I recently visited Marymount Manhattan College on New York City’s Upper East Side, where I toured the campus and spoke with the admissions office about the latest trends in admissions. Here are some takeaways from my visit:

· Marymount is relatively unique in that it provides a small liberal arts college experience right in the middle of New York City. Around 1600 students attend and enroll in degree programs in the performing arts and liberal arts, with all students required to take a certain number of core liberal arts courses (currently around 10, but projected to shrink to closer to 6 in the future).

· The campus consists of two connected academic buildings on 71st Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenues. Housing is available all four years, although most students move off-campus sophomore or junior year. The freshman dorm is a 15-minute walk from campus, and the sophomore and upperclassman dorm, located downtown, is only about 20-30 minutes away with the subway.

· Marymount’s vibe is artsy. There are no sports and no Greek life.

· Classes average 10-20 students, with gen ed courses being closer to 20 and courses in your major closer to 10.

· Students who are not arts majors can still minor in the arts and take arts classes with the same faculty.

· Students are very social and divide their time between campus, the dorms and work. On weekends, students explore New York City and make use of free cultural event tickets provided by Marymount.

· Marymount offers a full premed curriculum, with students securing clinical work at the nearby Cornell hospital, Rockefeller University, Hospital for Special Surgery or Memorial Sloan Kettering.

· The undergraduate business program offers unique majors in fashion marketing, media and arts management and social entrepreneurship. The communications program offers a major in digital journalism, with students interning at nearby media organizations.

· Students complete an average of 2-3 internships during their four years at Marymount, mostly in New York City. Courses also take the city as their classroom, often involving field trips, meetings with nearby professionals and case studies of local companies and organizations.

I recently visited Drew University in Madison, New Jersey, where I toured the campus and spoke with the admissions office about the latest trends in admissions. Here are some takeaways from my visit:

· Technically a university, Drew is a de facto small liberal arts college with around 1700 undergrads and only a few hundred graduate students. The average class size is 18 students.

· Drew is known as the “University in the Forest” for its heavily wooded campus, which is about a 15-minute walk from one end to the other. The nearby downtown of Madison is only a 10-minute walk from campus and features a small, quaint downtown strip with shops and restaurants. New York City is around one hour by train, which departs from Madison’s downtown station. 80% of students live on campus, where there are 90+ clubs and numerous student events.

· There are extensive research opportunities during the school year and summer. Students conducting summer research live on campus for free and receive a stipend. For premeds, the nearby Morristown Medical Center hospital provides clinical opportunities.

· Drew offers a New York City Semester program, where students spend one semester traveling 2-3 days each week to the city to complete an internship and build real-world experience. Students choose from seven different options: social entrepreneurship, museums and cultural management, communications and media, theatre, the United Nations, contemporary art, Wall Street.

· Drew offers an honors program (Baldwin), although Baldwin students take only a few honors courses during their time at Drew.

· Drew offers an extensive range of dual-degree programs in partnership with other universities, including programs in law, medicine, engineering, cybersecurity, public health, teaching and more.

· As is common at many liberal arts colleges, interviews are offered (often in the summer) and are recommended for all Drew applicants.

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

· Connecticut College is located on Long Island Sound, slightly closer to Boston than NYC. A train station right in the town of New London provides service to both cities (+/- two hours), and the nearest airport is about 45 minutes away in Providence.

· A small liberal arts college, Connecticut College currently enrolls 1,865 undergrads. The average class size is 17.

· Connecticut College emphasizes interdisciplinary study, career readiness/real-world impact and research. 54% of students work with a professor on an independent study or project.

· Distribution requirements are minimal and easy to fulfill, so students have a lot of freedom to explore different areas of interest (and can even design their own major). In addition to traditional majors and minors, 80% of students participate in an interdisciplinary “pathway” or “center,” which focus on a special topic (often related to a real-world career field) and integrate academics, real-world experience and special advising. Students complete these programs in small cohorts, which provide another avenue for building community on campus.

· Connecticut College has a robust learning center where advisors can work extensively 1-on-1 with students to help them become more independent learners, especially those with learning differences and/or ADHD. Students are still responsible for requesting their own accommodations, however.

· 98% of students live on campus, where most social life takes place (student performances, athletic games, parties; there is no Greek life). Students also sometimes make the five-minute drive into the town of New London, located right on Long Island Sound. The small waterfront town has a diverse array of restaurants and shops.

· Connecticut College meets full demonstrated need.

I recently visited The New School in Manhattan, where I toured the campus and spoke with the enrollment office about the latest trends in admissions. Here are some takeaways from my visit:

· There are currently 7,632 undergrads, and 92% of classes are under 20 students.

· Interdisciplinary learning is a large focus. Students in Lang can design their own interdisciplinary major, and students can sample from classes across the broader university.

· Lang’s curriculum is very reading and writing-intensive, and applicants are welcome to submit additional writing samples to showcase their strength as a writer.

· A towering 30-40% of students are international.

· The downtown campus, located right next to NYU, is thoroughly integrated into the city. Most freshmen live on campus but then move off after their first year. Almost all students who want on-campus housing for four years, however, can receive it. Most of the dorms are a 20-minute walk from the primary academic buildings.

· Lang graduates often work in design, publishing, museums, and media like local newspapers and NPR.

· Lang isn’t the best choice for pre-med students, as they lack all of the required lab courses.

· With few exceptions (such as fashion design or the Parsons Paris program), students applying to Lang and Parsons do not need to declare a major when applying.

· Many Lang students are also artists, and they can take classes and complete minors through Parsons. There is also a joint 5-year BA/BFA degree program.

· Students can elect to study in Paris for some or all of their time at Parsons.

I recently visited Princeton University in New Jersey, where I toured the campus and heard from the admissions office about the latest trends in admissions. Here are some takeaways from my visit:

· Princeton distinguishes itself from many of its Ivy peers by its intense focus on undergraduate research and teaching. Students can become involved in research as early as freshman year, and research projects are required both junior and senior years. The campus lacks many traditional graduate schools (business, medicine, law), and the majority of students are undergrads.

· Because of Princeton’s unique senior thesis requirement, students can only major in one subject. There is also a narrower range of majors – 37 – than at many of the university’s peer institutions.

· While most classes are small, some lectures have up to 120 students (or, in the case of Introduction to Computer Science, 200).

· Students live in one of seven residential colleges their first two years but belong to the college all four years. Social life for the majority of upperclassmen centers around Princeton’s “eating clubs,” which each have their own culture and flavor.

· Princeton fields some of the strongest athletic programs in the Ivy League and has a total of 38 D1 teams and as many club teams.

· Students can opt for a fully-funded gap year abroad through the Novogratz Bridge Year Program. Students will complete a work project based on their interests.

· A unique feature of Princeton admissions is that they require a graded paper, ideally from within the last two years in English or history. Princeton will consider the writing within the context of the student’s high school.

· The optional interview is encouraged, and submitting an arts supplement “can only help” an application.

· Engineers also fulfill liberal arts distribution requirements but are exempt from the foreign language requirement.

· Princeton no longer caps the number of A’s at 35% of each class, but there is still some grade deflation in programs such as engineering.

· The entire campus is a 10-15 minute walk from one end to the other. Most students are not allowed to have cars on campus.

· Students can elect to take up to four classes in total pass/fail.

· A new art museum is currently under construction and the gym is undergoing renovations.