 minutes away by car or train.