Union is featured in the new edition of the college guide, “The Hidden Ivies,” the latest national recognition for the College.
The guide, by college admissions consultants Howard Greene and Matthew Greene, highlights 63 exceptional schools that offer a broad liberal arts education that the authors believe rival the Ivy League.
Each school’s profile includes information on academics, the admissions process, financial aid and student experiences.
The authors contend that students who attend one of the “Hidden Ivies” are likely to acquire critical skills or instincts, including cooperation, leadership, collaboration, mentoring, appreciating personal, religious and cultural differences, and “learning the truth that intelligence without character, personal integrity and a working set of values can be a dangerous thing.”
Noting Union’s role as the first liberal arts college to offer engineering, the guide points out that half of the school’s 2, 228 students are science and engineering majors.
“This combination of liberal arts and science and engineering makes Union a rigorous academic environment for undergraduates seeking a wide range of course work across the humanities, social sciences, arts and STEM fields,” the guide states.
The inclusion in “The Hidden Ivies” comes at a time when the College is set to welcome the Class of 2020.
The 563 first-year students were selected from record 6,647 applications, one of the most competitive admissions cycles in the school’s history. The students hail from 29 states and 23 countries, including Mauritius, Rwanda and Zimbabwe.
The class is one of the most diverse, with nearly 30 percent international or from underrepresented backgrounds. It’s also one of the strongest academically, with two-thirds of the students ranked in the top 10 of their high school class.
Union has consistently been ranked among the top liberal arts schools in the nation by U.S. News & World Report, Forbes, Washington Monthly and The Princeton Review, among others.