The Review Process

The Review Process

Your completed application to Providence College is the best representation of who you are and what makes you a great candidate for admission. The admission review process at Providence College is holistic and includes:

• High school transcript
• Activities, involvement, and leadership
• Personal Statement and Supplemental Essay
• Letters of recommendation

Evaluation of the High School Transcript

The high school transcript is the most important piece of the application review process at Providence College. With each high school transcript, our admission counselors will take a close look at a student’s curriculum, context of high school environment, grades achieved, and class rank (if available).

Generally speaking, students who are most competitive for admission to Providence College have taken 4 years of the 5 core subject areas:

• English
• Math
• Science
• History/social science
• World language

Our most competitive candidates have also taken appropriately challenging Honors, Advanced Placement (AP), International Baccalaureate (IB), or other advanced-level courses offered to them in their high school environments.

The grades that a student has achieved during high school are considered hand-in-hand with that student’s curriculum. It is important to note that the Office of Admission completes a recalculation process of each student’s grade point average in order to consider applicants from different high schools fairly. Only the grades achieved in core academic subjects – plus Religion courses where applicable and electives taken at the Honors, AP, or IB level – will be included in the recalculated grade point average.

Context of a student’s high school environment is another important factor that the committee on admission considers during the evaluation of each candidate’s application. The initial review of all application files is conducted by geographic region, which helps each member of the counseling staff to understand the academic environment, opportunities for advanced coursework, and other special programs that may be available within a specific high school.

Class rank will be considered during the review process if it is provided by a student’s high school. However, many high schools do not report class rank during the college application process. Students will not be penalized in the admission review if their high school does not provide class rank information.

Additional information regarding the admission process for students applying to Nursing major.

Activities, Involvement, and Leadership

The application review process at Providence College is holistic. One of the important factors our admission staff will consider is your list of co-curricular activities. We are proud of our active and vibrant campus community, and seek to invite new students who have demonstrated strong involvement beyond the classroom.

When the admission committee reviews your co-curricular activities, it is important to remember that we are much more interested in the quality and depth of your involvement rather than the quantity. Instead of looking for the student with the longest list of activities during high school, we are more interested in commitment and dedication to activities, and leadership roles that a student has held. Two or three activities to which a student has been committed to and perhaps held a leadership role will have a more significant impact on the Committee on Admission than a lengthy list of activities on which a student has only shown “surface-level” involvement.

Also remember that the activities you write about in your application need not be limited to your high school environment. Involvement with a community organization, church group, or part-time job represents a significant time commitment after school for many students, and we encourage you to share these experiences with us on your application as well. If you have held a part-time job, please share with us the amount of time you have worked each week, and whether you worked during the school year or the summer (or both!). Information about your involvement beyond your high school campus helps the Committee on Admission develop a more complete picture of who you are on a personal level as we complete the review of your application.

The Personal Statement and Supplemental Essays

Common Application Essay

The Common Application requires all applicants to complete one essay. The essay is an important piece of your college application as it allows you to reveal something meaningful outside of the academic realm to the committee on admission. The Common Application provides seven broad essay prompts from which you can choose.

At Providence College, the admission staff uses the Common Application Personal Statement two ways: to learn more about you on a personal level and to get a sense of your writing ability. From your essay, we hope to gain an understanding of the things about which you are passionate and the issues you find important. The strongest essays we receive allow us to gain a sense of a student’s personality and provide a better understanding of the student’s personal fit to the Providence College community.

As a liberal arts institution, a student’s ability to express himself or herself in writing is important to the committee on admission. Remember that spelling and grammar “count,” and you should work to make sure that your essay is well-written and well-presented.

Optional Providence College Essay
Found under the “Additional Questions” section of the Providence College Member Page (within the Common Application), the Optional Providence College essay provides applicants with the opportunity to speak to their specific interest in PC. While completing this statement is optional, we encourage all students to take advantage of the opportunity to explain why they see Providence College as an appropriate match and fit. Should a student choose to complete an optional essay, they select one of the flowing prompts and limit their response to 250-500 words.

The prompts for the Class of 2029 are:

• Providence College values each student’s willingness to embrace and learn from different viewpoints. What experiences or perspectives do you believe individuals from diverse backgrounds bring to a community or organization? And how will your unique background positively impact others at Providence College?
  
  OR
  
• Providence College thrives on the energy of those who seek. How will you contribute to our vibrant campus life and intellectual culture in the years ahead?

Nursing Supplemental Essay
As part of our application review process for prospective nursing students, the Office of Admission invites all applicants to the nursing program to submit an additional supplemental essay. This essay is optional but provides an opportunity for students to elaborate on their interest in a career in nursing and in the Providence College School of Nursing and Health Sciences.

This supplemental essay will be available on student’s portals following the submission of their Common Application. The deadline for Providence College’s optional nursing supplemental essay is November 15 for Early Action and Early Decision I applicants, and February 1 for Regular Decision and Early Decision II students. Due to the timeline for application review, we are unable to accept submissions after these dates. The limit on responses is 150-300 words.

The prompt for the Class of 2029 is:

• Please share more about the experiences, skills, or talents that have led you to want to become a nurse, and how these will contribute to the community at Providence College and to your career as a nurse.

Letters of Recommendation

Letters of recommendation play an important role in our holistic application review process at Providence College. For first-year applicants, we require a letter of recommendation from a school counselor or college advisor and welcome them from other individuals in the student’s life.

The recommendation from the school counselor provides helpful context of the student’s four-year high school career, ideally bringing to light things about the student that may not be apparent from simply looking at the high school transcript. Counselors are often able to provide useful context for the student’s academic performance, and explain any special circumstances (i.e. schedule conflicts, personal situations, or medical issues) that may have arisen during the high school career. The counselor recommendation also helps us to understand where the student stands in relation to his or her high school classmates, both inside and outside of the classroom.

Though it is optional, students may also choose any academic teacher that they have had in the classroom during high school to submit a teacher recommendation. Generally, the committee on admission finds greater value in recommendations from an English teacher or from a teacher in a content area relevant to the applicant’s intended major.

Applicants may send in additional letters of recommendation from others who know the applicant well outside of the classroom. Each year, we receive helpful letters of recommendation from coaches, advisors, mentors, and managers at students’ places of employment. We welcome these recommendations as they help the committee on admission to learn more about who a student is beyond the classroom.

Academic & Disciplinary Standing

Students must be in good academic and disciplinary standing at their current institution.  As part of the application process, students are asked to answer questions related to disciplinary history.  Please be assured that such a history does not necessarily disqualify applicants from consideration for admission.  Students must immediately notify and update the College if there are changes to the information provided as part of their application.

PC students have always spoken up for what they believe in. Whether it be calling out instances of racism on campus in the past few years or protesting wars decades ago, we support our students’ activism and join with them to work towards resolutions and change. As such, there will be no consequences on the admission or enrollment of students who receive disciplinary action for participating in peaceful and constructive protests in support of the causes they hold dear.

Providence College reserves the right to withdraw an offer of admission if we learn of behavior that brings into question an admitted student’s honesty, maturity, or good moral character, or that would otherwise have caused us not to have extended an offer of admission.