First of all, we have entered all of the Regular Decision applications into our system and have the approximate count (drum roll please…). The overall total number of applications in the office (including Early Action and Regular Decision), is over 9,725. As I’ve posted, just less than 3,200 of those applications arrived at Early Action, so that brings us to a little more than 6,500 applications that were submitted for the January 15 Regular Decision deadline. But wait, there’s more… we did, as you recall, defer almost 1,000 students from the EA pool into the Regular Decision process, meaning that the total count of applications that will be reviewed over the next two months is about 7,500. There you have it! Now, without any further ado, on to the second half of the mailbag…

What are the professors like at Providence? –Karen

Great question, Karen, because obviously the quality and influence of the faculty will have a major impact on your college success. At PC, the professors are committed to their teaching, while also continuing to pursue their own scholarship. Although they are doing things such as conducting research and writing books, their focus remains on teaching undergraduate students. You will find they are readily accessible, approachable, and very willing to help students succeed in their classrooms. Since we have a very small graduate population on campus, the professors are able to really direct their attention to their undergraduate students… and when a research opportunity does arise, guess who gets the chance to do it? Undergraduates! Many faculty members work with our undergraduate students (including freshmen, sometimes!) to conduct original research and present their findings.

All of our classes at PC are taught by faculty members (we have no graduate or teaching assistants) and it is nice to know that even your Freshman Writing Seminar (English 101) course will have a professor in front of the class. As I mentioned, they are very accessible, and all are required to keep at least 3-4 office hours per week when they will be available to their students. You’ll find, however, that most professors spend much more time than that in their office with their door open. Many will also give out their e-mail address, home phone number, even their Instant Messenger screen names, so if you have a last-minute question before an exam, you will always be able to reach them.

Personally, I developed some great relationships with a number of different professors during my time as an undergraduate at PC. I have been out to lunch and dinner with various professors and actually have a voicemail waiting for me right now from one of my former English professors (I need to go return that call!). All in all, the professors at PC are truly interested in the success of their students and without fail they go the extra mile to make sure that success happens!

To learn more about our faculty members, please visit our Teaching That Transforms web pages. On these pages, you will be able to meet faculty members from a number of different academic departments and see the different projects they are working on.

I applied and was not admitted Early Action, and I am feeling very disappointed. Any suggestions? –Anonymous

Unfortunately, many students are denied from PC and other institutions across the country each year, and they are obviously going to feel disappointment. I think the best thing to do at this point is to focus on your other schools of interest to identify a school that is really somewhere you both feel comfortable and can be successful at on all fronts: the right academic fit (which means an institution you can realistically see yourself being admitted to based on your academic performance in high school), the right community fit, the right size, location, etc… While no student ever wants to receive a denial letter from a college that they have applied to, the reason we do make deny decisions at Early Action is to avoid stringing a student along by deferring them EA and then sending the deny letter in late March. We hope that it gives these students the opportunity to pursue other options.

A student should never get “hung up� on any institution that does not admit them, and while I understand that it is difficult, it is very important to move on and look seriously at the other schools to which you have applied and find which of these schools are the true “right fit� for you. For the student who is denied admission from his or her “dream school,� the one remaining option at this point is to attend another institution freshman year and consider transferring to that “dream school� after a semester or the full year. You can find more information on PC’s transfer process by clicking here. Whatever school you end up attending, though, give it a chance… many students who go to college with the intention of transferring after the first year graduate from that institution four years later—successful and happy.

Do you ever search the “Facebook� and/or “MySpace� pages of applicants to PC?
-Logan

We do not. Admission decisions are based on what a student submits to us in his or her application along with the information that arrives from the high school, not what a student has posted on his or her website.

We do enjoy, however, seeing what people are saying about PC specifically and the college admission process in general, and so we do take note of what is being said on college websites and discussion boards such as “College Confidential.� We are also aware that there is a “Providence College Class of 2011� Facebook group out there. But we certainly are not searching any of these websites for our applicants or anything like that, and the only time any of our counselors would post anything on these sites would be to correct inaccurate information.

Would you say gays and lesbians are respected at Providence College?

PC is a welcoming community and my experience has been that no matter what a person’s background is, they will be respected on-campus. However, I must also add that since Providence College is a Catholic and Dominican institution, there is not a large population of students on campus who have chosen an alternative lifestyle. Obviously, when students are considering their college and university options, their personal comfort level with the environment on campus is critical to a successful match. All students must consider these issues very carefully.

One of the organizations we have on campus is S.H.E.P.A.R.D. (Stopping Homophobia, Eliminating Prejudices And Restoring Dignity), which seeks to educate the college community on issues of sexual orientation. This organization seeks to provide a supportive environment in which students can discuss issues of sexual orientation freely and openly. In keeping with the mission, ideals and values embedded in Providence College, S.H.E.P.A.R.D. is dedicated to fostering a campus environment that encourages the respect for the essential dignity, freedom and equality of every person regardless of sexual orientation. S.H.E.P.A.R.D. will assist all students to feel secure and included in the Providence College family.

What are the different housing options at PC? –David

Currently, we have nine traditional residence halls, five on-campus apartment complexes, and one suite-style residence hall (our newest housing facility). All freshmen (unless they are commuting from home) and the majority of sophomores will live in one of the traditional residence halls… meaning you will be sharing a common bathroom with your floor (ahhh … the joys of college life!!). Four of the traditional residence halls are all-male, four are all-female, and one is co-ed by wing. There are doubles, triples, quads, and a few single rooms available. When a student decides to enroll at PC, the Residence Life Office will send them a housing questionnaire and survey, and the student will be able to list his or her preferences—such as how many roommates they want to have and which buildings are their top choices to live in. The survey is also used to match students with roommates by asking about study and sleep habits and personality traits.

Juniors and seniors can choose to remain on-campus all four years in our suite-style building or one of the apartments or choose to live off-campus. Juniors or seniors who do not get the option of apartment or suite-style living through the lottery are offered a space back in the traditional residence halls; however, in most cases, they choose to move off campus. The majority of upperclassmen (95%) live either on-campus or within a half-mile radius.

I am the Editor-In-Chief of the newspaper at my high school and I was just wondering what the student newspaper is like at PC? –Erin

Glad to see you are interested in continuing your newspaper involvement in college! I also wrote for my high school newspaper and when I arrived for my freshman year at PC, I was amazed at the depth of The Cowl, PC’s student newspaper! They publish once a week and each issue usually consists of around 30 pages. (On a side note, at my high school, we published maybe four times per year and each issue was about four pages long. So, The Cowl prints more stories each week than my paper did in an entire year in high school.)

There are a lot of very dedicated students who are involved with The Cowl… and by dedicated, I mean they put the paper to bed (rather than themselves) each week in the very early hours of the morning. The Cowl is always looking for new writers, copy editors, and photographers, and is a great way to be involved on-campus. Whether you want to provide a commentary on national politics, take pictures of PC Athletics, write poems or short stories, or report on campus stories, The Cowl is a great way to do it! You can find the new issue of The Cowl every Friday morning across campus and online!