 Hello my people and welcome to Elmhurst, Illinois. We're gonna be checking out Elmhurst University and I want to give you an idea first of what suburbs are like in the United States. We are sitting in a suburb that's located just about 20 minutes outside of downtown Chicago. It's like the perfect transition between city life and rural life. So let's hit the road. Welcome to Elmhurst University, formerly known as Elmhurst College. We'll get to that in a second, but for now I want you to meet Tony and Christine. They're the admissions officers who are nice enough to talk to me for this episode of University. I'm Tony Marada, the director of international admission and student services at Elmhurst University. I'm Christine Grenier, senior director of first year and international admission at Elmhurst University. We are a small liberal arts school in the suburbs of Chicago. About a 30 to 45 minute train ride away from Chicago actually, so we're nestled in the safety of the suburbs with the city of Chicago, one of the greatest cities in the United States, if not the world, as your background is our background to explore and have fun in. We have just over 3,000 students, about 2,800 full-time undergraduates and about 700 graduate students. We offer over 70 major programs and over 100 clubs and activities to get involved in. We have an international business, we have a marketing, we also have a pretty good well-developed nursing program that international students are interested in. We have very good support for that. We have a partnership with our local hospital where we have a simulation lab that gives them hands-on experience, which I think is something that sets us apart from other nursing programs. And computer science as well, it's one of our largest programs and has a lot to offer. Many of our programs are interdisciplinary. You might find the physics department working with the computer science department. Also, our curriculum is pretty flexible, so you can double major very easily. So if you do want to major in something like music, as well as philosophy or something like computer science, that's really easy to do with the way our curriculum is. Elmhurst is celebrating its 150th anniversary and so you know this university has been around for a long time. It was formerly known as Elmhurst College and I was just thinking about how we were talking about the difference between colleges and universities and the liberal arts colleges video and it got me thinking, what is the difference for Elmhurst? Well, let's hear how Tony and Christine talk about the difference since they graduated from Elmhurst College and now they're working at Elmhurst University. Christine and our both graduates of Elmhurst College, we've always been a four-year degree granting institution. I think it also shows that Elmhurst is ever-evolving. So we're not just stuck back in 1871 when we were founded, but we've progressed throughout the decades to where we are now. We're always looking at other programs that we can bring in to enhance our academic opportunities for our students. I think that as an international student, you have a lot to adapt to, not just the academic side of things and having a university that supports you is really important. One of the key differences of an Elmhurst education versus a larger university education is the support and interaction you get. You have a better chance of one-on-one opportunities with your professor, your instructor, other classmates, just doesn't happen elsewhere. We like to follow up and keep in touch with our students to walk them through every process, not just the admission process but the I-20 assurance process, the VJ assurance process, which you just don't get elsewhere. Elmhurst is also the type of community where you have to be comfortable with people getting to know you. You are going to be that big fish in a small pond. Everybody kind of knows each other here, and that's what makes us special and like a family. And I love the fact that that goes all the way up to the level of our president. Our president is very invested and involved with our student population, especially our international students. Don't be surprised when you get an invitation to President Van Aken's house. Now if you're concerned a little bit about this wonderfully cold weather that we have here, don't be because it's a lot of fun here. And the campus is kind of small, so you can walk from one end of the campus to the other in less than five minutes. You're not going to be out here in the cold all that much. And they've got shuttle buses to take you to other parts of the city. Yeah, no worries. If you don't have a car to bring to campus, our shuttle bus takes you places as well. Prepare to dress warm. We also help with that. We will take you shopping, get you to the places you need to, to get the clothes you need. We have an annual snowball fight. Like you're gonna love winter at Elmhurst. I have walked around this campus and checked it out myself and personally I think it's a really good fit for a lot of people who maybe want a more personalized attention to their education. I think the fact that they're not the most demanding or most selective university shows you that they're committed to helping you reach a higher level. They'll take in those students that are kind of in the mid-range and really help them find a place in this university. At Elmhurst University we have a very holistic admission process. We do like academically achieving students obviously, but we will look at holistically like where do you fit at Elmhurst University and in the world. How are you going to be as an Elmhurst citizen and a global citizen and how can we help foster that? It's really important for us to get to know you as a student. So don't be afraid to set up an appointment with one of us so we can get to know you and help you throughout the process. English proficiency is also required if you submit letters or recommendation and we can look at those if you have your essay written. We look at those and we really study the content and I've had students kind of speak to me through those essays that I've reached out to to follow up on and said hey this is a really powerful experience let's talk about that. One of the things that I love that Elmhurst told me about this application process is that they are completely SAT optional. However you will have to write an essay if you're going to do the test optional route. So you better get your fingers ready. You're going to get a lot of good deals and tuition thanks to the huge number of scholarships that this university has to offer. We are pretty competitive with our scholarship package. We do that intentionally because we want to make sure you know that your values and that we want you here. We want you to be part of our community. You don't have to submit anything extra in terms of an extra application for those scholarships with our first year population you can receive. Roughly half or slightly under of your tuition cost of living depending on your academic performance and who you are as a student. With a scholarship granted just for being international students. We created a COVID relief grant that grants an extra two thousand dollars for international students. So we are constantly looking at what's happening in the world and how we can support you better. There is one full tuition scholarship that is up for grabs at Elmhurst. The Niebert Service to Society Scholarship Competition underscores our values as an institution and allows anyone to compete for one full tuition scholarship. Now they wouldn't exactly tell me what you had to do for this. So they're going to be like they have to propose some service project on the line since you mentioned the service scholarship I'm guessing there's something. That part is secret. All right that's going to be good content. But you first have to apply by making a video and sending it to the university after which you will receive instructions for how to pass part two of the process. I really want to know what's going on in here so one of you guys is going to have to apply to Elmhurst and tell me all the secret details because Christine wouldn't. We've offered a Rumen board scholarship as second place. We've offered some group scholarships for the best group activity. So there's other opportunities and even if you participate you're at least walking away with a thousand dollar scholarship. Give a big thank you to Tony and Christine for having me here at Elmhurst and for taking time out of their day to talk to me. If you want to get in touch with them here's their info. You can email me Tony at Elmhurst.edu. You can reach me at cgrenier at Elmhurst.edu. Thanks for watching this video and checking us out at Elmhurst University. We're super excited that you found us so we hope that you will apply soon. We invite you to do so and we'll be in touch when you do. So let's have fun together. Apply to Elmhurst University. It's in the Midwest. It's one of the friendliest places in the United States. And if you need help preparing your application to Elmhurst or to any other university or you just need some help finding a good fit for you then go to prepwithscore.com and let us know. So you've seen the rural countryside of Beloy. You've seen the pretty suburbs of Elmhurst. Now it's time to go downtown. Next week I'm going to be going back to IIT for a visit to their campus so make sure you subscribe to the channel and I'll see you next week.