Boston Area College Tours
BENTLEY UNIVERSITY
Bentley offers a strong business curriculum coupled with the ability to double major “liberal studies” in various disciplines related to business such as sustainability, media and culture, or ethics. The campus is made up of red brick buildings situated along a hill with the upper, academic quad and the lower residential quad. Be prepared to walk a lot of steps, which should keep off the freshman 15!
..Full report for Bentley, Simmons, Emerson, Clark and WPI….
SIMMONS COLLEGE
I didn’t know what to expect from Simmons based on my outdated impressions of the school from when I lived in Boston almost 20 years ago. However, the wide range of confident, put-together women that I met during my visit impressed me. Simmons is small (2,000), women’s college located in the Fenway section of Boston. Simmons prides itself on a practical liberal arts curriculum, however they also offer several pre-professional programs such as nursing, physical therapy, and graphic design.
I was most impressed with the ability for students to start undergraduate scientific research as a freshman. One of the seniors presented her research that she started as a freshman and carried through her four years looking at the ability to convert plastic polymer material into reusable material and back again. She wrote a 150-page thesis and was accepted to 15 very competitive PhD programs. You could see the passion coming from both her and her professor.
EMERSON COLLEGE
Emerson bill itself as a state of the industry liberal arts college focused on communications, however the curriculum is highly pre-professional. Emerson students have the opportunity to gain first-hand experience in every aspect of broadcast, print and Internet journalism, film directing and production and theater arts. There is a writing, literature, and publishing major that prepares students on all aspects of becoming a professional writer. Students have access to an “equipment rental” room where they can check out audio visual equipment, just like in a real news organization.
..Full report for Bentley, Simmons, Emerson, Clark and WPI….
CLARK UNIVERSITY
Clark is located in Worcester, which is the second largest city in New England. Parts of Worcester are terribly depressed and can be a turn off to certain students, however a “Clarkie” sees this aspect of Worcester an attraction because they feel like there is a lot of opportunity to make positive changes in the community and they also feel like they can do more things because it is a less expensive city. Other parts of Worcester are actually very nice and more robust with a strong cultural presence of museums and theater. There is a strong immigrant population in Worcester bring with it numerous ethnic eateries, particularly Vietnamese, Chinese, and Thai. Boston and a ski/snowboard mountain are about an hour away.
..Full report for Bentley, Simmons, Emerson, Clark and WPI….
WPI
WPI focuses on the STEM majors, Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. 10% of the students major in management and the Interactive Media and Gaming Development (IMGD) is also popular. It is very collaborative, project-based environment and the kids are very friendly. There is a lot of opportunity to gain real world applications and they encourage students to take risks and experience a lot of different things. As a result, no student will receive less than a C in any class and if he does, the grade will not go onto the student’s transcript. There is no core curriculum and WPI runs on the quarter system, whereby students take three classes per quarter.
..Full report for Bentley, Simmons, Emerson, Clark and WPI….