Linda S

The College of Wooster

The College of Wooster is America's premier college for mentored undergraduate research. Since 2002, U.S. News & World Report has asked college presidents and deans which colleges provide the best undergraduate research opportunities and senior capstone program. Only two have made both lists every year: Wooster and Princeton. The presidents and deans also ranked Wooster seventh among all liberal arts colleges in America where "the faculty has an unusually strong commitment to undergraduate teaching." Founded in 1866, Wooster enrolls approximately 2,000 students, who choose from more than 50 academic programs in the sciences, humanities, business and the arts. Wooster offers an excellent, comprehensive liberal arts education, culminating in a rigorous senior project, in which each student works one-on-one with a faculty mentor to conceive, organize and complete a significant research project on a topic of the student's own choosing. Through this distinctive program, every Wooster student develops abilities valued by employers and graduate schools alike: initiative, self-confidence, independent judgment, creative problem solving, and strong written and oral communication skills. Almost a third of Wooster's students play intercollegiate athletics, a third perform in at least on musical group, and a quarter are involved in theatre and the arts. Notable Wooster alumni include award-winning filmmakers Duncan Jones '95, director of Source Code and Moon, and J.C. Chandor '96, writer and director of Margin Call and All Is Lost; Jennifer Haverkamp '79, director of the Environmental Defense Fund's international climate program; Donald Kohn '64, former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve; Laurie Kosanovich '94, general counsel for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; and Sangram Sisodia '77, director of the Center for Molecular Neurobiology at the University of Chicago.