Regular Decision
The first stage in the admissions process is a close analysis of your academic credentials, with particular attention to your academic performance throughout your secondary school years and the quality of courses you select, including honors and advanced courses.
Admission to Union is merit based and driven by years of academic success, as reflected on the transcript. Union seeks students with excellent academic credentials. Those credentials are, primarily, transcripts. To underscore that belief, recently Union dropped its requirement that students submit the SATs or ACT. We do not want to discourage student from submitting data that will help us best understand their abilities; we do want to give students the choice of what to present, understanding that all candidates will receive a careful, holistic review of their application. Also important are the recommendations of your secondary school. Beyond academic excellence, the Admissions Committee looks carefully at students� personal backgrounds and talents as we seek to fully understand their promise of contribution to the overall Union College community.
Normally, 16 units of secondary school preparation are the minimum required for admission. The Admissions Committee looks favorably on applicants who exceed the minimum number of courses required; honors, advanced, and Advanced Placement courses are strongly encouraged.
The minimum requirements should include certain fundamentals such as English, a foreign language, mathematics, social studies, and science. If you plan to complete the engineering curriculum you should have elementary and intermediate algebra, plane geometry, trigonometry, chemistry, physics, and four years of English. Although more advanced mathematics work is not required, it will prove helpful.
If you plan to major in liberal arts you should have four years of English, two or more years of a foreign language, and at least two and one-half years of college preparatory mathematics (potential chemistry, physics, and mathematics majors should have three and one-half years of mathematics).
The Admissions Committee will consider carefully applications from students whose preparation is unusual and who, for good reasons, do not meet the norms above. The application deadline for regular decision is January 15.