APEX at Ursinus College: Empowering Future Leaders
APEX at Ursinus College equips you with the skills and experiences needed to become a forwardthinking leader and problem-solver. Through applied learning, experiential opportunities, and career development, APEX ensures you’ll be prepared for success in a rapidly changing world, regardless of which major or majors you choose.
APEX: Applied. Professional. Experiential. – is a transformative educational framework. This novel approach enables you to:
» apply your learning in project-based courses
» collaborate with faculty and fellow students on solutions to global problems
» and build career-relevant competencies
What’s different about the APEX approach to education?
Our team-based advising and coaching structure and career communities support you from your first day on campus all the way through graduation, ensuring you’ll grow to your fullest potential and lay a strong foundation for ongoing professional success.
What you’ll read about in this brochure:
» Career coaching from day one
» Career communities to support you
» Interdisciplinary hubs and centers
» Experiential Learning Week
» First-Year Global Career Exploration
» Accelerated Pathways and Partnerships
» Outcomes
COACHING AND COMMUNITY
Career Coaching from Day One
Every incoming Ursinus student is supported by a professional academic advisor and career coach as part of a four-year, teambased advising structure. Together, you’ll build a college experience that’s meaningful, future-focused, and uniquely yours. During your first year, you will collaborate with your career coach and academic advisor to:
» Create an individual development plan for academic and professional success
» Begin building your resume
» Connect with guest speakers and potential mentors from a variety of industries, community partners, non-profits, etc.
» Acquire foundational professional skills
Career Communities to Support You
You will also join a career community that connects the career coaching structure with faculty, coursework, and campuswide programming. Career communities provide opportunities for facultymoderated panels and skills workshops with employers, and you’ll benefit from a strong cohortand peer-based learning environment and a growing support network.
In your first year, two one-credit courses are designed to help you:
» Transition smoothly to college life
» Build a strong academic foundation
» Explore aligning your passions with potential career paths
» Establish goals
» Reflect on your strengths, values, and proposed academic and career paths
» Strengthen networking skills
HUBS AND CENTERS
BUILDING A HUMANE AND DIGITAL WORLD
CIVIC SPARK: POLICY AND DEMOCRACY
JUSTICE AND COMMUNITY COLLECTIVE
At the heart of APEX are interdisciplinary hubs and centers where you'll collaborate with faculty, professional advisors, and mentors across disciplines to address global challenges such as climate change and sustainability, health equity, cross-cultural collaboration, sustainable investment, artificial intelligence, and more. Students will explore solutions by addressing problems through our four open questions—What should matter to me? How should we live together? How can I understand the world? What will I do?
ARTS IN ACTION
MELROSE HUB FOR GLOBAL LEADERSHIP
BUILDING A HUMANE AND DIGITAL WORLD
SCIENCE AND THE COMMON GOOD
CIVIC SPARK: POLICY AND DEMOCRACY
SPORT AND HUMANITY HUB
JUSTICE AND COMMUNITY COLLECTIVE
SUSTAINABILITY SOLUTIONS
BE ON THE JOB
( WHILE STILL IN SCHOOL )
Experiential Learning (XLP) Grants
We never want you to choose between a paying job and experience in your chosen career. That’s why all students—beginning with the class of 2025—will be eligible for up to $2,000 through the Experiential Learning Grant. This grant can be used to offset costs associated with Ursinus-affiliated and credit-bearing unpaid internships, externships, co-ops, study abroad programs, and mentored research. Students may apply for the grant through the student financial services office beginning in their sophomore year.
Experiential Learning Week
You’ll return to campus one week before spring semester classes begin to take part in Experiential Learning Week. This immersive week jumpstarts your path to becoming a thoughtful, engaged, and career-ready student. You’ll work in teams to address real-world problems and be placed with peers at on- or offcampus work sites where you’ll develop new skills and engage in applied and experiential projects. By the end of the week, you will:
» Add tangible skills to your resume
» Use the open questions to reflect on your career goals
» Identify problems of interest and gain an understanding of how they can be addressed in different contexts
» Gain confidence in communicating to different audiences
FIRST-YEAR
GLOBAL
CAREER EXPLORATION
The First-Year Global Career Exploration offers an exciting opportunity for students to engage in short-term, immersive travel experiences that blend global learning with real-world problem-solving. This program is designed to build global awareness, resilience, and career curiosity through hands-on projects and cultural engagement. Whether exploring digital ethics in Estonia or environmental sustainability in Appalachia, students will gain valuable skills and perspectives that complement their first-year experience and set the foundation for academic and professional growth.
The First-Year Global Career
Exploration offers an exciting opportunity for students to engage in short-term, immersive travel experiences that blend global learning with real-world problem-solving. This program is designed to build global awareness, resilience, and career curiosity through hands-on projects and cultural engagement. Whether exploring digital ethics in Estonia or environmental sustainability in Appalachia, students will gain valuable skills and perspectives that complement their first-year experience and set the foundation for academic and professional growth.
IMMERSE YOURSELF...
EMERGE READY
Accelerated Pathways and Partnerships
Ursinus has exciting partnerships with several universities that offer students seamless access to advanced degree and professional programs.
Whether you’re looking to continue your education in engineering, computer science, social work, criminal justice, nursing, receive an MBA, or more—we have pathways to 10 universities—including Columbia University, Villanova University, St. Joseph’s University, Washington University in St. Louis, and more!
Outcomes
Our applied, professional, experiential learning grounded in the liberal arts prepares you to excel in tomorrow’s economy and jobs of the future. How you define success is ultimately up to you, but we can guarantee our graduates are strongly positioned, more motivated, highly creative, and ready to lead.
» Within six months of graduating, 97% of graduates are employed, attending graduate or professional school full time, completing a fellowship, or engaged in a year of service.
» In 2024, Ursinus graduates had a 71% med school admission rate, which is roughly 28% higher than the national admission rate reported by the Association of American Medical Colleges.
» 98% of students who participated in our pre-law program were accepted into law school.
» When it comes to return on investment, liberal arts colleges outperform other institutions by more than $200,000 over the long term.
» Ursinus’s ROI is 29% more than the median for all liberal arts colleges, placing us in the top 6% of all colleges and universities in the nation.
» U.S. News & World Report named Ursinus a top performer (#58) on social mobility.
Outcomes
Our applied, professional, experiential learning grounded in the liberal arts prepares you to excel in tomorrow’s economy and jobs of the future. How you define success is ultimately up to you, but we can guarantee our graduates are strongly positioned, more motivated, highly creative, and ready to lead.
» Within six months of graduating, 97% of graduates are employed, attending graduate or professional school full time, completing a fellowship, or engaged in a year of service.
» In 2024, Ursinus graduates had a 71% med school admission rate, which is roughly 28% higher than the national admission rate reported by the Association of American Medical Colleges.
» 98% of students who participated in our pre-law program were accepted into law school.
» When it comes to return on investment, liberal arts colleges outperform other institutions by more than $200,000 over the long term.
» Ursinus’s ROI is 29% more than the median for all liberal arts colleges, placing us in the top 6% of all colleges and universities in the nation.
» U.S. News & World Report named Ursinus a top performer (#58) on social mobility.
