Visited April 7, 2013.
This was the first college on the Cows tour. Beloit is right on the Illinois border and is 75 miles from O’Hare. There is a bus going from Chicago to Beloit and Madison 12 times a day. The college is two years older than the state. Food processing is the largest industry in the area. There are 1,300 students at Beloit, and the average class size is 12-14. No class on campus is larger than 25 students! One-third of the students stay on campus during holidays. 12% of students are international.
Admissions: Tuition is $50,000 a year. 85-90% get financial assistance. The largest merit package is $20,000 a year. National merit finalists get $5,000 a year. 5-8% defer and take a gap year. Beloit accepts about 35 transfers a year. Freshmen come to campus one week before other students to get oriented and work with advisors. Students come from 49 states. Only 17% are from Wisconsin.
Academics: There is no core curriculum at Beloit. They pride themselves on diversity of thought. A student must like to write to come to Beloit. Creative writing is the largest major on campus, and all courses require extensive writing. Most courses have project assignments for final evaluations. There are no multiple choice tests at Beloit. Internationalism is the middle name for Beloit. 70% of the students take a foreign language. 58% go abroad during their four years; most do not want to go to Western Europe. Beloit has 12 of their own abroad programs. All science classes are lab based. They also offer a summer program for high school juniors and seniors which is an immersion nine week program: this program is called Summer Fields. The three most popular majors are creative writing, anthropology and international relations. 8% go into Peace Corps after graduation.
Student body: This is a very diverse group. It reminded me of the students at Grinnell. Alcohol is permitted on campus regardless of the student’s age. Everyone is on a first name basis. The campus is very GREEN, red and blue.