FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:
Jenna Robinson
Ph: 919.828.1400
jarobinson@popecenter.org
NEW WEB SITE HELPS STUDENTS FIND THE RIGHT NC COLLEGE
RALEIGH, April 4 – Finding the right college or university will become easier this year for thousands of high school and transfer students wishing to attend college in North Carolina, thanks to a new, easy-to-search online database.
Designed to help students, their parents, and others better understand the full range of educational options available in the state, North Carolina College Finder (http://www.NCCollegeFinder.org) provides information on all 54 of North Carolina’s accredited four-year colleges. The information covers more than two dozen criteria, including school size, location, tuition, acceptance rates, SAT scores and average grade point averages (GPA) of incoming freshmen, student-faculty ratio and six-year graduation rates.
A project of the nonprofit John W. Pope Center for Higher Education Policy in Raleigh, the web site also provides comparative information on students’ average debt upon graduation, the average starting salary of each school’s graduates, and the percentage of alumni who donate to the college or university. The site also identifies which schools are public and which are private, which are women’s colleges, affiliated with religious institutions, and historically black colleges and universities.
The information on the web site was compiled by the Pope Center from a variety of public and proprietary sources, ranging from the 54 colleges’ and universities’ web sites to the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, the College Board, the U.S. Department of Education, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, Payscale.com, and the Project on Student Debt.
“We want students to make their own judgments,” said Pope Center President Jane S. Shaw. “We provide information. Students and their parents need to determine which school is the right school. We hope to make that easier for them.
“Students who wish to study on a liberal or progressive campus can identify the schools whose economics and political science departments are overwhelmingly liberal,” she said. “Those wishing to study on a more conservative campus can find schools that better match their needs.
“Those who want a rigorous liberal arts education can identify the schools that require more ‘core’ courses, such as foreign language, government, history, literature, mathematics, science and writing. Those who want to explore a wide variety of subjects without restraint can choose schools with less-prescriptive requirements. We even identify the schools that require a course in Shakespeare to earn a degree in English.”
The NC College Finder web site also provides information on campus speech codes, on the existence of alternative newspapers on campus, and on student political involvement, as reflected by the number and variety of political and activist organizations on campus.
NCCollegeFinder.org is directed by Jenna Ashley Robinson, the center’s outreach coordinator, who adds, “Each college offers something distinctive. Our purpose is to help each student identify the best one for his or her needs.”
The Pope Center for Higher Education Policy is a nonprofit institute dedicated to improving higher education in North Carolina and throughout the country. It is named in honor of the late philanthropist John William Pope – founder of Variety Wholesalers, Inc. in Henderson, NC, and a former member of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Board of Trustees. Major funding for the Pope Center is provided by the John William Pope Foundation, a Raleigh-based charitable foundation that supports public policy, arts, education, and human needs programs.
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