A DEGREE OF EXCELLENCE
WITHIN YOUR FAMILY’S
REACH
“WESTERN NEW ENGLAND UNIVERSITY,
THAT’S A GREAT SCHOOL!”
You may hear that comment from family and colleagues when you tell them where your son or daughter plans to attend college. Or, more importantly, four years from now when a prospective employer makes that statement to him or her at a job interview. Hearing such an affirmation and knowing that people from your hometown to major corporations across the country consider Western New England University to be a “great school” is an important consideration in the college search process. In fact, in a survey of the Class of 2016, 90% of the respondents were employed/offered employment within six months of graduation. Others were enrolled in graduate school.
Deciding where your child is going to earn an undergraduate degree is not an easy decision, especially today when your child is receiving so much information from so many new sources about which schools may be the best fit for your family. “What are the key attributes in a university that will help my child succeed? Where will he or she feel most supported? How can I help my child make the best choice?� These are just a few of the many questions I get asked by our families on a regular basis. As a father of three children myself, I certainly understand the pressures involved, and this is why it was so important for me to create this brochure with parents and guardians in mind. Ultimately, whatever school your family chooses will be based on a set of unique values. I wanted to take this opportunity to clearly communicate what we value as a University in order to help you make the most informed decision possible. I hope that after reading this it will be clear that our mission is to provide your family member an extremely high quality, highly personalized education, one that will set him or her up for a successful and satisfying life. Hopefully, through our vast resources and your child’s hard work and determination, your family will realize the value of a Western New England University education.
Bryan Gross
Vice President for Enrollment Management and Marketing
GIVE THEM THE BEST
OPPORTUNITIES WITH A TOP RANKED “BEST VALUE” UNIVERSITY Western New England University is ranked in the top 3 percent of colleges and universities among the top 1,275 public and private institutions reviewed in the United States by The Economist magazine. The rankings analyzed which institutions offered the “best value” for the education students received. The Economist’s results showed a predicted salary for undergraduates from Western New England University of $47,947 while the reported salary 10 years after enrolling was $55,100. Western New England University over-performed by $7,153 in predicted annual salary. The data in The Economist ranking is also consistent with findings recently published by the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program, a larger and broader study, where Western New England University is ranked in the top 17 percent of nearly 8,000 college and universities in the United States.
BENCHMARKS OF
QUALITY
Students are attracted to Western New England University by the quality and depth of nearly 50 undergraduate majors and programs, our high academic standards, and the caliber of our engaging faculty. They feel at home and inspired by our close-knit learning environment and modern campus. They take pride in our growing national reputation and our rising athletic program. GRADUATE AND PROFESSIONAL SCHOOLS, where students may one day apply, look at other criteria that distinguish Western New England University. Many schools only accept students who share the same accreditations that they hold such as AACSB International for business programs, ABET for engineering, the Council on Social Work Education for social work, or the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) for Pharmacy programs. Our ranking in U.S. News & World Report’s America’s “Best Colleges” among the “Regional Universities in the North” category is also an indicator of where we stand among our peers. We are also proud to note that our graduates have gone on to earn advanced degrees at such schools as Harvard, Columbia, and Stanford to name just a few. At Western New England University, quality and value go hand-in-hand. We strive to keep our tuition within the means of working families. Through our merit-based scholarships we are able to offer awards of $8,000 to $21,000 annually or $32,000 to $84,000 over four years. With these and other scholarships or grants, we endeavor to keep a quality private college education within the reach of deserving students.
SHAYLA FOLEY Criminal Justice Senior
Inspired by television shows like Criminal Minds and Law & Order, Shayla Foley chose to major in Criminal Justice, with an eye towards law school in the future. She enjoys the challenge of considering the facts of a case (real or dramatized) and creating hypotheses, and as her family says, her tendency to enjoy a good debate signals that she is a naturalborn lawyer. “I am fortunate to be able to study with and take courses from such knowledgeable professors,” she says. “I can go to them for direction and receive the most honest answer for my development.” Shayla says her professors have also been instrumental in helping her plan her next steps through networking and securing internships. “I interned with Bay State Law Group, a law firm of all female attorneys in Quincy, MA,” she says. “They took me to courthouse and client briefings and I sat alongside them during court sessions. The most valuable experience was being able to meet with a judge because she gave us an overview of her career and answered our questions.”
DISTINCTIVE PROGRAMS: A Comprehensive University Western New England University offers a distinctive mix of academic programs that enable students to tailor their learning opportunities to their goals and aspirations. With Colleges of Arts and Sciences, Business, Engineering, and Pharmacy and Health Sciences, plus a School of Law, we offer a wide range of options in a close-knit environment where students won’t get lost in the crowd. Accelerated Five-year bachelor/master’s or bachelor/law degree programs capitalize on these crossdisciplinary offerings to fast track students to graduate or law school, saving both time and money.
HIGH MARKS From School Counselors Western New England University is listed in Colleges of Distinction, a college guide and website profiling institutions characterized as America’s best values in higher education. Western New England University was evaluated for its performance in four distinctions: Engaged Students, Great Teaching, Vibrant Communities, and Successful Outcomes. School counselors and admissions professionals around the country recommended Western New England University highly in every category. The University was particularly noted for its active student body, devoted faculty, and academic programs based on developing collaboration, communication, and problem solving skills.
ZACHARY COOPEE ‘15 Biomedical Engineering Medical Student
“In medicine, it is your ability to solve indepth problems in the body that makes you a good physician,” says Zach Coopee, a first year medical student at the New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine (NYITCOM). “The Biomedical Engineering (BME) program is perfect preparation to enter medical school. Its strengths as a pre-med program include learning to analyze the body from an engineering perspective, strong mathematics background, and in-depth analysis of imaging modalities used in clinical settings.” Zach’s Senior Design Project was his most unique experiences on his medical school application. Working with a local surgeon, he was part of a team that designed a Post-Lumpectomy Spacer System that currently is in the patent pending process. “I can’t express how great all of the Biomedical Engineering professors were—from their passion in their respective areas to always being available when you needed them,” he says. “Getting close with professors is also a very important aspect of applying to medical school as you are required to submit three letters of recommendation. I have a friend applying from a large public university, who is having a difficult time getting accepted, and she believes much of this is due to her weak letters from professors who did not know her as well.”
College of
College of
Setting Minds in Motion for a Changing World
Shaping Leaders from the Classroom to Career
At the College of Arts and Sciences, students hone critical thinking and communication skills prized by today’s employers through in-depth research, frequent presentations, independent study, and the application of multimedia technology.
The College of Business prepares students to be global decision-makers with strong communication and analytical abilities to take them seamlessly from classroom to career.
ARTS AND SCIENCES
► The Honors, Global Scholars, and Study Abroad programs provide unique opportunities to excel academically. ► In the last few years, nearly $60 million have been invested to modernize labs and classrooms for many Arts and Sciences programs. Many programs are housed in our Center for the Sciences and Pharmacy. ► Four recent graduates of the Mathematical Sciences program are in PhD programs, while many others are in master’s programs. Graduates of the Actuarial Sciences program have found employment at Cigna, TD Bank, and BYN Mellon. ► The Council on Social Work Education, (CSWE) the sole accrediting agency for social work education in the country, has awarded its highest marks to the Western New England University Bachelor of Social Work program. ► Impactful study abroad opportunities include a semester in London or Italy and short summer trips to Southern Africa, the UK, and Italy, and other destinations.
BUSINESS
► A $1 million gift to the College of Business created a trading room, student-managed $100,000 investment fund and the Cohen Scholarship program for juniors. ► The Business Analytics Center provides students access to the latest SAP software and analytics tools. Courses in analytics are taught at the center through its state-of-theart technology. ► From Sport Management to Finance, students in any major at the College of Business can become SAP certified, a credential prized by today’s top employers. ► Making the “big leagues” in the field of accounting is working for one of the “Big 4” accounting firms: KPMG, Deloitte, Ernst & Young, and PwC, firms that often hire our students who have excelled as interns. ► Graduates of our COSMA-accredited Sport Management program have been hired to work for such organizations as Adidas, ESPN, the Boston Red Sox, and the PGA. ► As students explore career paths, they also benefit from the close interaction of our highly involved College of Business alumni.
College of
College of
Inspiring Design, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship
Focused on the Future
ENGINEERING Design, innovation, and entrepreneurship form the foundation of our dynamic first-year engineering programs, but it is our Senior Design Project that truly sets our graduates apart. ► With a $12.8 million expansion and renovation, Sleith Hall offers an inspiring environment that fosters innovative thinking. ► Biomedical Engineering graduate Kwasi Amofa has been named a Fulbright Scholar to study in the Netherlands at the MERLN Institute for Technology, working on bioengineering a cornea. ► In the Freshman Fundamentals program, students spend the fall semester designing, coding, and prototyping robots and develop a new smart product in the spring. ► The College received nearly $500,000 in Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) grants from the National Science Foundation and a grant of $500,000 from the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center. ► Civil Engineering students won first place for their research at the New England Water Works Association Spring Conference & Exhibition. Electrical and Computer Engineering students took second place at the IEEE 1 Micromouse Competition. Our students won Best Senior Project at the IIISE annual event. The Golden Bear Racing Team earned third place in the Hill Climb at the Baja Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Collegiate Design Series competition.
PHARMACY AND HEALTH SCIENCES The College of Pharmacy has new name to reflect its expanding role in professional education in the health and wellness fields. With the launch of the Doctor of Occupational Therapy program in 2017, it has become the College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. The Pre-pharmacy program is a stepping-stone to the College’s ACPE-accredited PharmD program. The Doctor of Occupational Therapy program offers a direct route from a bachelor’s degree (no master’s required) to a doctoral degree.
School of
LAW
Making a Higher Degree of Impact The ABA-accredited School of Law offers two accelerated programs for undergraduates to earn both a bachelor’s and juris doctor degree in six years instead of the traditional seven: the 3+3 Law program (Arts and Sciences or Business students) and the Six-year Engineering/Law program. Students begin taking law classes in their senior year, saving time and tuition.
EXPERIENCE:
Putting a Great Education to Work At Western New England University experiential learning takes many forms to help students make connections between classroom theory, their application, and lifetime goals. Employers are impressed with the professional learning experiences gained through our extensive internship network. The University has relationships with more than 1,000 sponsoring organizations where students participate in internships, perform fieldwork, research engineering Senior Design Projects, or student teach. Our Learning Beyond the Classroom (LBC) program provides an umbrella under which students can analyze the correlation between classroom learning and professional experience, service opportunities, civic engagement, or study abroad.
GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE: The World is Our Classroom On-campus coursework integrates global perspectives across a wide variety of disciplines to expand each student’s worldview. For a truly global perspective, Western New England offers a wide variety of study abroad opportunities. From Italy to Australia, the University maintains relationships with universities around the globe to offer students traditional semester long study abroad opportunities. Many students participate in a variety of short-term trips from 10-day summer programs to destinations like the Olympic Games or FIFA World Cup to short cultural trips to Europe or Africa. Through the Arts and Sciences and Business London Study Abroad Program, students are taught by our own faculty along with the faculty at Regent’s University in London, for the same cost as spending a semester living and learning on campus.
ANDREW RICHARDS ‘17
Sport Management Instructor, Boston Red Sox Youth Camp “My experiences in the Sport Management program really helped me to prepare to work as an instructor at the Boston Red Sox Youth Camp. The different classes offered give students the opportunity to gain knowledge in specific areas of the industry. I took a coaching course and attained my Coaching Certificate. Like 62% of his class, Andrew also took advantage of becoming certified in SAP software. “Certification is something I recommend that all College of Business students try to accomplish,” he says. “In sports today everything is wrapped around technology and the newest best ways to succeed. Analytics are used all the time is sports on the field and off—anywhere from figuring out what areas of the United States buys certain bicycles, to tracking a returning customers spending trend. Analytics are key to finding the best, most efficient ways to do anything and everything.” Small class sizes had a big impact Andrew’s academic success. “This really helps the professors get to know each student, as well as us getting to know the instructors,” he says. “They help students find our niche in the industry and give us feedback on how to research it. For me, my advisor, Dr. Sharianne Walker, pointed me toward the Sport Management Association, where I was able to gain information on internships within the Springfield Thunderbirds American Hockey League organization. I was able to become a Game Day Operations intern with them.”
LEARN MENTORSHIP: In the Company of Leaders Attending Western New England University puts our students in the company of graduates who head many of the region’s banking, financial, and insurance institutions; hold senior level engineering positions at aerospace giants; and oversee the operations of nonprofit or government social service agencies. Here in New England, the tri-state area, and beyond, you will find our graduates in leadership positions in virtually every major field from professional sports to law enforcement, education to healthcare. Through our mentoring programs, alumni help students prepare to launch their careers.
NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION U.S. POSTAGE
PAID
OFFICE OF ADMISSIONS
SPRINGFIELD, MA PERMIT NO. 896
Western New England University 1215 Wilbraham Road Springfield, MA 01119-2684 U.S.A.
For more information call 413-782-1321 or 800-325-1122 Go to wne.edu for more information or to schedule a visit. Western New England University does not discriminate on the basis of sex, race, color, creed, national origin, age, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, veteran status, genetics, or disability in admission to, access to, treatment in, or employment in its programs and activities.
Voted One of the Country’s MOST BEAUTIFUL FALL CAMPUSES!
Western New England University has been named by onlineschoolcenter.com among the 30 most beautiful campuses in the fall.
We ranked #11 nationwide!