Interview Transcript
WRKD -- Rockland, Maine
October 22, 2001
Link to Digital Audio of Four, Hour-Long Shows on Thomas College
Dr. Thomas Edwards and Jennifer Quinlan in the WRKD Studio
Talk Radio Format
Interviewer: Show Host Don Shields
Topics: Thomas College Programs and Approach
Thomas College Representatives:
Dr. Thomas Edwards, Thomas College Vice President for Academic Affairs
Jennifer Quinlan, Thomas College Director of Admissions
Show Air Date: LIVE on October 22, 2001
SHIELDS: Tom we will start with you a lot of people have heard Thomas College and I got a feeling that maybe not as many people are familiar with what Thomas College offers as opposed to maybe what a University of Maine or some of the bigger schools in the state offer. Tell me a little bit about what Thomas College does offer I know a lot of people think of you as a business school first.
EDWARDS: Sure Thomas College has an excellent reputation as a business school and really has built its foundation on great programs in accounting, management, information technology, marketing, those kinds of programs. What we started to discover over time is that there is an information technology component that contributes to each one of those kinds of majors and we have slowly started to expand over the last ten years to the point where now we are finding that in addition to doing business we do a great job of providing an overall education for students and that has allowed us then to look at the general education component and how that prepares students in terms of how they communicate, how they operate as managers in businesses and we have slowly started to expand the kinds of programs that we offer to the point where we have programs not only in accounting and management, marketing, but we also do things like criminal justice, we have expanded into the education area. We have a new program in elementary education, started a new program in psychology. So the range of courses and the range of things that we can contribute to the Central Maine area have really expanded not only at the undergraduate level but also at the graduate level. We have moved into programs we offer very innovative Master of Science and taxation program, which is something that the University of Maine system has never tried to offer. We offer that down in Portland especially for professionals down in that area who need to keep up with changes in the tax code, as we all know that those things change quite often and it is important to stay on top of those. Also a new program Master of Science and computer technology education for teachers in Central Maine area who need to go back and update their computer technology skills so that when they go back into their classrooms at the secondary level at the elementary education level they can serve as a real resource for information technology. So, we have been Maine’s business college for a long time but we are much much more then that now.
SHIELDS: What type of class sizes are we talking Jen as far as Thomas College is, I would imagine there are certain core classes that probably have a higher student population, but on general are we talking as far as class sizes?
QUINLAN: Sure, the average class size at Thomas is about 20 students and in the larger core courses that you were speaking about some of them we actually limit the size, for instance English Comp 1 which every freshmen has to take regardless of their major, we actually limit that size to 18 students in the class because it is so important to have that one on one sort of attention and small group size to get the entire breadth of what the professor is talking about in those core courses. The largest class size at Thomas is right around 30 students so there are no huge auditoriums with 200 students sitting in them. We don’t use graduate assistants or professor’s assistants to teach courses it’s the professor and the students and that’s it. Every professor has office hours through out the week where they are available for students that need additional help and perhaps are a little less apt to raise their hand during the class or whatever. So even though the college is growing and we are expanding and adding new majors and it’s very exciting we are still maintaining that focus on personalized attention that a small private college can give the students.
SHIELDS: Yeah I know, we went on tours of colleges a couple of years ago with my daughter and we went to some of these places that had auditoriums that held 300 students. I could just see me getting taking in and not being able to function in that type of an atmosphere so smaller class sizes are really ideal for a lot of kids because a lot of kids go to smaller schools in Maine and they are used to those class sizes. Matter of fact sounds like that pretty much your class sizes are actually smaller than most high schools in the state of Maine do offer.
QUINLAN: Some of them are. Some of them are. Yet for a lot of students that small close personalized learning environment is the way that they found that they learn the best and they work the best and we try to continue that for them.
SHIELDS: One thing that Thomas College does it is quite unique. There is a guarantee that you offer for graduates. Can you tell me about that guarantee why that is so unique as far as placement is concerned in the profession?
EDWARDS: Sure Don. The guaranteed job placement guarantees placement for students once they graduate from Thomas. What we have noticed and what we are very proud of is that placement rate at Thomas for example this last year was 98% of students who graduated from Thomas were placed 3 months after their graduation. A lot of colleges will measure their placement rate 6 months out sometimes a year out depending on how they want to measure that. So different colleges have different ways of measuring it. We measure it very short time line after graduation and we found that we placed this last year 98% of our students. So we guarantee placement to students who achieve a certain grade point average, who participate in an internship, and work with the Career Services office in terms of trying to locate a position and so we will guarantee that those students who follow through on those parts of their education will be guaranteed a job by the time they graduate.
SHIELDS: And I think there’s a big point that I want to make sure that we make there’s part of that guaranteed placement it’s just not go come to Thomas College and graduate and you get automatically going to be guaranteed a job there is something the students have to do as part of that obviously you have outlined those things.
EDWARDS: Students have to participate in that, they have to achieve a grade point average, they have to participate in an internship, they have to do their part, but we have a system set up whereby Career Services starts to work with students in their very first year. We look at training for position and education is very intricately linked. So Career Services starts in the very beginning first year and we start to work with students and set up a plan for them so that students have a sense of what they need to do their first year out, their 2nd, their 3rd and their 4th and so if students participate in that and work with the college we certainly work with them to give them the kind of preparation that they need and we found that it has been a very successful type of partnership.
SHIELDS: As far as the grade point average that they have to achieve. What is that and how does that stack up with other schools?
QUINLAN: Sure, and that is one thing I was just going to mention is and Tom mentioned a certain grade point average it’s not an unattainable grade point average. In order to qualify for the guaranteed job placement program a student must graduate with an overall GPA of a 2.75, which is a B-, definitely attainable. In addition to the other things of registering with Career Services and what we call “good faith effort” in looking for that internship in that full time career placement and what that means is showing up for times that you have interviews setup and putting applications out there and going to your interviews. Things like that and that’s the student’s side of the bargain and we actually have a contract that we sign with every student as they enter as a freshmen that explains both their side of the contract and our side. We’re not just going to guarantee something and have no fallback or no consequences on our part as well. In other words, if the student graduates with a 4 year degree, a bachelor’s degree, has that 2.75 grade point average, has completed the internship and registered with Career Services, if they do not have a job within 6 months following graduation, Thomas will repay their Federally Subsidized student loans for up to a year or the student can have the option of coming back to Thomas for up to 2 years tuition free and what that 2 years will allow them to do is to get a bachelor’s degree in another field of study that they perhaps really want to go into or complete half of their Master’s program, tuition free. So that’s the yeah we’re kind of putting our money where our mouth is on that one, absolutely.
SHIELDS: Jen I wanted to focus on what students need to do in high school and a lot of times people don’t realize that what they do in high school a lot of times opens up the doors of what they can do in college. What are the requirements for those students who are looking at coming to Thomas College?
QUINLAN: Sure, everything a student needs to submit to us for application for admission to the college is there’s a couple different places they can go to find that information. Number 1,their high school guidance office our admission’s counselors and myself actual travel throughout the state between September and November and visit every single high school in the state of Maine and upon doing so inform the guidance counselors of what’s new, new programs things like that that are going on at the college as well as give them new applications and catalogs and view books and financial aid information and so forth. So, high school guidance offices definitely a place to find that information. Number 2,our website which is www.thomas.edu click on admissions you can actually apply right on line now if you prefer to do so or you can print out the application or you can request that information be sent to you and an actual application will come right to you in the mail. On the back of the application actually lists everything that we require from a student in order to consider them for admission to the college and what those include are a completed application, and there’s a $25 application fee which can be waived if there SAT fee was waived or if they know an alum of the college and they have the alum send us an alumni fee waiver which we send out in mid November we will waive that no problem. An official high school transcript, which tells us throughout their high school career what courses they have taken and the grades that they achieved in those courses. What we like to see on a transcript is 4 units of English, 3 units of Math, 3 units of Science, 2 units of Social Studies and 2 units of foreign language. Does every single person at Thomas have those? No, but that’s what the admissions committee part of what they’re going to look for. For various reasons some students don’t have that but that’s what we like to see that’s what that admissions committee is looking for. In addition, for all 4 and 5 year programs we require SAT or ACT scores. We don’t set a minimum required score for the very reason the second that we do that there is going to be a wonderful applicant that misses the score by 10 points and we don’t want to have to not accept someone based on a 10 point differential. So the average SAT for student at Thomas is right around 960, middle 50th percentile is between 950 and 1050 combined score on the SAT’s, which converts to about an 18 or 19 on the ACT’s. In addition to that a letter of recommendation and that can be from a high school guidance counselor, a teacher, someone that can basically attest to the students work ethic and the ability to do college level work and that’s really what we are looking for. In addition to, you know our average student has a B to B+ average. We have some straight A students that come to Thomas and we have some C students that come to Thomas. You know what we are looking for is a person’s level of motivation to pursue their higher education and their ability succeed at you know the level that Thomas is at. So it is more of an overall evaluation of a student not just on one particular aspect.
SHIELDS: As being a parent who has gone through this once with one student and a couple down the road, I think one of the things you learn real quickly it’s very important for students in high school to really do well freshmen to junior year because a lot of times where they go to college is based on those 3 years because obviously they are in the middle of their senior year when they are applying for colleges. So those first 3 years a lot of times you will hear kids say well,” I can make it all up my senior year.” Well you can’t. You can a lot of times set down the ground work of getting into the college you want to go to and doing the things you want to do in those first 3 years in high school.
QUINLAN: It definitely makes it easier if you start in your freshman year of high school and start planning ahead and taking those college prepatory sort of courses, making sure that you can complete you know Algebra 2 before you graduate. For various reasons, some students don’t think about going to college until their sophomore even junior year and what we see on a transcript is once they have put their mind to it and have decided that college is really what they want to do, huge difference in grades and anything on a transcript I always tell students that I visit and comfort interviews if there’s anything on a transcript that may raise an eyebrow with the admissions committee maybe you didn’t think about going to college until your sophomore junior year but once you did you know start that focus your grades increased tremendously but your overall grade point average is still effected by the former years. You want to talk about that in your college essay, you know whatever the reason was that you didn’t think about going to school or didn’t have the support of someone and all of a sudden you found someone that pushed you and you had that support. Once I put my mind to it look what I could do and that’s all taken into consideration.
SHIELDS: What is the price range for Thomas College and I know a private college is sometimes they tend to be higher than the state run colleges, but that is one on those things we will discuss here in a second as well.
QUINLAN: Sure, the sticker prices appear to be higher that doesn’t mean that the cost that the student pays out of pocket is necessarily higher at a private school because of the scholarships and grants and moneys that we have available. This year for a resident student, meaning a student that is going to live on campus, with tuition, room, board and all the fees, activity fee, health fee things like that we are right around $19,000 sticker price. Our average financial aid package was over $14,000 last year. So you know that average student taking that $19,000 you subtract the $14,000 plus in financial aid and now you are looking at 4 and 5 thousand, which is lot easier number to comprehend then 19 and that is something that I tell students as well. Thomas or any other private school don’t let a sticker price deter you from applying to a college that you really want to go to.
SHIELDS: There is usually more money available for the private colleges like Thomas for student aid than there is in the state run programs like you know one of the sub colleges of the University of Maine or the University of Maine itself. I am not knocking those schools, I am just trying to say that’s a fact.
QUINLAN: Absolutely, you just shouldn’t close that door because of a sticker price because there are some fantastic scholarships that are available through private colleges that can really you know put it if not in line with what a state school or a school with a lower per say sticker price has.
SHIELDS: Let’s talk Tom about first off a partnership that you have with the Maine Criminal Justice Academy.
EDWARDS: This is a great partnership that we have and we’re very proud of it but it’s one of a series of partnerships that we have with different organizations such as the Portland Seadogs or Putnum Investments. They provide our students with a great opportunity to combine their in class work and their education that they get at Thomas with some hands on applications later on. With the Criminal Justice Academy we have a unique partnership whereby students who go through the academic portion of the program are eligible if they meet other requirements in their senior year to attend the law enforcement course at the Maine Criminal Justice Academy. This means that those students who graduate and meet all the requirements of that program graduate from the Maine Criminal Justice Academy or certified to go into a full time law enforcement position anywhere in the state of Maine but at the same time they’ve got a bachelor’s degree and they have all the training and education that goes along with that so their really prepared to take leadership positions right when they move out into the field. So, we’re real proud of that partnership and Steve Georgetti who is the director of the Maine Criminal Justice Academy is adjunct professor and teaches in the program so the students who come to Thomas the first individual they meet in the program is Steve Georgetti so their introduction to criminal justice class puts them in a classroom with Steve and we think it’s just a great opportunity to introduce them both to the academic component of the program and to the opportunities for there on down the road.
SHIELDS: Now as far as your partnership, because we talked about the placement that you have with students in the high level of placement. Talk about some of the companies where they have been placed and some of the partnerships that Thomas College actually has already existing.
EDWARDS: Well, as I mentioned one of the other ones we have is with the Portland Seadogs for students in our sports management program. It is an excellent opportunity to get do to work with a very fine organizations who we’re very proud to be linked up with the Seadogs. We have the Putnum center on our campus. Putnum investments has brought a computer center on to campus where they employee a fair number of our students and again opportunities for students in finance and economics and management to have an opportunity to work with Putnum. Why they are pursuing their programs on campus when our students graduate they are highly recruited. They work with accounting firms in Augusta and Waterville down in the Portland area Price, Waterhouse, Fidelity investments and we take students in our educational field especially that come out of our graduate programs and they have a real impact in schools all throughout Maine. So we’re really happy, not only with the placement rate, but with the types of jobs students get when they finish up.
SHIELDS: Majority of students do stay in the state of Maine?
EDWARDS: The majority of students do stay in Maine so we think that Thomas really is a great investment for students in Maine. It provides a great opportunity, provides them with the skills that they need for good jobs and good placement within the state.
SHIELDS: Now Jen, you not only work for Thomas you are also a graduit right?
QUINLAN: I am, yes. Twice over as a matter of fact. I graduated with my bachelors and also received my master’s degree, my MBA degree for Thomas as well.
SHIELDS: So you can speak about the school in a number of different levels?
QUINLAN: Yes. I first went to Thomas 8 years ago now and I haven’t left since and I always tell folks that I speak with that I would never ever stay any place that I wasn’t extremely happy. So yeah it is a wonderful place. I too came from a small school, small high school and wanted that personalized attention and the people there were just it sold me and the professors once I was there. Also, the ability to be involved in so many activities for a college of our size. We have about a thousand student population with over 35 clubs and organizations to be involved with and a lot of students that come to Thomas were very active in high school and they want to maintain that sort of activity and involvement at the college level and at a small school you can absolutely do that. You can play sports and still be involved in other volunteer groups and sororities or fraternities or Campus Activity Board or Student Senate and it makes it very very worth while.
SHIELDS: Well, I’ve always said to kids in high school that you get more out of high school by being involved in with what’s going on. It doesn’t necessarily have to be sports there’s all kinds of things you can be involved with and I would imagine that a college of the size of Thomas would also follow that same category that the more your involved the more you get out of it and if you don’t get involved then you just kind of become you know a pass of ascending off on the side just criticizing everything that’s going by.
QUINLAN: Absolutely, and luckily the majority of our students are involved in about I believe it’s about 80 to 85% of the students on campus are involved in at least 2 activities. They like to be involved. They like have a say and they absolutely do. Just last week we had a town meeting where all of the student population as well as faculty and staff have kind of a big pow wow in the auditorium in the evening and everybody gets to talk about what’s going on and answer questions from both sides. So, it’s again that community sort of atmosphere and everybody’s word is listened to and everybody has a say in what’s going on.
SHIELDS: You have a big open house coming up on November 2. Tell me about what’s going to happen on that open house.
QUINLAN: Sure, it’s a wonderful opportunity for students to get actually on campus. See the campus and we have what’s called an action tour where the open house starts at 1, registration starts at 1 the actual open house starts at 1:30. Our president Dr. George Spann will be there to welcome the students and their families and then around 2 o’clock we head out on what’s called an action tour and the students are broken up and they get to hear about a 10 minute presentation for the experts in every field related to Thomas College for admissions to financial aid to student life, career services, athletics, so on and so forth. Then we have a big major slash activity fair held in the gymnasium where every major has a table so the students come actually meet the faculty members that teach in the programs that they are interested in as well as start to put some faces with those activities that we mentioned beforehand. See what’s you know available for them to be involved with on campus and of coarse dinners on us that evening and folks can come over and join us for dinner around 4:30 in the dining center.
SHIELDS: Now, so you break them out do you take the parents in a different direction or do the parents stay with the students?
QUINLAN: No, the parents stay right with the students right with the students. We think their opinions count too, definitely. We break them up in groups simply for size reasons and they get meet that way again working for that small group sort of atmosphere. They get to meet other students that are also looking at Thomas. One thing I will mention as well if a student comes to open house and brings their completed application that day we waive the $25 application fee. So they can drop it right off at the open house and they don’t have to worry about the application fee and their other materials can follow later.
SHIELDS: Motivation there. Also, you can get tours of the college at other times as well.
QUINLAN: Anytime, absolutely and you can set that up by again going to out website and e-mailing us at admissions@thomas.edu or calling our 1-800 number which is 1-800-339-7001. We do tours Monday through Friday.
SHIELDS: And Thomas is easy to find in Waterville right?
QUINLAN: Right of exit 33 down Kennedy Memorial Drive and there’s actually directions on the website and we can give them to you over the phone as well if you’d like to come for a visit, sure.
SHIELDS: I’m sure there’s a lot more we could cover this morning but unfortunately the time is against us. Thank you very much for coming in this morning and meeting with us Jen Quinlan the Director of Admissions, Tom Edward the Vice President of Academic Affairs. Thank you very much for coming in this morning.
QUINLAN: Thank you