Admitted/Confirmed Online Raider Q&A

Hello everyone and welcome to our admitted student Raider day visit. My name is Joe Luna and I am one of the assistant directors of admission here at Shippensburg University. I would like to start off by thanking the wall for attending this virtual visit. The purpose of this event is to help students who this might be their first interaction with Shippensburg University or you're just trying to catch up on the next steps to help yourself become a.

Raider starting off we are a. We were founded in 1871 as the Cumberland Valley State Normal School and if you're unfamiliar with what a normal school is, we were founded as a state teachers college. We were among the 14 state systems within the past. The system we are just so happened to be the best. We have 6000 undergraduate students here at Shippensburg University, which makes us fall right in the category of a midsize institution and for me when I was looking at my college search as an alarm at Shippensburg University. That was a great fit for me.

Average class size here at Shippensburg University is about 20 three students with the student to faculty ratio of 16 to one. We offer over 100 different degrees in concentrations, and many of them are nationally recognized. You'll notice here that we have 11 nationally certified academic programs, which is something very important to look for as you go through your college search, you want to make sure that the degree you choose and the University that you choose has a reputable program that is setting you up for success after graduation.

As we move closer to our campus here, one of the main reasons I chose to attend Shippensburg University was just too beautiful our campuses. We occupy over 210 acres of land throughout our entire campus within the PA state system. We are the most energy efficient University there is. We are very safe and secure here on our campus. We have 15 PA Act 120 certified University police officers which means that our campus is very well patrolled. We have emergency call boxes located throughout our campus.

We have our University police on foot driving around in their vehicles riding their bicycles around to make sure that you feel as safe and secure as you do in your own home or residence halls are locked 24 hours a day. Very well lit all hours of the day and night, and we have cameras throughout our campus making sure, again our campus and say our campus community is very safe and secure. Another big part of our campus is the recreational opportunities. We have a lot of green space on our campus within our local region. We have the rail trail. We have a bike share program.

We just installed a disc golf course last year, which is a very popular thing for our students and we also have several sand volleyball courts across our campus, so there's a lot of outdoor activities for you to participate in.

As an incoming student, you may be required to live on campus. We have 75% of our first year students living on our campus. Beautiful residence facilities. Whether you're living in a traditional housing or in one of our suite style apartment complexes, we have 14 different living learning communities across our campus so they would be more interest specific. So if you wanted to be a stem major you can live in the stem living learning community. If you wanted to be a education major, you can live in the future educators. If you want it to be.

In the first year experience or within the College of business, you can live in those specific living learning communities. So again 14 different ones that you can choose from. We have Seven residence halls across our campus. Six of them are going to be your sweet style where you can share a bedroom with one person. You can also have a suite with two private bedrooms all the way up until 4 private bedrooms. And then we also have a traditional residence Hall called McLean, but doesn't install and you have the ability to select select that as well. Within these residence halls.

We have plenty of amenities such as free laundry, free laundry services, free laundry doesn't mean that we do it for you, it just means that you do not have to pay for those laundry services. We have sport equipment, shared kitchens, TV lounges in common areas as well as computer labs right in our residence halls now so students that are coming here and live outside of 30 miles of our campus are going to be required to live on campus that if you live within 35 miles, you can certainly live on our campus. But you are not required to.

We have it to your housing agreement. That means that students who have less than 60 credits or have lived on campus less than two years will be required to live on campus for the two year timeframe. If, after your first year you want to be exempted and move off campus, you can apply for an exemption would be looking at your GPA and we will be looking at the number of credits that you have and if you meet our requirement and you are approved for this exemption, we can move off campus after your first year.

Housing has a lot of options. As you see, we have six different sweet styles as well as a traditional housing one. I would like to point out is McLean traditional housing. There is also a one year housing scholarship available for that, so you would need to apply and if you are awarded the McLean housing scholarship, that would mean that $2650 is going to be awarded to you per semester for one year after that first year then the cost would be still there.

However, that scholarship is available to students to apply for. You'll also see a variety of sweet style sweet styles below. And if you haven't been to our campus before, an actually walked through the residence halls, you will have the ability to go online to our website ship.edu/housing, and then you will click on sweets and then you can take a virtual tour of all of our residents Hall styles, even the McLean traditional housing will have a virtual tour available for you. I know it's not as good as being here in person, but.

If you want to see the different sweet styles, that is a great opportunity for you to take a look. You'll see that the costs associated with these can go up anywhere from $2650 all the way up into the two person 2 bedroom full suite, which is the unit E1 and E1A which is $5190.00. So you have the ability to make your choice. And of course keeping cost in mind. There are a variety of costs.

Any student who lives on campus is also required to have a meal plan. We start students off with our most popular meal plan, which would be our 15 meals per week. But if you're anything like me and you don't like to get up early for breakfast, you can certainly use that 15 meals all week. what I mean by that is you're not going to use your breakfast meal Monday through Friday. You can save those meals for your meals over the weekend, so you'll have five guest meals, 5 meal. I'm sorry that you did not use during the week.

But now you can use on Saturday and Sunday. Whether it's for breakfast, lunch and dinner, or whether it's just for breakfast and dinner. Whatever it maybe you can use those weak throughout the week as well as on the weekend. We also have a variety of block meal plans. Students can start with 75 block a 150 block, a 225 block, and a unlimited meal plan that I promise you you cannot go through. As you can see we have 14 different dining options across our campus. Two of them are all you can eat. Buffet style dining halls. We have reason or dining Hall.

As well as our Criner Dining Hall, we have 10 eat in takeout type of restaurants across our campus so you'll see restaurants like Pizza Hut we have a sub location. We have our food court facility and they even have a sushi place that they can fresh roll sushi right in front of you so all of those things are available to you as well. We also have to coffee shops. We have Dunkin' Donuts as well as Starbucks so we certainly keep you well caffeinated. I know as I was going through my college search and growing up my parents drink coffee every day and I thought it was gross.

I got to college. I went through my first week of finals and I realized that I needed something to help me out. So coffee, it was. Now we have Duncan on our campus an Starbucks. So you students are pretty spoiled.

Everything we do on our campus is keeping student success in mind. We want to make sure that you are prepared for success. So whether you're struggling in class, we have our academic support and tutoring services located in our student success center. If you're not struggling in class and you're doing very well and you're looking for an on campus job opportunity, we can have you as a paid student tutor. We also have paid professional tutors in our student success center. We have our personal guidance in advising offices. We have our career and success coaches.

We have our study abroad office in our international student affairs office. Everything that you need to be successful is located in our student success center. So again, as you're making your college search and you're deciding on where to go, pay close attention to the resources that they provide. How do they set up their success resources? Are they visible to you? Do you have to go across campus is to find them a different locations. We have one holistic location which is in our Mallory haul soon as success center to make sure that you know where all of our resources are and you are readily accessible to you.

Opportunities to Excel whether you've been in an honors program before or you're considering joining one now we want to make sure that you continue to challenge yourself we now have a nationally recognized would honors college and with that comes in many resources resources such as scholarships for study abroad grants for research smaller class sizes a closer network of friends from day one we have a lot of opportunities for you if you have an interest in the honors college you can go to ship dot Edu forward slash honors and you will find information about.

Their contact information as well as what the requirements to be in the honors program would be so they're going to be looking at your GPA they're going to be looking at your essay T test scores as well as some essay requirements that will be part of the application another big part of Shippensburg is our research opportunities we have a conference call the minds at work conference every year or about 400 students participate in research projects and some of them are doing those projects with our fact.

Members now doing research with a faculty member is not something you commonly find at undergraduate universities we believe strongly that our students should have research completed by the time they graduate so that they can build upon that research in Graduate School or if you're looking to go out into the job force right after graduation that you can demonstrate to an employer why they should select you why they should hire you some of our students are selected to present their research at national conferences and some of those conferences can even lead them internationally in which case there's an all expenses paid trip on Shippensburg University.

To present your research another huge opportunity for you to stand out at an undergraduate institution that you won't find at many other colleges.

Keeping with the theme of success and challenging yourself we have a very large alumni network we have the support services whether his career services or academic support services are internships are in demand we have our career mentoring and professional development center that is also located in the student success center where they offer lifelong career services and we host job fairs on our campus this office does everything from mock interviews to resume workshops to cover letter workshops like I said to hosting those job fairs right on our campus.

We have over 2000 employers that are actively seeking our students every single year you don't even need to leave our campus to get your first interview when you see students walking across campus dressed up in a suit and tie you know it's interview day and there must be a career fair on our campus so we definitely make sure that you have the support services you have the network to be in demand when you're looking at your jobs many of our students their internships turn into their careers after graduation internships are very very important to you will talk a little bit more about those but.

You will most likely start your internships in your junior year.

Another way to challenge yourself is by studying abroad we have a lot of opportunities for you for students to study abroad we have partnerships with at least 17 different countries since we are part of the 14 state system schools system is called the pachi consortium if we don't have a country that you are looking to go to you can go went through one of the other 13 state schools you'll be a part of their program but still remain a Shippensburg University student we encourage you to consider studying abroad this really challenges you to break out of your comfort zone to learn another language.

To learn another culture to get used to a long flight that it might take you to get to as you see the young lady in the middle there get the South Korea right there's a lot of good opportunities for you to study abroad all you need to do as a student is earned 30 credits before you can study abroad at any point after that 30 credits is aren't you can go abroad for a couple weeks during your spring break for a semester for a year for 2 years if you wish we want to make sure that the country you go to make sense with your major as well as is safe enough to send you too so definitely we encourage you to.

Consider studying abroad.

As you're going through we also want to make sure that you know there's a lot of things to help you stay active we want you to work hard and play play hard we have 20 Division 2 teams between our men and women and as you can see our women's field hockey team is 3 time national championships for Division 2 athletics we offer over 150 different clubs and organizations for you to be apart of there's random clubs like the bass fishing club the adventure club and they go skydiving right whitewater rafting rock climbing horseback riding.

We have the Harry Potter quidditch team if you're interested in Harry Potter we have ultimate Frisbee we have our religious clubs and organizations volunteerism opportunities academic and social fraternities and sororities so if you're bored it's your fault we have more than enough opportunities for you to get up get out of your room get involved meet people and when you go to your activities fair at least get yourself some free stuff you will see that we also have intramural sports so if you had been an athlete before as you're going through middle school and high school.

Just not sure if you want to participate at the varsity level any longer those opportunities for intramural sports or maybe you've never played a sport before what you're looking to do something different and and have fun this is a great opportunity for you to do so 8 intramural sports are also part of our activities that you can do to remain active.

We also want you to know that we have several resources that are available to you to take care of your body your mind in your soul you may use some of them you may use none of them or you may use all of them we have our error Health Center which is part of the health and Wellness Center and this location can handle any sort of health concern that you may have we have our non denominational spiritual center we have are completely confidential counseling center that is part of the health and Wellness Center and we also have our shipwreck student Recreation Center which is a beautiful facility.

With multipurpose courts for basketball tennis volleyball we have our racquetball and squash courts we have our full track on the second level of our facility it's 8 laps to a mile we have a full cardio section you can see the spinning cycling room there we have a full free weight section as well and our second level of the fitness center overlooks our football stadium it's a beautiful view of the South mountain as well as our football stadium where you'll also see track and field events taking place so again.

Just wanting to make sure that you're aware of some of the resources that we have.

Shippensburg University is committed to diversity we have a lot of different resources here that will discuss briefly we have our Accessibility resources office which handles things like any documented iep that you may have had or a combination that you've received as you were going through your schooling we can reciprocate that we can echo that that a combination here you would just need to meet with our office of Accessibility resources to discuss your situation and we will help you be successful as a student here at ship we have our office of equity inclusion and compliance.

We have our multicultural student affairs office which is a great organization free to be apart of as you can see one of the MLK walks taking place in this picture here some of the opportunities there is multicultural fraternities and sororities we have some of the divine 9 fraternities and sororities and some also vocal and singing organizations that you can be apart of we have our pride center as well as our women center so you can be a part of any of those opportunities to make sure that you are still enjoying your time with ship.

As we move forward it is important to think about the cost of your education we have several different categories you'll see here for Pennsylvania residents for out of state students as well As for international students and I'll highlight our columns here you'll see that for an in state Pennsylvania resident the total cost for living on campus in a be sweet is $25,160 you'll see that that includes your tuition your fees your meal plan and your housing per semester and then double that.

For your year as an out of state resident you'll see the tuition fees meal plan housing and your total cost is $25,646 for the year and then as an international student you see $33,068 what this does include is 15 meals per week +250 dollars of flex spending cash that can be used at Starbucks or Dunkin' Donuts or Pizza Hut or at the convenience store if you wanted to go in and get yourself a new toothbrush or anything like that that can be used there as well as other food options being available.

The prices for our 2 person one bedroom be sweet which we saw a little bit ago on the cost breakdown there and the range again is 2650 dollars all the way up and so on $5190 as we go through the various sweet styles so again this is our cost for the 2020 in 2021 year.

Alright see you guys have done it you have applied you've been admitted you've taken care of business in high school or going through your community colleges or other institution and you're thinking about changing your University you're thinking about coming to ship and realizing the value of a Shippensburg University education you are taking part in the first step you're attending an admissions event this is a writer day visit for admitted students your next step if you have felt and weighed all of your options and you have decided that ship is the right place for me.

You were going to accept your offer of admission then you're going to submit your enrollment deposit which is now $50 it has been reduced to $50 due to Cove in 19 we also have a $200 housing deposit which we can wait for you if that is something that you wish so once you have submitted your deposits you'll be able to complete your housing contract or housing exemption form now the housing contract is for students that will be living on campus that are either have less than 60 credits as a transfer student.

Or are coming in and live outside of that 35 mile radius the housing exemption form is for students that have earned more than 60 credits are over the age of 21 or live within that 35 mile radius and do not wish to live on campus so once you complete that you'll have the ability to register for new student new student orientation I apologize there which is now virtual it's a great opportunity for you to come in and get all of your last minute questions answer to make sure everything is checked off so that you get your class schedule.

And you are ready to rock and roll on the first day of class.

What I'm going to do next is to show you the inside of the admissions portal many of the students have seen this already some of the parents and guardians may not have seen this yet So what I will do is highlight several different areas as part of this admissions portal in the Top right corner you'll see the 9 digit S UID number that is your student ID number and it starts with A 600 and then it will have 6 digits after that that student ID number will remain with you all for years it will be printed on your student ID card and if you decide to come back for Graduate School?

It will also remain with you through those next few years back to the left you will see the Top or.

And here is our checklist items and you'll notice that there would be a green check mark next to everything that has been satisfied or completed and you'll see a red X mark next to everything that needs to be completed or is optional.

Moving down the list there you'll click the link to activate your ship account this does not mean you're confirming this will allow you to log into the my ship student portal as well as to view your financial aid package now once you do confirm you submit your deposits this will become your official Shippensburg University email address you will now be able to send and receive emails from this address moving down you will again use your ship username and password to view financial aid package you will also need to complete your medical forms.

And then as you go down the list there once you have submitted your deposits you will notice there is a enrollment deposit that has either been paid or waived with a check mark as well at the housing deposit that has either been paid or waived with a green check mark you now know that you are a official confirm student.

On the right hand side I just wanted to point out something an official high school or official transfer Community College other institution transcript you won't see that up here on your checklist with a red X mark until you officially graduate Unfortunately you cannot provide us with this so don't be confused don't be panicking just wait until graduation is over and request your transcripts be sent to us so that we can complete this checklist item for you.

Some of you may be required to take placement tests and you would receive a email providing you with your next steps as to how to take these placement test as well as what placement test you are required to take just to point out some of the highlights here for what the minimum score before you need to take placement test would be so if you have a 3 digit math SAT score of at least a 560 you are not required to take the math placement test if you have a 550 or below.

You will be required to take the math placement tests that would be a 2 digit math AC T score of a 22 you are 2 digit S 80 reading score would be part of your subsets and the minimum score there to not need the reading placement test would be a 24 if you have a 23 or below you will be required to take the reading placement test that will be a 2 digit AC T minimum of a 20.

And then last but not least, the two digit S80 writing score would be a minimum score of a 26. If you have a 25 or below, you will be required to take the writing placement test, AC T minimum score would be in 19. So if you have less than in 19, you will be required to take the writing placement test again. You will receive an email with instructions as to how to do this, and currently all of our placement tests are held online and they're done for free, so you can do these from your home address from your own personal computer.

We will help you get through that process. There are some additional resources on the placement testing website, so if you went to our website ship.edu in the top right hand corner you'll find a search bar type in placement testing and that will bring you directly to the testing site. And again there are some resources there, so there's helpful hints on the writing. Placement test is information about the reading and the math placement test as well, so we want to make sure that you were as prepared for this placement test as possible.

As you've completed your placement test and you're ready to go you're ready to say yes I'm I'm coming to Shippensburg University you will see the red check mark there next to the reply to offer of admissions you're going to click on that link.

You will then see a quick video above and you will be able to see do you want to accept your offer of admission and enroll at Shippensburg University there are 2 options one says yes I want to enroll it ship the other says no I declined my offer of admission now you can all ignore that one because we know you're going to rock and roll your coming to Shippensburg University so you're only going to select the yes I want to enroll it ship and then you're going to click on submit.

Once you click on submit will be able to fill out your housing agreement annuar exemption form and just as a recap any student who has less than 60 credits or lives within a lives outside of a 35 mile radius of our campus is required to live on campus for their first 2 years all second year students that have under 16 credits are still required to live on campus for an additional year we have some exemptions that may be made for students who reside full-time within that 35 mile radius.

Or they are 21 years of age or older by the time they enter their first semester. If you are legally married an you have a dependent or you have a dependent, you are also eligible to live at a home address. So again that housing agreement must be completed or the housing exemption must be completed.