Cedar Crest College

Going to Cedar Crest College was the best decision I ever made. I have heard complaints from other disciplines, but I have to say I never experienced anything negative in the STEM departments. The professors are hard on you, but they also care a great deal. They push you to achieve far beyond what other schools expect from their undergraduates and they will hand you tissues and coffee when you come to cry in their office over a personal life problem. The faculty has incredible accolades and are well... Read More recognized in their fields. They recruit us for research in our first semester and are welcome do as much research as we want and can handle. I personally did all four years and every summer, participating in both biology dept research and chemistry dept research simultaneously. They take us all over the country for conferences, both to present and to network/observe. We are taught and expected to show the highest form of professional etiquette during the day and then we all hang out in the hotels and eat pizzas and have fun. The curriculum is rigorous and it shows. Cedar Crest competes in local academic competitions including an organic chemistry competition that we always sweep and I attended a business ethics debate competition that we were discreetly told that we were making it unfair for other schools. High school friends that attended STEM programs at other schools would message me for assistance in courses during their sophomore and junior years that I had completed in my first semester. I minored in psychology and now I am 2/3 of the way through my masters in psych. 80% of the content in my graduate program is some level of review for me due to the immense amount of content they expected me to learn in undergrad. As a result, I am on the Dean's list and have been throughout my entire masters program. The only real complaint I have is that the meal plan is honestly pretty overpriced and the food is bad, but a minor problem in the scope of how amazing the school is overall. They even found me extra scholarship money when my family's house foreclosed and we had to declare bankruptcy, a kindness from financial aid because my research advisor told them what was going on after I cried in his office regarding how sad I was to be forced to leave. Anyone that says negative things about this school is merely upset because they could not keep up. Ignore them.

Cedar Crest College is a woman's liberal arts college. There are some male students, mostly international students. The other areas that male students are allowed are in the nursing program, the nuclear medicine program, night classes, and graduate courses. There are no male students that stay on campus though. For financial aid, they had a fairly good package but if you needed outside scholarships they were not the most helpful for finding you scholarships. They also have implemented a sophomore... Read More expedition which is a study abroad trip that is built into the tuition. I cannot say much about the actual trip process itself as they started it for the freshmen during my sophomore year. I also did a double major in art therapy and psychology. The professors in both programs were super helpful. This was especially true for the psychology department. The art therapy major also gave me a massive leg up in my master's classes that I'm currently taking. The psychology major also gave me a better understanding of the American Psychology Association writing format than the art therapy major did. I was also able to conduct psychology research as an undergraduate student and was able to use subjective and objective forms of measurement. Cedar Crest College has a psychophysiological laboratory that research students are able to use with permission from the professor.

I can't imagine having gone into the STEM field without being at Cedar Crest. I immediately noticed How ahead of many other job candidates I was especially in my lab techniques. I really felt prepared for interviews and landed a job almost immediately as a Research Assistant in an academic research lab. Being a small school, I had a great relationship with my professors and was able to receive advice even after I had graduated. The campus is beautiful and never once did I feel unsafe. It was amazing... Read More how quickly you fit in to a group and all the activities the college offered was fantastic. I really feel like I had one of those truly great college experiences and I can't imagine having gone anywhere else. After almost 5 years post graduation, my friends from Cedar Crest are still the my closest friends.