Ohio Wesleyan University

 Ohio Wesleyan is  also a member  the Ohio 5 college consortium.  OWU(or Oh-Woo)  is a  smal lliberal arts school located in Delaware ,Ohio  a small town   30 miles away from  the  state capital Columbus. OWU is a very liberal and politically active campus.   It also prides itself on being a very international campus. Almost half of all students will study or volunteer in  a foreign country.   It is ne of the few colleges to  offer   financial aid to international students, therefore OWU has one of the largest proportions of foreign students among the  liberal arts colleges.

While OWU has  strong programs in the sciences ( particularly chemistry and biology)  as well as humanities but its real strength is the   freedom to do interdisciplinary work in diverse fields such as Art and Chemistry. OWU also allows and encourages undergraduate student research.

 Ohio Wesleyan  has an acceptance rate of over 50%  but tis is mostly because   the applicant pool  is small and consists of students looking for a   interdisciplinary liberal arts education.  The application involves an additional personal statement essay.


 

Kenyon College

Kenyon  is a  smal liberal arts college in rural Ohio.   Kenyon is a reputed liberal arts school and a member of the Ohio 5 consortium

 Kenyon's campus is over 1000 acres in size  and has a large  280 acre nature preserve forested area -  this allows Kenyon to offer excellent research opportunities in ecology, environmental science and conservation.  Other strong programs at Kenyon are Political science, Math, economics, English and psychology.

Admission is competitive and  the acceptance rate is around 25%. Kenyon is consistently ranked among  the best liberal arts colleges, currently 27th

 Kenyon does npt have a supplementary essay but rather several short answers   questions intended to guage ones  interest in the  college:

• Please list names and relationships of any relatives who attend or attended Kenyon and their years of attendance.

• To which other colleges are you applying?

• Are there activities you did not do in secondary school but might try at Kenyon?

• If you have spent a recent summer in a service project, study program, or work or travel opportunity, please describe.

Briefly tell us about an academic class, teacher, research

How did you first learn of Kenyon, and how did your interest develop? If your response goes beyond 500 characters, please use the

additional information page provided.

• Have you visited Kenyon? If you have, please give the approximate date(s) and describe your visit(s). If you have not, do you plan

to visit? When?

• What is there about you—your values, goals, interests, experiences, talents, style—that makes a good match with Kenyon? Why

• are you attracted to Kenyon? What do you want the Admissions Committee to know about you?

 As  is clear , the Kenyon  is interested interested in you as a person , nit just a applicant or student..

Oberlin College

 The first of the Ohio 5 I am looking at is Oberlin. Oberlin is probably the best known college in the group.   It is considered to be a"little ivy" and is regularly ranked as one of the top liberal arts schools ( #24 currently).
 Apart from being a having an acadenically strong liberal atrs   college , Oberlin also has a highly reputed college of music



Admissip to  Ober;in is competitive. The acceptance rate is 29%.  As with most liberal arts schools, Oberlin is looking for people that share a similar mindset.
 Its worth keeping in mind that Oberlin is a very progressive place , being amongst the forst to accept women and minorities.
The required Oberlin writing supplement asks for a response to the prompt: How did your interest in Oberlin develop and what aspects of our college community most excite you?

5 Colleges Ohio

 Having just looked at the CBB( Colby, Bates and  Bowdoin) college Consortium of  Maine,  I want to look to another State. A similar group of selective , academic liberal arts schools ha formed the 5 colleges of Ohio Consortium.   The 5 colleges of Ohio is a more formal consortium which not only links the 5 schools with each other but also has connections to Ohio State University and a common inter college digital library resource funded by the Mellon foundation.


 The 5 colleges are

• Oberlin College
• KenyonCollege
• Denison University
• Ohio Wesleyan University
• College of Wooster

 I will be  looking  at each one individually  as well.

Bowdoin College

 Bowdoin is the third member of the  CBB consortium and is considered to be a "little ivy".  Baudoin  is  consistently ranked as one of the top liberal arts schools . The most popular majors are political science , economics, mathematics and English.

 The inclusive nature of Baudoin can be seen in the University Offer( equivalent  to its mission statement)
The Offer of the College": To be at home in all lands and all ages; To count Nature a familiar acquaintance, And Art an intimate friend; To gain a standard for the appreciation of others' work, And the criticism of your own; To carry the keys of the world's library in your pocket, And feel its resources behind you in whatever task you undertake; To make hosts of friends ... Who are to be leaders in all walks of life; To lose yourself in generous enthusiasms, And cooperate with others for common ends. This is the offer of the college for the best four years of your life.

 Admission to  Bowdoin is highly selective  with only 15% of applicants accepted.   The supplementary essay is as follows:

Bowdoin students and alumni often cite world-class faculty and opportunities for intellectual engagement, the College’s commitment to the

Common Good, and the special quality of life on the coast of Maine as important aspects of the Bowdoin experience.

Reflecting on your own interests and experiences, please comment on

one

of

the following:

1. Intellectual engagement

2. The Common Good

3. Connection to place

 

 Bowdoin looks for smart, intellectually inclined students who want to be socially and personally connected to their communities.

 

 

Bates College

Bates is another member of the CBB consortium. Bates is located in Lewiston, Maine.
 A rigorous liberal arts school    with a focus on interdisciplinary learning. The small student - faculty ration means classes are taught in a   discussion oriented seminar setting.  Bates shares academic resources with  its two instate neighbours - Colby and Baudoin  improving what is already a very  well rounded liberal arts experience.

S

BBates is a very  intellectual atmosphere  and it fosters  a culture of learning. This is clearly echoed in the mission statement:

 

SSince 1855, Bates College has been dedicated to the emancipating potential of the liberal arts.

Bates educates the whole person through creative and rigorous scholarship in a collaborative residential community.With ardor and devotion —Amore ac Studio

— we engage the trans formative power of our differences, cultivating intellectual discovery and informed civic action. Preparing leaders sustained by a love of learning and a commitment to responsible stewardship of the wider world, Bates is a college for coming times.

 

 Admissin is competitive with   les than 25% accepted. The supplementary essay  is as follows.

select one phrase from the Bates mission statement and comment on how it inspires you and draws you to Bates

 

Colby College

Colby is the next liberal arts school  I am looking at.   Colby is located in  Waterville, Maine.
 Along with two other Maine based colleges -  Bates College and  Bowdoin College - it forms the unofficial Colby-Bates-Bowdoin or CBB consortium.
 The three schools compete in athletic events  and make use of  each others' faculty and library resources
The CBB competition often draws comparisons to the football games of the Big Three of the Ivy League, with Bowdoin often drawing the connection to Harvard, Bates to Princeton, and Colby to Yale.^[14] Just as Harvard, Yale, and Princeton are initialized as HYP, so too are Colby, Bates, and Bowdoin as CBB

Colby is a  highly reputed liberal arts school  often ranking amongst the top 10.Admission is highly competitive with admission rates below 20%. Colby recently  dropped the supplemental essay requirement  and has seen application numbers increase.