Location: Albion College is located in
Albion, Michigan. The city is located in between
Battle Creek and
Jackson. It is also 90 miles west of
Detroit and 175 miles east of
Chicago on Interstate 94.
Size: Currently, there are 1,547 students attending Albion College. The size of the campus fits the number of students quite well. In other words, everywhere that you need to go on campus is located in a central area. Traveling at a normal walking speed, it would take about 10-15 minutes to walk from one end of campus to the other.
Cost: For the 2000-2001 school year, this is how the cost was broken down. (When I find out the costs for 2001-2002, I will update this.)
- Tuition (which includes 4.5 credit hours per semester, a class is usually one credit hour): $18,690
- Room and Board: $5,404
- Student Fees: $222
- Total Cost, without books: $24,316
- Books: about $500-$600 dollars per year
Admission requirements: Albion does not set their admission requirements in stone. They are fairly selective, but they determine one’s admittance based on a number of factors. This is straight from what the college claims are its admission requirements.
- SAT Scores: The middle 50% of our 1999-00 first-year class scored between a 1100 and 1300.
- The middle 50% of this year’s freshmen class scored between 22-28 on their composite ACT.
- Thirty-seven percent of the students in this year’s freshmen class were in the top 10% of their high school class, 68% were in the top quarter of their class, and 92% were in the top half.
- High school courses including AP and honors, the number of courses taken, and grades received.
- Interest in Albion (Come spend the day with us and have a tour, meet with faculty, and complete an interview.)
Majors offered: American Studies, Anthropology, Sociology, Art History, Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Economics and Management, English, French, Geological Sciences, German, History, International Studies, Mathematics, Music, Philosophy, Physical Education, Physics, Political Science, Public Policy, Psychology, Religious Studies, Spanish, Speech Communication, Theatre, Visual Arts.
Concentrations and Preprofessional Programs: Ethnic Studies, Human Services, Mass Communication, Neuroscience, Pre-Engineering, Pre-Law, Pre-Medicine, Pre-Dentistry, Pre-Veterinary Medicine, Other Health Care Studies, Women’s Studies.
Now for the stuff they won’t tell you when you call: the kind of information that you have to talk to a student for.
One of the things that I had the most difficulty adjusting to here is the water. It contains really high levels of iron and some sulfur compound. That means that not only does the water taste bad, also it smells bad. Taking a shower without noticing the smell was really difficult for the first few weeks. However, before coming here, I was babied with nice filtered water. I suppose if you have well water or yucky city water, the water here isn’t a big deal. I would still say that Albion students keep Brita in business.
A train runs right through campus very frequently. This is much less of a problem than the water. In fact, I barely noticed the train whistle after the first couple days.
Although the college is really expensive, it isn’t as bad as it seems. I applied hoping to get a decent scholarship. They gave me $10,000 just for my academic scholarship. You can try for many other scholarships. One of the important things to do to get a good academic scholarship is to relax at your interview. A professor, almost all of them have doctorates, will interview you. The best thing to do is talk about what you know; pretend that the professor is a friend with whom you are having an intellectual conversation. This worked really well for me. For browning points, talk about the novels you have read.
The city of Albion basically sucks. There are a few cool places to go, but even they get old. However, the college puts on a lot of fun social events. They have a program called “Liberal Arts at Play” that gives loads of money to make sure that students have fun things to do. They bring in comedians and bands all the time. This May, they are bringing in Vertical Horizon, after failing to get Dave Matthews Band due to scheduling conflicts.
The Pre-Med program here is really good. Somewhere around 98% of the students get placement into Med school, most into prestigious schools. The Pre-med people do a wonderful job of keeping Pre-med students at and even above current Med-school requirements. On the other hand, the education program here is not very good. The entire department is undergoing a “facelift.” They are up for review by the State Board of Education in a year or two, and are currently hiring new professors who meet higher standards. In addition, they are planning to expand the program to meet students’ needs better. In about four years, the education department here will be much better. I foresee that their reputation will reach a much higher, more respectable level.
Okay, I suppose that I have filled your brain with about all the Albion information it can handle. If you want to know more, feel free to /msg me.