My visit to Baldwin Wallace came on Day 12 of a 12-day trip. It would have been understandable if I couldn’t remember a thing about it. And that’s how I know that Baldwin Wallace is such an amazing place.
BW had Professor Ed Meyer speak to my group of about 40 counselors. Meyer teaches physics, but more importantly, problem-solving. In just a quick 15-minute presentation, Meyer had each of us convinced that every college student should take his class. My blog post about our visit with him is here.
Baldwin Wallace is a comfortable small-to-medium sized school, with about 3,000 undergraduates on its suburban Cleveland campus. The school is committed to providing strong pre-professional education with a liberal arts base – a “practical application of the liberal arts,” as they describe it. New majors have come in response to market demands, so BW students can now study digital media, public health, health care management and sustainability – the first such program in Ohio. BW offers 60 different majors. For many of them, BW guarantees that you will graduate in four years. If you don’t, they will pay for an additional year for you!
BW’s music conservatory has the oldest collegiate Bach festival in the country, and offers degrees in music performance as well as music education and music therapy. Eight members of the Cleveland Orchestra are on the faculty, and students can major or minor in music disciplines. We were entertained by a string quartet as well as an impromptu song with percussion as two women were selling make-your-own trail mix to raise funds for a conservatory student project.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92qgBL7w0ko]
Baldwin Wallace is a great place for a student who may be looking for a smaller, more hands-on education than a larger state school. Financial aid is guaranteed for out-of-state students and BW is very aggressive with its merit based aid. While test scores are optional for admission, students seeking merit aid must submit them.
I loved the feel of Baldwin Wallace. My tour guide Addison, a football player and DJ on the campus radio station, is a finance/management major and has enjoyed his time at BW. You can see my photo album from my visit here.