ALBRIGHT COLLEGE
READING, PENNSYLVANIA
The College
Success in the twenty-first century requires innovative thinkers, creative problem solvers, and skilled communicators. Albright offers its students unique opportunities to develop these skills and create academic paths specially tailored to their goals and interests.
The Albright community is just thata real community. With 1,650 students coming from twenty-one states and twenty-two other countries, Albright students learn to interact with people from a wide array of social, ethnic, cultural, and economic backgrounds. Students and educators work together to explore ideas, collaborate on projects, conduct research, and share extracurricular interests.
More than eighty clubs and organizations enhance the life of the College, including performing arts groups, religious organizations, student government, volunteer service organizations, student publications, and political action groups. In addition, approximately 25 percent of Albright students belong to one of Albright's nationally affiliated fraternities and sororities.
Intercollegiate, intramural, and club sports are a major part of the extracurricular life at Albright. Two thirds of all students participate in some form of athletics. At the intercollegiate level, Albright is a member of the Middle Atlantic Conference, one of the strongest conferences in the NCAA's Division III.
Location
The College is located on a 118-acre suburban campus in Reading, Pennsylvania, a city of 80,000 in a metropolitan area of 250,000. Albright's location provides the perfect balance between the excitement of the city of Reading (with its numerous cultural opportunities, active nightlife, and renowned outlet stores) and the recreational and sporting opportunities of southeastern Pennsylvania.
Things to do in and around Reading include shopping the Outlet Capital of the World, the Reading Phillies, Dorney Park and Wildwater Kingdom, the Reading Comedy Outlet, the Sovereign Fine Arts Center, Appalachian Trail, the Reading Royals hockey team, and Maplegrove Raceway.
Albright is an hour from Philadelphia and the Pocono Mountains ski resorts, 2 hours from Baltimore, and 3 hours from New York and Washington, D.C.
Majors and Degrees
Albright offers the Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) or Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in the following majors: accounting, American civilization, art, biochemistry, biology (biotechnology and general biology), business administration (economics, finance, international business, management, and marketing), chemistry (environmental chemistry and general chemistry), child and family studies, communications, computer science, crime and justice, digital media, economics, education (art, early childhood, elementary, secondary, and special), English, environmental science, environmental studies, fashion merchandising and design, French, history, information systems, international relations, Latin American studies, mathematics, music (music business, music history, and music performance), optics, philosophy, physics, political science, psychobiology, psychology (general psychology and human resources), religious studies, sociology (anthropology, criminology, family studies, and general sociology), Spanish, theater, and women's studies.
Preprofessional programs are available in dentistry, law, medicine, and veterinary medicine.
Academic Programs
Albright offers fifty programs of study, including excellent preprofessional programs, a strong honors program, and special programs/minors in art history, cultural anthropology, film/video, Holocaust studies, marine science, music business, photography, and public administration and policy analysis.
Students may choose to focus on a single field of study or combine two or three to create an individualized major. Half of Albright students graduate with combined, interdisciplinary, or multiple majors. Last year, students created more than 200 different combinations of majors.
Off-Campus Programs
Off-campus study options for Albright students include study abroad (e.g., Tel Aviv University in Israel, University of Guadalajara in Mexico, American University in France, Studio Art Centers International in Italy, and the American Soviet Theatre Initiative in Russia), domestic programs (e.g., the Washington, D.C., Center; the National Theatre Institute in Connecticut; Duke University's Marine Science Lab in Beaufort, North Carolina, and Bermuda Station for Research; and Humpback Whale Migration Research in Hawaii), and internships (e.g., the Internal Revenue Service [accounting], Bayer Corporation [chemistry], Caron Foundation [psychology], Reading Hospital and Medical Center [premed], and Macy's [fashion merchandising]).
Academic Facilities
Albright students and faculty members have access to outstanding teaching and research facilities. The College has state-of-the-art labs in digital media, optical physics, and foreign languages. The Merner-Pfeiffer Hall of Science is home to two nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometers (each worth $500,000 and one reserved exclusively for student use), scanning and transmission electron microscopes, molecular genetics, and microcomputer facilities.
Costs
The comprehensive cost for the 200506 academic year is $34,718. This includes $25,232 for tuition, $7886 for room and board, and $800 for fees.
Financial Aid
Albright offers numerous merit scholarships and awards in addition to generous need-based financial aid awards. The College has pledged to help families make Albright affordable.
Albright believes that high school students who have excelled academically and demonstrated leadership skills add to the quality of life at the College. For this reason, Albright offers a variety of renewable scholarships, ranging in value from $20,000 to full tuition for four years.
In addition, the College gives a variety of renewable awards, ranging from $2000 to $12,000 ($500 to $3000 per year). Often, recipients of scholarshipss also earn one or more awards that go to members of the National Honor Society, students with special talent (art, music, theater, and journalism), class valedictorians and salutatorians, National Merit Finalists and Semifinalists, outstanding students of color, HOBY alumni, and Eagle Scouts and Girl Scout Gold Award winners.
Financial aid is awarded on the basis of demonstrated family financial need. Students who receive scholarships are also eligible for financial aid; in fact, most scholarship and award recipients also receive need-based financial aid. Students applying for financial aid must submit the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) no later than March1.
Faculty
The College has 103 distinguished full-time faculty members, and they are legendary for being available to students and for keeping their doors open. Albright's 13:1 student-faculty ratio means that classes are small and interactive.
In addition, students may perform research side by side with Albright's faculty members, after which they may present their findings at national and international symposiums.
Admission Requirements
Albright looks for students who thrive in a close-knit, academically challenging, and active community of learners. Admission is primarily based on a student's academic preparation and extracurricular activities. Applicants must submit an application, high school transcript, counselor and teacher recommendations, and SAT I or ACT scores. Freshman applications should be received by March1. Albright welcomes transfer and international student applicants.
Application and Information
An application and information may be obtained by contacting the College by mail, telephone, or e-mail.
