ALLEGHENY COLLEGE

ALLEGHENY COLLEGE

OFFICE OF ADMISSIONS, ALLEGHENY COLLEGE, MEADVILLE, PA 16335 • ADMISSIONS: 814-332-4351 • FAX: 814-337-0431
FINANCIAL AID: 800-835-7780 • E-MAIL: ADMISSIONS@ALLEGHENY.EDU • WEBSITE: WWW.ALLECHENY.EDU

STUDENTS SAY

Academics

For students ready to hit the books hard, Allegheny College offers great rewards; one undergrad explains, “We have a huge workload here, with a lot of reading and a ton of writing. It really prepares you for graduate school and taking many upper-level courses at one time.” The experience also benefits those looking to move directly into the business world after graduation because of its “great opportunities in experiential learning.” As one student puts it, “Allegheny’s strengths are its ample amounts of opportunity to excel both in and out of the classroom. The college provides numerous internship opportunities in addition to solid career services.” Before they can reap the rewards of their degrees, though, Allegheny undergrads must complete a rigorous curriculum, one they praise for its “openness to individuality. It gave me the option of self-designing a major.” Professors at Allegheny “are personally interested not only in you as a student, but in your personal well-being as well. You can’t skip a class without a professor noticing and worrying about you, and you can be sure that they will go out of their way to help you whether or not you fall behind in class or are having a personal problem.” Students say a larger school could not provide this kind of “professor—student connection.” Administrators also integrate themselves wholly into the school community. One undergrad notes, “Students will greet the dean or president from across campus, and there is a great deal of interaction between administrators and students. No one is too important to make personal connections with students.”

Life

A heavy workload keeps Allegheny students very busy during the week, so much so that come the weekend, most look for a way “to relieve the stress caused by the demands of the school.” Sometimes that involves drinking, sometimes not. Students report that “provisions by the school to crack down on off-campus parties in the past year have made social life pretty dull,” making it harder—though certainly not impossible—to blow off some steam with a brew or four, Because of the new policy enforcement, “The greater portion of the campus community is more secluded from one another, with smaller groups of friends forming.” This is especially true in the winter months, “when many students seem to hibernate,” or hole up in the coffeehouse, “a hotspot for concerts, open mic nights, and general chillin.’ “The school’s newly renovated and expanded campus center has also increased late-night programming.” The campus is considerably more active “in the early fall and late spring months, during which campus-wide activities from sports to college-nm activities become much more common.” Hometown Meadville—which some describe as “a bit backward”—is a quiet, low- to middle-income town, some of whose locals “resent the students who pay all this money to go to school and drive around in nice cars and wear nice clothes,” according to Allegheny under- grads. As a result, students “band together to fight boredom” and “head up to Erie to go shopping or to Port Erie’s Bayfront district for nightlife.” Pittsburgh is an occasional destination, “but only for concerts or other big events.”

Student Body

“Everyone is involved in a variety of activities” at Allegheny, students report. “No one is just involved in religious life or just involved in Greek life. Therefore, it’s not hard to fit in somewhere.” One undergrad agrees: “We have athletes, sorority and fraternity members, very religious people, very artsy dreadlocked students, students heavily involved with the radio station and music department, etc. There are so many things to get involved in that it’s hard to classify students.” A common thread is that on this “politically opinionated campus, people can get pretty heated. Political and philosophical debates randomly occur.” When not involved in a hot-button conversation, just about everyone “is studious to the point that it nags them during the week.”

ADMISSIONS

Very important factors considered include: Academic CPA, class rank, rigor of secondary school record. Important factors considered include: Character/personal qualities, extracurricular activities, interview, recommendation(s), standardized test scores. Other factors considered include: Alumni/ac relation, application
• essay, first generation, geographical residence, level of applicant’s interest, racial/ethnic status, talent/ability, volunteer work, work experience. SAT or ACT required; TOEFL required of all international applicants. High school diploma is required, and GED is accepted. Academic units required: 4 English, 3
• math, 3 science, 2 foreign language, 3 social studies, 1 academic elective.

The Inside Word

Academic promise plays a large role in the admissions process at Allegheny. The college looks for students who go beyond their high school’s minimum requirements, particularly those who dabble in honors and Advanced Placement courses. Admissions Officers are known for their individualized approach—while standardized test scores and class rank factor significantly in their decisions, consideration is also given to personal character and extracurricular activities.

FINANCIAL AID

Students should submit: FAFSA. The Princeton Review suggests that all financial aid forms be submitted as soon as possible after January 1. Need-based scholarships/grants offered: Pell Grant, SLOG, Academic Competitiveness Grant, National SMART Grant, state scholarships/grants, private scholarships, the school’s own gift aid, Veterans Educational Benefits. Loan aid offered: FFEL Subsidized Stafford, FFEL Unsubsidized Stafford, FFEL PLUS, Federal Perkins Loan, private loans from commercial lenders. Applicants will be notified of awards on a rolling basis beginning or about March 1.

FROM THE ADMISSIONS OFFICE

“We’re proud of Allegheny’s beautiful campus and cutting-edge technologies,. and we know that our professors are leading scholars who pride themselves even more on being among the best teachers in the United States. Yet it’s our students who make Allegheny the unique and special place that it is.

“Allegheny attracts students with unusual combinations of interests, skills, and talents. How do we characterize them? Although it’s impossible to label our students, they do share some common characteristics. You’ll find an abiding passion for learning and life, a spirit of camaraderie, and shared inquiry that spans across individuals as well as areas of study. You’ll see over and over again such a variety of interests and passions and skills that, after a while, those unusual combinations don’t seem so unusual at all.

Allegheny is not for everybody. If you find labels reassuring, if you’re looking For a narrow technical training, if you’re in search of the shortest distance ‘etween point A and point B, then perhaps another college will be better for you.
‘But, if you recognize that everything you experience between points A and B will make you appreciate point B that much more; if you’ve noticed that when Life gives you a choice between two things, you’re tempted to answer both or ;imply yes; if you start to get excited because you sense there is a college willLng to echo the resounding yes, then we look forward to meeting you.

“Applicants for Fall 2008 are required to take either the new SAT or ACT (the new ACT Writing section is recommended but not required). If both tests are taken, we will use the better score of the two. The Writing score of both the SAT and ACT wifi be reviewed but will not be a major factor in admission decisions.”