Merrimack College
Wonderful counselor event today at Merrimack College in North Andover MA! What's most impressive about Merrimack is its huge growth over the past 10 years. What used to be a small, local college is now a thriving institution with 4000 undergraduate and almost 2000 graduate students. They are adding programs and building facilities every year. There's a brand new nursing building with state-of-the-art simulation labs, and, by the way, every student at Merrimack is given an iPad. Love that! I was particularly impressed with their Academic Success Center. Besides the usual tutoring and support for all students, anyone with learning differences is automatically assigned a success coach, and all students are offered the opportunity for success coach. This means a weekly 30-minute check-in to make sure the student is on track. Also, all students take four classes, not five, which affords them the opportunity to really focus and succeed. Additionally there's a great system of early alerts so any faculty, coaches, residential staff or anyone else who is concerned about a student not showing up or appearing in distress is reported to the Success Center. If they receive more than one or two emails about a student, the RA knocks on the student's door to check in. Love that! I'll finish with this: in 2020, Money Magazine rated Merrimack College one of the best colleges for your money!