FRANKLIN PIERCE COLLEGE
Rindge, New Hampshire
The College
Franklin Pierce College (FPC) is a four-year, coeducational nonsectarian college located in the Monadnock region of New Hampshire. The College enrolls approximately 1,600 undergraduates on its main campus in Rindge and more than 2,500 adult learners at its six graduate and professional studies campuses across the state. The diverse student population represents thirty states and twenty-three countries. Franklin Pierce is accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, Inc. (NEASC).
Physical facilities of the main campus include modern classroom buildings (including a laboratory facility), the library, an academic services center, a campus center, residence halls and apartment houses, townhouse complexes, a field house, an air frame recreation complex, a fitness center, a health center, a boat house, and a theater. A wide range of services are offered to the students, including health-care services, counseling, and career planning and placement assistance.
Campus activities include a number of academic and special interest clubs, such as the Campus Activities Board, Law Club, Student Senate, Pierce Arrow (newspaper), Raven (yearbook), Northern New England Review (literary magazine), and the Crimson and Grey Cultural Committee. Bus trips to special events and malls are offered on weekends. The College's active adventure recreation and intramural programs offer a wide variety of activities on both the College's 1,200-acre campus and throughout the region's many natural recreational facilities. At the intercollegiate level, men compete in baseball, basketball, crew, cross-country, golf, ice hockey, lacrosse, soccer, and tennis. For women, basketball, cross-country, crew, golf, lacrosse, field hockey, soccer, softball, tennis, and volleyball are available. In addition, there is a coed cheerleading team.
Location
The main campus in Rindge, New Hampshire, is situated on 1,200 wooded acres on the shore of Pearly Pond near the base of Mount Monadnock. Rindge, which is in southwestern New Hampshire, is 65 miles from Boston, 112 miles from Hartford, and 236 miles from New York City. The area is an ideal setting for outdoor activities. There are many lakes and streams, including the Pearly Pond beach facility, which is ideal for fishing, swimming, and sailing, and there are also numerous trails for hiking, mountaineering, biking, and cross-country skiing.
Majors and Degrees
Franklin Pierce College offers Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Arts degrees through five academic divisions. The Division of Behavioral Sciences offers majors in anthropology/archaeology, art education, criminal justice, education (teacher conversion), elementary education, psychology, secondary education, and social work and counseling. In the Division of Business Administration, students can major in accounting-finance, arts management, management, marketing, and sports and recreation management. The Division of Natural Sciences offers majors in biology, computer information technology, environmental science, and information technology. In the Division of Visual and Performing Arts, students major in fine arts, graphic communications, mass communication (journalism, media production, media studies), music, and theater arts. Majors in the Division of Humanities are American studies, English, history, and political science. The College also offers preprofessional programs in dentistry, law, medicine, prephysical therapy, and veterinary medicine. In addition to a major, students may also complete a minor area of study, and they also have the option of designing their own, interdisciplinary majors.
Academic Programs
Franklin Pierce College's curriculum is a blend of traditional liberal arts, preprofessional study, teacher preparation programs, and a nationally recognized core curriculum, The Individual and Community. In 1997, the College was the recipient of the Templeton Award for Character Building Colleges. Students receive much personal attention at Franklin Pierce College; the average class size is 19, and the student-faculty ratio is 15:1.
A total of 120 semester hours are required for graduation. These include the courses in the student's chosen major (generally 30 to 54 credits); and the required 38-credit Individual and Community Integrated Curriculum. The purpose of the Individual and Community program is to foster a common understanding of the questions and issues that lie at the heart of contemporary American life. The Integrated Curriculum begins with a one-semester, freshman seminar called Individual and Community and continues with a sequence of courses culminating in the Senior Liberal Arts Seminar.
Franklin Pierce offers an Honors Program, which was established to help provide challenge and intellectual community to participants. The program offers honors sections of core courses, occasional honors electives, and honors options in major courses designed to appeal to the more academically committed student. Students are invited to participate in the freshman honors program based on their high school academic records.
Off-Campus Programs
Credit-bearing internships are available for qualified upperclassmen in several academic divisions, and students may participate in the Washington Center for Internships and Academic Seminars, a comprehensive, credit-bearing learning experience in Washington, D.C.
FPC is one of twelve member colleges of the New Hampshire College and University Council (NHCUC). The NHCUC Student Exchange Agreement allows students to take courses at other NHCUC colleges at no extra tuition cost. Students may take courses at FPC and another member college during the same semester, or they may spend up to two semesters in residence at a member school. Members of the NHCUC are Colby-Sawyer College, Daniel Webster College, Dartmouth College, Franklin Pierce College, Keene State College, New England College, Plymouth State University, Rivier College, St. Anselm College, the School for Lifelong Learning, Southern New Hampshire University, and the University of New Hampshire, Durham.
Franklin Pierce College holds affiliate status with Richmond College in London, England, which enables FPC students to take advantage of study in London for full credit toward their degrees. Another study-abroad opportunity is the Walk in Europe. This is a project that is unique to Franklin Pierce College and has been part of the curriculum since 1969. Approximately 25 students are chosen to participate in the semester-long project: a long-distance walk through several European countries. The sheer adventure and vitality of the project profoundly changes the participants' outlook on the world. The Walk is structured to facilitate engagement with Europeans and their cultures and with each member of the group. Students who have participated have described the Walk as the single most valuable learning experience of their years at Franklin Pierce.
Academic Facilities
The Franklin Pierce College Library provides a comfortable, open-stack environment for study and research. The 120,000-volume collection includes books, microforms, compact discs, DVDs, software, and audio and videocassettes as well as subscriptions to more than 13,000 electronic and print periodical titles. The Curriculum Library supports the education curriculum of the College and includes a wealth of resources related to K12 teaching and learning and children's literature.
Costs
Basic charges for the 200405 academic year were $20,790 for tuition, $4000 for a double room, and $3330 for board. Other fees and deposits brought the total to $28,980 per year.
Financial Aid
Both need-based and merit-based financial aid is available in the forms of loans, grants, scholarships, and on-campus employment. Students should visit the College's Web site for details about the various aid programs.
Faculty
There are 73 full-time and 97 part-time professors at the undergraduate residential campus in Rindge, 79 percent of whom have terminal degrees in their field. All Franklin Pierce College students are taught by faculty members who are active professionally in organizations that span the academic disciplines. Over the years, their work has received the support of the Council for the International Exchange of Scholars (Fulbright Scholars), the Hewlett Foundation, the Whiting Foundation, the Lilly Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Science Foundation, and the Kettering Foundation. Faculty members regularly contribute their work as researchers, writers, presenters, editors of professional journals, and performing artists.
Student Government
The Franklin Pierce College Student Government Association (SGA) is made up of dedicated student representatives working to make positive change for the student body. In addition to being an advocate for the student body, the SGA also funds the various clubs and organizations that enrich campus life and the Pierce experience.
Admission Requirements
Applicants are evaluated on an individual basis, with the student's potential and seriousness of purpose of primary concern. The trend toward improved grades, more difficult course work, and greater school involvement are weighed heavily in the student's behalf. Counselor support and supplementary recommendations are valued and are given special consideration. Class size and the campus environment are such that SAT results are generally a less valid predictor of success at FPC than ongoing classroom achievement.
Each entering student must submit evidence of adequate preparation for college. Sixteen credits of secondary school work are required of each candidate. The preferred distribution is English, 4 credits; mathematics, 3 credits; laboratory sciences, 2 credits; social sciences, 2 credits; and electives, 5 credits. Candidates deemed to have potential and motivation, yet not meeting all the admission requirements, may be accepted provisionally.
The application consists of the completed application form, official secondary school transcripts, official transcripts from each college attended, an official secondary school recommendation (guidance counselor, principal, or teacher), SAT or ACT scores, and a writing sample. An on-campus interview is recommended. Students whose native language is not English must also submit the Certification of Finances and an acceptable TOEFL score.
Application and Information
Students may apply to enter in the fall, spring, or summer sessions. Applications are processed on a rolling basis, but students are encouraged to apply and have their transcripts and recommendations sent early in their senior year.
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