Located in Schenectady, NY; Union College was founded in 1795, and confers only bachelor degrees. Union College, along with Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, was known as the “Big Four” in the 1830s because of the high number of students it graduated. In 1845, Union became the first liberal arts college to offer Engineering as a major. After 175 years as an all-male institution, Union College began enrolling women in 1970. The centerpiece of the campus is Nott Memorial, a rotunda (actually, 16 sided) with a National Historic Landmark designation since 1986.
Last year, Union received nearly 5,000 applications, admitted nearly 2,000, and enrolled 500. That’s a 40% admission rate. In addition to fraternity and sorority houses, Union has Theme Houses, where students with similar interests can reside together. Similar interests include ARTS House (Association of Ridiculously Talented Students), Iris House (for the LGBTQ community), Ozone House (for the Green community), and Thurston House (for those interested in East Asian interests). Most of these 'mansions' were previously owned by General Electric, the company in this company town. Since the recession, Schenectedy has fallen on harder times. Tuition at Union is higher than peer schools. Financial aid packages are available, but the student body ends up being predominately from the white upper middle class.
Union College, along with Cal Tech, Dartmouth, and Northwestern is part of the small number of colleges that utilizes a trimester system. There are 10 weeks in each of the three semesters between September and June where students enroll in only three courses at a time. The advantages to the trimester system is that by taking only three courses, instead of the usual four or five, you are able to focus on less subjects; in addition to covering more courses in a given year, and spreading your GPA out among nine grades instead of 10 or 11. The disadvantages to the trimester system is that due to the shortened time frame for each course, everything moves at a faster pace. Five weeks into the semester you have a midterm, and five weeks after that, a final. This system is not for the slacker.
Students who applied to Union College, also looked at Boston University, Kenyon College, and Brown University. For more information on Union College, visit http://www.union.edu/
Union College, along with Cal Tech, Dartmouth, and Northwestern is part of the small number of colleges that utilizes a trimester system. There are 10 weeks in each of the three semesters between September and June where students enroll in only three courses at a time. The advantages to the trimester system is that by taking only three courses, instead of the usual four or five, you are able to focus on less subjects; in addition to covering more courses in a given year, and spreading your GPA out among nine grades instead of 10 or 11. The disadvantages to the trimester system is that due to the shortened time frame for each course, everything moves at a faster pace. Five weeks into the semester you have a midterm, and five weeks after that, a final. This system is not for the slacker.
Students who applied to Union College, also looked at Boston University, Kenyon College, and Brown University. For more information on Union College, visit http://www.union.edu/
Union College is located at 807 Union Street, Schenectady, NY 12308 (518) 388-6000
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