College Profile:
Berry College
A Berry College education provides students with a strong foundation for life.
Berry seeks not only to educate the head by strengthening students academically but also to educate the heart through community service and opportunities for spiritual growth and the hands through the campus' optional work opportunity program. Berry graduates leave college armed with the tools for success and the practical experience to prove it.
Berry's academic reputation is outstanding. The college is recognized as one of the South's leading small colleges. The 2001 U.S. News & World Report rankings placed Berry among the best small liberal arts colleges in the South for the 14th year.
More than 40 majors are available in Berry's comprehensive undergraduate program. Students can continue their education at Berry with master's-level study in education and business administration or return for an education specialist degree.
Teaching is a top priority at all levels of Berry's curriculum. The college's commitment to providing individualized education can be seen in the low faculty/student ratio of 1:12. Not only do the small class sizes make learning more personalized, but all of Berry's classes are taught by professors, not graduate students. Those faculty members, skilled in the art of teaching, know how best to help students learn. While they are true scholars (more than 90 percent hold earned doctorates), Berry faculty are also understanding advisors and friends who spend countless hours with students outside of class because of the faculty members' dedication and desire to foster success.
Enhancing traditional classroom work, classes often use Berry's expansive 28,000-acre campus as a learning laboratory. For example, students in an introductory environmental science course sampled a campus stream to study invertebrate diversity, analyzed the forest diversity and species associated with long-leaf yellow pines on Lavendar Mountain, and developed field sampling techniques in the woods behind the art building.
When students aren't in the classroom, many can be found living Berry's motto "Not to be ministered unto, but to minister." The college's strong religion-in-life program emphasizes Christian values and service. Many opportunities for spiritual growth are available through religious and service organizations on campus.
Volunteering, in fact, is a way of life for students in Berry's Bonner Scholars Program. During 1999-2000, approximately 75 Bonner scholars contributed 22,500 hours of service in the Rome and Floyd County area. Bonner scholarships provide financial assistance to qualified students who are committed to community service.
Berry's work opportunity program adds practical experience to our graduates' list of qualifications, while affording many with the additional resources they need to attend college. The program guarantees every full-time student campus employment in one of more than 120 types of jobs. For example, 50 students work as BITS, Berry Information Technology Students, supplementing the work done by the college's computing staff. The college invests approximately $3,000 to train each student, and they go on to specialize in networking, Web technology, technological training or Macintosh support. The BITS experience makes students highly sought after in today's job market.
Other Berry work positions enable students to enrich the education they receive in the classroom, from an accounting major working in the college's internal auditing department to a theatre major serving as a publicist for the Berry College Theatre Company to a chemistry major serving as a lab assistant.
While the work program gives graduates an edge in the marketplace, it is also central to Berry's financial assistance and the college's commitment to providing an education to all students who demonstrate financial need. Students can earn between $1,550 and $4,200 per academic year, plus $2,600 for full-time summer work, all of which can help students meet tuition costs.
During the 2000-01 academic year, Berry awarded more than $10 million in college- funded scholarships, grants, loans and work earnings. Numerous scholarships are awarded annually to student athletes in all sports programs and to selected students in several departments, including music, mathematics, speech and drama, journalism and the sciences. Renewable academic scholarships are awarded to qualified incoming students. Georgia residents may also qualify for the HOPE Scholarship Program.
The Founder's Program at Berry helps make students' dreams of success come true. Founder's students work full-time for five summers and two semesters and part-time during semesters when enrolled in class. In exchange, the college guarantees the student's tuition will be covered.
A vibrant campus life complements Berry's commitment to a well-rounded education. Students may participate in numerous on-campus organizations, including the award-winning student newspaper, the Campus Carrier; the yearbook, Cabin Log; the literary and art journal, Ramifications; TV-10 and the national champion Forensics Team. Other activities include intramural sports, Student Government Association, College Bowl, Students in Free Enterprise, various academic and honor societies, Model U.N., equestrian team and many other groups.
Approximately 1,300 students call Berry's residence halls home each year. The college is committed to providing a quality residential living-learning environment for students. Berry offers a Freshman Seminar course for all incoming students to help ease the transition into college life.
Berry students enjoy exploring the college's 28,000-acre campus. Fields, forests, lakes, mountains and historic sites fill the map. Adventures can be had on campus with a hike up to Mountain Campus to the college's historic waterwheel, the largest overshot waterwheel in the United States. Choose any site on campus and watch as the deer graze by. Take your mountain bike and explore the 66 miles of off-road bike trails plus 24 miles of paved roads, or check out the college's two rope courses or the rock-climbing wall.
At Berry College, academics, work, religion-in-life, and campus life combine into a total educational experience that is truly extraordinary.
Editorial provided by Ali Meder, a senior journalism major at Berry College.
