When looking at colleges to attend, it’s easy to get lost in the mountains of paperwork being sent to and from prospective choices. With many students looking at colleges for the first time, what makes a school like Cabrini stand out?
For us, it’s the small details in everything we do that make the larger picture that much more radiant. We embrace the small campus and class sizes. For some, being a number in a lecture class of 200 and having to briskly walk 10 minutes to each class to make it on time is what they expect of college. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
Cabrini has a 15:1 student-teacher ratio, making it easy for students not only to get the attention they crave and need, but also to create a close relationship with the professors and advisers. In the job market today, everyone’s looking for that perfect recommendation or connection into the field. At larger universities students have to go out of their way even to be noticed in class. At Cabrini, many get to know faculty on a first name basis. Professors know their students’ work ethic and dedication. Advisers notice the extra work and time students put into everything they do. The bonds are special, and not many schools can compare.
As for outside of classes, we have 60+ clubs and groups on campus dedicated to different subjects. College is what you make it. It’s a common phrase thrown around, but it’s nevertheless true. If you are looking for something, you are going to find it here. This also includes work experience and leadership opportunities. On our staff alone we have ambassadors, student government members, student athletes, club board members and representatives of different honors societies. It’s easy to become involved and balance academics and extracurricular activities.
One of the points Cabrini prides itself on is our up-to-date technology facilities. Whether it is our science labs, which are regularly upgraded with the latest equipment, or our communications wing, stocked with the same equipment professionals are using in the field, there is always something new at Cabrini. Also, by having such current tools at our disposal, it allows students to gain coveted hands-on experience from the moment they arrive on campus.
This hands-on aspect is something that even many larger universities do not offer until the later college years. Students here are thrust right into their majors and pick up the necessary skills through experience and not just through lecture. For example, in our video production class here, students are in the studio learning the controls the first day of class. In comparison, Temple, which is well known for its communications program, doesn’t let students use the equipment until they take multiple prerequisites and reach a higher class level.
Most notably, the Cabrini curriculum stands out from other colleges; we are a school that emphasizes social justice through classes titled Engagements with the Common Good or ECG. There are numerous ECG classes focusing on subjects from Dating and Domestic Violence and Community Arts and Education, to World Leadership and Response to War and Disaster. With opportunities to travel abroad in response to these classes, it is an experience that other colleges just cannot match.
All of these characteristics combine to make Cabrini an impressive and distinctive institution. However, despite these components, students solely worried about their college experience as a whole could overlook all of this information.
The social aspect of college is one of the biggest factors in students’ decisions to go to a certain college. Every person’s experience will be different, but at least here at Cabrini, the opportunity to form bonds is exceptional. Whether our dorm mates or classmates, all of us on staff can honestly say that we’ve made friendship here that will last a lifetime. With living and learning communities, which are groups where students live closely as well as take classes together, in addition to the small school feel, Cabrini really does become a second family in a short amount of time.
If given the chance, we’d be delighted to welcome you to our family and Cabrini.
