A Visit to Rollins College
Rollins College is a fabulous small liberal arts college with about 2,500 students in Winter Park, Florida, a beautiful suburb northeast of Orlando. Rollins prides itself on small classes, a mentorship model, and a strong study abroad program where 77% of all students spend from a few weeks to a full year abroad. The school offers 36 majors and 51 minors including Australian Studies, Global Health, Middle Eastern & North African Studies, and Sustainable Development and the Environment. For creative students there are majors in Music, Studio Art and Theatre Arts as well as a minors in Dance and Film Studies. As the creative degrees are all BAs (as opposed to BFAs) students have time in their course load to have either a double major, minor, and study abroad program without disrupting the often somewhat restrictive BFA curriculum. (For more information on the differences between degrees you can read this blog.)
The flagship program for Rollins is a 3+2 BA + MBA program which allows students in any major to add a business education while still in school while only adding an additional year of study, reducing cost and enhancing your job prospects. For art students interested in adding a business degree to their creative studies this is a valuable opportunity.
Rollins also offers both need based and generous merit based aid with merit scholarships ranging from $15,000 to $65,000 annually, as well as some scholarships specifically for music and theatre/dance students.
Rollins has a wonderful, small art museum on campus which allows students to view works by professional artists and use their knowledge to give tours to other students. When I was visiting and art history student was leading a very informative tour focussing on texture in various works of art in the collection. The museum also holds lectures and events bringing the students and the community together. Additionally, the town of Winter Park is the home of the Morse Museum which houses a world class collection of Tiffany glass, definitely worth a visit if you tour Rollins.
Rollins also just opened the 16,000 square foot Tiedtke Theatre and Dance Centre which houses practice studios and performance spaces as they seek to grow their performing arts offerings. This is an exciting addition for all creative students looking to study at Rollins.
Outside of academics students can participate in a robust social life including D2 athletics (enabling them to offer athletic scholarships) with one D1 team, waterskiing, because they are situated on beautiful (and huge, 223 acres!) Lake Virginia. The students also have beautiful, modern dorms, one of which includes a pool (open to all students not just those in Lakeside Dorm), access to kayaks, and paddle boards as the school is right on the lake, and many dining options. The school also values community service and involvement, some of which is sponsored by their four fraternities and six sororities, in which about 25% of the student population participates.
Rollins is a perfect school for a student looking for a small, traditional liberal arts education, with the encouragement to study abroad, have access to an on campus art museum, and study the arts and graduate in five years with an MBA!
