 Okay, well good afternoon everybody and welcome here to Roger Williams University. Really appreciate that you've taken some time out of your day to come learn a little bit about our university and we're very glad to have you here. My name is Rob Hancock. I'm on the enrollment management team here at Roger Williams University and I'm really excited to talk about what makes our university unique and really give you hopefully a great sense of what an experience here at Roger Williams would be like. I want to just introduce Joe. Joe is one of our admissions staff. He's also the counselor of the day so he's here all day to answer questions from anybody who comes in to learn a little bit about the university. So after you take your tour, if you come back you have additional questions, want to learn a little bit more about a specific program or about the admissions process or financial aid. Joe will be here. I'll be happy to answer your questions and connect you. If he hasn't had the answer, you can connect with the right people to make that happen. So I had a chance before to get to know a few of the folks in the room. I think we have a couple of folks that are interested in biology, I think if that's right, some business and marketing folks, engineering perhaps. So we've got a whole range of majors and interests today so I'm going to try to touch on those a little bit. But I also want to see if there's any particular questions that you have that you want to make sure we cover in this information session. At Roger Williams we try to make sure that the education our students receive is really personalized. We want to take that same approach here. So does anyone have any particular questions? At the start you're going to have a chance to answer them later, ask them later. But any particular questions about programs or anything else you want to know about? Like I said, we'll come back to it as well so if I don't cover it, if you have a question you're not sure about, we'll go back to that. So you're here today to learn a little bit about Roger Williams and be thinking about what your four year time here at the university or if you're transferring in a two, three, whatever years you want to be filling in here and then you're trying to think about what that experience is going to be like. You're also wondering about the admissions process, applications, getting into college, what it's going to be like to be here on campus. You may not yet be thinking about what happens after, maybe a little bit. But that's okay because that's what we really focus on here at Roger Williams University. We start at the end. So what you're going to need during your time here on campus that is going to prepare you to have a great career and to have a successful and meaningful life. And we approach that based on research. A couple years ago, the Gallup Organization, who does a lot of polling around the country, asked 30,000 college graduates what were the key factors during their college career that helped lead to success afterwards. They identified these six factors, professors who make a difference, opportunity to do hands-on projects, a chance to have connections with mentors on campus, to be involved in activities and programs that are happening around the campus community, a chance for internships and really experiential learning opportunities, and a focus on preparing you for life after graduation. So these are the six factors that were critical during your college career to help you be successful afterwards. What was interesting about that poll is that only 3% of those students said they got all six of these in their college career. So these are the six things they need and only 3% said they got it. Well one of the things we did as a university is we looked at those and we said we have all of these things on campus and really focused on making sure that they're an integral part of every student's education here because we want to make sure that you have a great time on campus as a student but that when you leave you're well prepared for your career, for your life and all that is to follow. And that's the approach we take. Today's presentation I'm going to go through a little bit about who we are as an institution, how we approach our work and how we're committed to your student's success in that process. We're also going to talk a little bit about admissions and the information you need to know for that process and then also to dive into scholarships and financial aid information as well. This part of the presentation will be about 20-25 minutes then you'll get a chance to go out with our great tour guides. They're really going to dive into a lot of the campus life, student life activities, things that are happening around campus. They're also going to show you all the different, a lot of the different buildings on campus as well. So I'm going to leave some of that stuff to them but other questions we'll be able to cover here as well. So a minute ago I talked about how we're really focused on making sure that you as a student have what you need to be successful after you graduate. The world is changing incredibly fast. In just a few weeks the iPhone X is going to come out to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the iPhone, which means 10 years ago smartphones, iPhones didn't even exist. And now there's entire industries that are centered around that. Social media marketing, app development, totally changed computer science development. All of these things have changed just over that 10 years. And so we're focused on making sure that the education you get today is going to prepare you for the world tomorrow that you're going to walk into. But also that you get the core foundation of critical thinking, of problem solving, that you need to be versatile in the marketplace of 10, 20, 30 years down the line. It's that approach today that moves you forward. And we do that because it's aligned with our goal as an institution of building the university the world needs now, that we are prepared to be ourselves nimble and flexible to make sure that we're meeting all of those needs of students and that those students when they graduate are able to meet the needs of the workforce in the community. As an institution, we are, as a university, we are a little over 6,000 students, spread out over eight schools and our division of university studies. That includes our 4,000 undergraduate students, our about 400 graduate students, about 400 law students. We have the only law school in the state of Rhode Island who really specializes in public interest law and also hands on experiential learning and clinical externships, as well as our school of continuing studies, which services a wide range of students primarily out of our Providence campus. So we're about 6,000 students. As a university, we're spread across those two campuses. Most of our undergraduates are based here. There are some programs that might utilize our Providence campus or are doing projects out and about the community. But that's who we are as an institution. What that means is that you get the resources of a university. When you head out, you're going to see our wet lab in our school for marine and natural sciences, where, actually interesting enough, just last week, fish that were raised in that wet lab by our researchers and our students were released into the New England Aquarium to help restock their giant fish tank. But it was been to the New England Aquarium. It's got a giant tank in the middle. Well, our researcher has raised a particular kind of fish to be released out in there. So we have those large resources. In architecture, it's our design center. If you go to our business school, you're going to see that we're enlarging the facility for our cafe program, which is a program where students manage real world portfolios, a quarter of a million dollars. Students are managing and investing and trying to generate positive returns on. So we have those university resources, but what you won't see when you walk around campus are big lecture halls. We really don't have any classes over 60 students. Most of our classes, almost 90, 95% of our classes are less than 30, because it's important to have that balance of those university resources and that close personal connection. All of our classes are taught by faculty, not graduate assistants or teaching assistants. So they are experts in their field or in their profession, and they're bringing that knowledge here to campus to share with our students. So you really get a chance to develop those personal connections to connect with those faculty that make a difference, and that's what we can offer. We have, you're going to see a little bit from the different schools that are available, business, humanities, arts and education, social and natural sciences, which includes biology, psychology, political science, anthropology, architecture, art and historic preservation, our engineering, computing and construction management, and then our school of justice studies as well. Our division of university studies houses our interdisciplinary programs, like our popular public health program, is based in that center as well. So this is kind of who we are as an institution, that university resources, but with a personal connection between students, faculty and staff. When you're thinking about your academic career at Roger Williams, we think about it in thirds. If you take all the credits you need to earn, you divide it into three parts. One is going to be your major requirements. What classes and courses and experiences you need to complete in order to satisfy the major you're looking for? The second one, and I'm going to dive into this a little bit more in a minute, is our core curriculum, a foundation that all students get that provides support for critical thinking, problem solving, cultural understanding, and really connects them and gives them that versatility and flexibility to be successful professionally, personally and beyond. And then about a third of your classes are what we think of as personalized coursework. So it might mean that you're majoring in engineering, but you also really like music, so you want to take some classes in music. It might mean that you're interested in a major in science, but you might want to try and see if you also like business. So you get a chance to kind of try a couple of things. For some students that are undecided, they're sort of exploring that opportunity to find what majors really going to fit for them. So those are the three main components. I'm going to talk about the core here for just a minute, because it is really that foundation that all students have, and it's centered around providing you the opportunity to be flexible, nimble, and prepared to really succeed. There's two central components that allow you to do that. Our five course interdisciplinary core is a series of classes that include things like the scientific method, arts, human behavior, and a couple of the components that really ground you in an understanding of the world around you and how to really leverage your specialized knowledge in your major to make a difference in the community around you. We also have the core concentration. This is a unique aspect of our core where students can get a complementary skill set in a different discipline than what they're majoring in. And students have been really creative in how to use that. For example, we had a marine biology student who did a core concentration in photography because they were interested in underwater photography, and they actually ended up working with National Geographic. We have had a marketing of a business student who was really interested in music, so got a core concentration and then actually, I think, turned it into a minor, which is usually just one or two more classes, in music technology, using our music technology lab, where you can do digital music and really analyze it. So now he's prepared to be an entrepreneur in music and business and combine them together for a successful career. So there's a lot of different ways that you can use that core concentration. And a lot of students, like I said, with just one or two more classes, will turn that into a minor. A few more classes, they might turn it into a major. We do have a few classes that are just our core competency in math and writing. A lot of students can test out of that, based on what they've done in high school. And then we do wrap it up with an interdisciplinary senior seminar, which is really meant to bring together all of the things you've been learning across these different areas to prepare you for life after graduation. So this is a little bit about our degree. One of the things that's central to everything we're doing, all of these components, is hands-on learning. And hands-on learning is based in two premises. One, it's a great way to learn concepts and ideas that you're being taught in the classroom. But it's also really critical to build up your skill set, your resume, to be prepared to really thrive. Starting for our students, hands-on learning starts before they even take their first class as a first-year student. All of our first-year students participate in something called Community Connections Day, where they head out in the community and do projects and initiatives with community organizations. It might be working with a social service agency. It might be doing research. It might be planting trees. It could be a whole range of things that you're doing. But that's happening before they even step into their first class. And it lays that foundation of hands-on learning and also that foundation of commitment to community. For a lot of students as well, they participate in a program through the Community Partnership Center. This brings together faculty, students, and community groups to solve problems. A lot of faculty will actually align their class to include a project through the Community Partnership Center. An example, just yesterday, there were engineering students at a fort in New Bedford that is out on the tip of the peninsula in New Bedford, right on the ocean. It's a fort that's been closed for many years. And they're out there doing structural analysis to determine what needs to happen for that fort to be able to reopen to the public. It might also include doing our business and marketing students and web development students actually did a project for a community arts organization who needed a new website. So they came together with those three things, came up with a marketing plan and a new website for this organization. So it not only builds a skill set, but students actually can leave Roger Williams with a resume of accomplishments that they can share when they're starting to look for their career after college. So these things happen a lot for first and second year students as students move on, there's a lot of other hands-on opportunities. Internships, where you are spending a semester more working closely with a business or a non-profit organization, whether it is in, and really this goes across all of our disciplines. Student faculty research. This is really common here at a university-sized school with predominantly undergraduates. Undergraduates get an opportunity to do research that they don't get to do at other places. There are some students actually in math and in, I think biology and psychology that are currently doing research to do mathematical models of the impacts of Parkinson's disease. So they are looking at using mathematical models to understand how our brain works normally and how it works if you're afflicted by that disease. So that's research that students are involved in specifically. And then there's also the opportunity to study abroad, to get beyond our campus and really be involved in projects. And it's not just going to another country and experiencing the culture. Students do very active programs in these initiatives. We have a group called Engineers Without Borders where students have gone down to Dominican Republic and other countries to help facilitate getting clean water to the residents and the citizens there. So they can be project-based and they can be connected with a major, our architecture program. Students go to Florence, Italy or to Barcelona and study there. And biology or marine biology will sometimes go out to permute us. There's a whole range of programs that are built into the structure. So here, Rajuins, we're going to challenge you. To prepare you to thrive after college, we know you're going to need these in-depth experiences. You're going to need high quality education. We're going to challenge you, but we're also going to support you. It's two parts to that process. Today on your tour, you'll probably step into the University Library where we have a whole range of support and advising services from our peer mentoring program to tutoring, to student advising, and also on campus we have our career and professional development. So we have a whole range of ways in which students get the support they need to be able to be successful here on campus and beyond. It starts with little things. So our peer mentoring program, where all first-year students are assigned to a peer mentor, the day before classes start in the first year, they go around and help students find where different classes are and different buildings are around campus. So they can actually start the first day and know where they need to go. So it's a small feature that can really make a difference in getting folks prepared and connected and getting going on a successful career. So that's the way we approach it. You wanna make sure that you have the challenging curriculum, you have the important projects. You're on cutting-edge research, but that you're also getting the support you need all throughout the process to succeed and thrive. When I started in this presentation, I talked about those six main factors that the Gallup poll indicated. So those professors made a difference, hands-on projects, mentors, campus involvement, internships, and I said, this is what we're focused on. Well, I don't want you to just take my word for it. I want you to be able to see an example of that. Let me just move this back here, whoops, come on back, nope, I'm going the wrong way. There we go, nope. And I'm gonna show you an example from our construction management program. And when you watch this, I want you to look for some of those factors. Look for those professors that are making a difference, the mentors on campus, the hands-on projects, the preparation for life after graduation. And this is just one example from one major, but it really applies across all of them. It's just a few minutes, I just want to show you. Folks from Roger Williams, who have come here and work here really have fit in so well. Really smart, bright students and graduates, but also practical, thoughtful, and really well-equipped to join the working world, particularly in construction, which is an intense business. Could it be more delighted to be here tonight? It really is an honor. The Shaman design and construction has provided us with a relationship and been a partner to us throughout the last 17 years that I've been there. Roger Williams is a great technical program that balances your education with a liberal arts program, which really gave me a well-rounded education. From day one was a very, very good balance of both work and hands-on. All the professors, it's clear that they have all worked in the industry. They know what they're talking about. You get to kind of see the holistic picture of what actually happens in the real world. The first step in preparation for careers is to ensure that we're teaching a curriculum that meets the needs of the industry, which our graduates will serve. Roger Williams just has so many great relationships with companies like Shaman that there's so many opportunities for you as a student, especially for internships. You know, I remember my first internship. I had no prior experience in construction, and I went for it. And you know, thanks to Roger Williams, the relationship and who they know and the alumni, I got my first internship at a construction company and I knew nothing. And that internship was definitely rough. But you learn from it and you grow. You graduate, you get your diploma, and you know a lot more than a competition. So again, this is an example just from one of our majors, but this type of thing happens all across the board. So whether it is our business, our marketing students that are working with business marketing agencies while they're still in college, doing internships or experiences, whether it is students doing research that is gonna get published and is gonna get shared and is gonna end up in the community, whether it is creating web-developing projects or apps that help move forward different organizations like the small nonprofit I talked about. These are the types of things that we are focused on to make sure that all of you can be prepared. You're gonna leave prepared for the world that follows. So we're gonna dive into some of the admissions and financial aid information in just a minute, but I wanted to pause for a second and see if you had any questions about what I covered so far and or anything else that came to mind. So you don't have any questions? Would I have any of the admissions stuff? About any majors or programs or projects? All right, well if you have any questions after too, you can check with me or Joe or your tour guides as we go as well. But I wanna just dive in here to some information about the admissions process. So the big picture is we recognize you are a whole person. You're not a single number. You're not a single stat. So we take a holistic approach to admissions. We wanna look at all of the things that you think really make you special and stand out as a student. So there's a couple of components that are part of our application, but we really wanna be looking at them in a real detailed way. So we use the common application. So you go ahead to the common app and make sure you add us in there as a school and that's gonna be your method for applying. You do need your high school transcripts in there and when we look at your transcripts, we actually will take a program specific view. So if you are thinking about engineering or if you're thinking about science, biology, if you're thinking about architecture, there may be a focus on specific math and science requirements and things, what classes you took there. There's also going to be if you're interested in a humanities course. So I looked more closely at writing and language skills. We're also gonna take in consideration not just the grades, but also the rigorous nature of your course load. So it's not just the GPA, it's also what classes you were taking in that process. We're looking for a letter of recommendation, one at least you can offer more. So I include that in the process and also there will be an essay as part of the application process. I don't think we had anyone mention any of these majors, architecture, visual arts, creative writing or dance. They do require a portfolio or an audition. If you have any questions about that, we can talk about it as well. One thing we don't require is standardized test scores. So we are test optional. So if you don't think that, if you took a standardized test and you think it's a good representation of your skills and your abilities, go ahead and submit it as part of your application. If you didn't take it, or you did and you didn't feel like it's a good example, then just say don't consider it. And that's fine. About half our students submit them, about half the students don't. And it makes no difference in the admissions process, who gets admitted and who enrolls. So it's really up to you in terms of what you think will best show your skills and your abilities as well. We have two key deadlines. Our early action deadline is November 15th. Just by a show of hands, I don't think I asked this before. How many folks are juniors in here? Do we have any juniors in here? Nope, all seniors, okay. All right, so early action deadline is November 15th. So the nice thing about that is you get your application in, you get your materials in, you're gonna hear about six to eight weeks later. So you actually can hear before the end of the year whether or not you've been accepted to the university. So it's a great chance to get that information in and get that quick response. And then we also have a regular decision deadline of February 1st. Either one of those, either one of those was binding. So you do have until May to make your final decision, but you get to have the answer earlier and get to start planning things together. You're also gonna hear about any merit scholarship award that you might receive as part of your application process when you get your admissions letter back. So that's a great chance to get that information sooner, start to be able to plan things going forward. If anyone's interested in our honors program, which provides a great opportunity for more in-depth programming and classwork, we recommend applying for the November 15th deadline. That gets you in consideration with the full set of honors students. You can apply later. You just might have to wait to see if there's actually space left in that honors program. So just get your information in there. You can indicate that on the common app. So I'm interested in the honors program. I'll ask you a few additional questions and that will be considered. And that's typically for students that have around like a 3.7 GPA above or ones that are really aligned with the honors program. Any questions on the admissions process that I didn't cover? I just had a question concerning the letters of recommendations. Is it preferred that it's come from a teacher or possibly an employer? I'm curious more, Wade. Neither of those give any way, right, Joe? I mean, generally a counselor's gonna submit one anyway. But my sort of recommendation to a student is anyone who can give us a unique perspective. So if a counselor's already writing one and the teacher's already writing one, at the end of the day, two or three teachers writing letters, it's likely they all know the student from an academic perspective. I'm gonna glean the same information from each letter. But from a supervisor in a workplace or a community service project or something, that's a unique perspective. An athletic coach. An advisor from performing arts groups or something like that. Anyone who can tell us something different about you from a different perspective, you're encouraged to write it. And in that case, I mean, I'll be five or six letters of recommendation about a student if they each tell me something different. But three letters from all from teachers, eventually they kind of start to sound the same. But it's not necessarily that we value one over the other. Truly, as long as we're learning about the student, about that person, it's valuable. Okay, thank you. Yes? Typically, if you apply early action, do you find out about married age earlier or do you still have to wait until after the regular decision? So you find out about merit-based aid with your acceptance letter. So you would get a letter. Yep, they would notify you on your missions and you would get the married aid with it. And I'll talk about this in the next slide. I'm going to talk about financial aid. If you are then applying for need-based aid, that will depend a little bit on when the FAFSA gets filed. But the merit-based scholarships, you'll hear about with your decision letter. Yeah? Yes? All those requirements, like, so required for transfer students? Yes, that's a great question. Do you know, Joe? So it's a streamlined process for student transferring in. We actually, we accept the common application for students applying as first time and first year freshmen. For transfer students, we actually, though the Common App now has a new application for transfers, we actually have our own that lives in our website. It's called the transfer rapid application. And it sort of streamlines all of this down quite a bit. So we just require a transfer from every institution of higher education that a transfer student, a transfer student would have applied from. And then instead of that letter of recommendation, what's called a college transfer report. It basically just let's us know about your academic and the currency of your standing in the institution that you're transferring from. Any other questions? Yes? We have this handout on engineering, and it says early action in November 1st on here. So we just adjusted our deadlines for this fall to move to, I think we previously had two deadlines for early action, so it's now November 15th. Yeah, it does have two. One here, November 1st and December 15th. Yeah, so that's what it was last year. So now it's just the single one, November 15th. Yep, you got it. Any other questions? All right, so we'll move to the second part of this process, which is also talking about financial aid. And Roger, as we think of it as, we wanna make sure that you have access to an excellent education. That what you come here and get is gonna be really an outstanding experience when you're here, and as I've mentioned, prepare you for life after graduation. But it's also equally important to make sure that it is affordable, and it is comfortable, and that it's something that can work for you and your family in that decision-making process. So our approach to financial aid is also to be very personal and be very focused. And everyone's situation is gonna be different. Everyone's family situation is gonna change, it'll be different, and we wanna make sure that we put together the right type of aid package that will work for you. There's a couple of key things that are available to everybody. The top one that we have there is our four-year tuition guarantee. That means that the tuition, the first year tuition stays the same for all four years that you might be here. So it doesn't go up three to 5% as it does a lot of institutions. What you pay the first year's tuition is gonna be the same every year that follows. And that's part of our affordable access guarantee so that you can plan and be prepared for what carries out there. As I mentioned, when you get a decision letter, you would get information on merit scholarships that can range from 5,000 to 20,000. So you have that information right there in hand as soon as you get that accept letter. But there are other options for additional need-based aid. For Raju Ames, what you need to do is submit the FAFSA, the federal application for student financial aid, which is available in two days, October 1st, right? Yeah, so set your alarm clocks for early Sunday morning to be able to get that. So the FAFSA is available to submit. And if you submit it around the time of application, you will probably hear about any need-based aid as part of your package within a week or so of receiving your decision letter. So we wanna make sure that you have all of that information available to you. And that would be in the form of state or federal grants as well as any loan opportunities. And then on campus, we have lots and lots of student job opportunities. These can be work-study opportunities here. They can actually be some with community organizations. So they're an additional way for you, for students to be able to cover the costs of college. And oftentimes get a lot of great experience from that process. I work in the marketing department. We have student staff that are part of our work and they're actually doing marketing work for the university, whether it's shooting videos or writing stories as part of that process as well. So those job opportunities not only provide support for you financially, but can also really help round out your education. Any questions on the financial aid? So our next steps, we're gonna get ready for you to head out on a tour in just a second. But I wanna thank you again for coming and visiting us today and I encourage you to come back and visit us again throughout this process. We have open houses that are happening in October and then again in November. There's a flyer here that talks a little bit about it. We also have, you can come back and do a shadow visit where you sit in on classes, talk with coaches, talk with faculty members, get to know a little bit more about the program that way. And if accepted, you can also come participate in our accepted student days, which happened in March and April, which give you a much fuller understanding of the programs, the experiences that are there. So please come visit us again, keep in touch. We're gonna be checking in with you, but you can also check in with us if you have questions on the admissions process on financial aid, on specific programs, we can get those answers for you. And then also we encourage you to, the Common App is ready. It's out there so you can get moving forward on that. You can also keep track of us on social media, our RW admissions pages, provide a lot of tips and suggestions for applying, not just for Rudge Williams, but for other places as well. So I'm gonna turn it over to our tour guides. They'll tell you who's lining up with who and what's that? Okay, just figuring that stuff out. They're gonna come up here and tell you about themselves and then get you out there. And as you mentioned, if you come back, you have questions, Joe will be here. He can be happy to answer them. And again, thank you for your time. Thank you. Yeah. Hi, I'm Danielle DeRosa. I'm a sophomore, I'm a psychology and eye double maker and an history and French double minor. Hi guys, I'm Jay, I'm a junior this year from Townsville, Massachusetts. On campus, I'm part of EWB, which is Engineers Without Borders. So we're actually going to equity this year to install our filtration systems, which is pretty cool. I'm also part of the American Society of Civil Engineers. I also play on the hockey team and I'm a tour guide on campus. Hi, I'm Chris. I'm a junior, I'm an accounting major with a double minor in Craft and Design and Marketing. I'm from Shrewsbury Pass and on campus besides being a tour guide, I'm the PR chair for Campus Entertainment Network and Secretary of the Folk Club. Hi guys, my name is Ava. I'm a senior here at Roger Williams. Very sad to be leaving. I'm from Riverside, Rhode Island. So it's about 20 minutes down the road. I major in biology with minors in public health and chemistry. I'm on campus besides giving tours. I am a chemistry tutor. I do some research in the Marine Natural Sciences building. I'm working on my senior thesis right now. I'm in the honors program and I work at the Missouri Aquarium Rescue and Rehabilitation Center. So hi everyone, last but not least, my name is Courtney. I am from Trust Your New Hampshire. It's about 20 minutes north of Boston. I am also a senior this year, a public relations major, international business core concentration and marketing minor. And other things I do besides student work on campus. I'm the general manager for the campus radio station, 88.3. And I'm also on the executive board of public relations student studies in America. Cool. All right, good. So I'm going to be taking Corinne and Brittany. So if you guys wanna follow me this way.