Thanks University of New Hampshire!

Photo: Emily Colman

 This April vacation brought me to the University of New Hampshire, a school that I am pleased to say will be making its way into many conversations that I have with ElRo students as we discuss college options. This medium sized land (and sea and space) grant university truly offers the best of lots of different things. There are all kinds of majors: from engineering, to business, to nursing, to the liberal arts (check). It is a gorgeous New England campus with buildings that have managed to be renovated without losing their character (check). The location about an hour from two cities (Boston and Portland) and smack in between the ocean's coastline in one direction and mountains in the other (check). And did I mention that almost every ElRo student would be admissible? This is bordering on unicorn status: the 'likely' that you can like if you are a high achieving student. If I had to compare it to other places, I would say it feels to me like a less hippie University of Vermont and a smaller and more beautiful University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

The students I saw seemed grounded and happy. In fact, in a recent Gallup pilot survey of 19 colleges, UNH alumni reported being the happiest later on in life out of all 19 participant schools. If New Hampshire sounds obscure to you, rest assured that they have an Amtrak station on campus. So NYC students can connect through Boston to get there without needing a car. We also go the chance to eat in the dining hall four separate times - something that I really value on college tours. Part of why UNH probably felt this was a good idea is that the food is some of the best college dining food I've had. I wasn't surprised to learn that their dining services are all in-house, not outsourced to a corporation. They had Vegan-friendly, Allergy-friendly and even Passover friendly options.

The curriculum is divided up roughly in thirds - with most divisions having 1/3 of the classes from the major, 1/3 from the core curriculum (known as Discovery) and 1/3 other electives. This allows for exploration and guarantees that all students will leave having some general knowledge in 10 different subject areas that make up the Discovery coursework.

A clear goal of the University is to encourage more study abroad. We learned that, as a nation, the United States sends about 260,000 students per year to study abroad whilst accepting about 1,000,000 foreign students to study abroad here. We can do better and UNH wants to be part of that change.

This school is a real gem. If you want a public D-I school within only a few hours of New York City I strongly recommend you go and visit. The out of state tuition is about $40,000 per year, but many ElRo students would qualify for merit aid that could bring that total down to about $25,000 per year before need-based aid is factored in for those that qualify. I have a good friend who is a fellow college counselor in California and she tipped me off to UNH a few years ago, but now that I've seen it with my own eyes, I can attest: this is a school that deserves to be on a lot of lists.