By Olivia Wong
When “The Wall Street Journal” ranked Thomas Jefferson University number 48 out of 400 colleges in the United States, students and faculty were absolutely elated. The ranking was heavily reliant on the student experience, focusing on how the college added to the student’s success in both the present and the future. Instead of only focusing on salaries after graduation, this poll took at least 50 surveys from students at these colleges and factored in “student experience,” including diversity on campus, housing facilities, and learning outcomes.
“We were so incredibly proud when we got the news. Emails were flying around because we were sending it to everyone we knew, including the board and all of senior leadership. To be ranked in the top 50 is fantastic for Jefferson,” said President Susan Aldridge.
Jefferson’s small campus and high student-to-faculty ratio makes it a prime environment for close relationships with professors and accessible professional opportunities for both undergraduate students and alumni. Professors often go to Common Thread for lunch and support their students at sports games, and it is clear that they care about not only academic success, but also their students’ well-being and experience at college. Students on campus know each other from classes as well as extracurricular activities, so making long-lasting friendships is not difficult.
“My favorite part about Jefferson has to be the people. I love walking around campus and seeing everyone saying, “Hey” or “Good morning,” said junior class president Tyler Bartman.
President Aldridge spoke about the fact that the faculty here know their students by name and have a real connection with them. Instead of a 400 person lecture with two or three TAs leading a recitation, the courses are capped at 30 students. With her experience in working at five different universities, she has observed that this phenomenon is unique to Jefferson.
Source by Janice Han
Jefferson's small campus makes a great environment for students to connect with their community.
While President Aldridge has only been the interim president for about three months, she has big plans for the university. When asked about her goals for the future of Jefferson, she stated the following.
“I want to promote the university, the students, and faculty research. We have over 200 academic programs and over 10 different colleges. While people may know us through one well-known major like the PA program or architecture, people probably don’t know all of the unique academic programs. The more we promote the university, the more our students will be motivated to get involved.”
“We have to look at where we grow and how we grow, so I’ll be meeting with my enrollment management and marketing team in the following months. With our success, I want to answer essential questions, such as, ‘how many first-years should we bring in every year?’ That way, we can plan for the success of the students on campus now and as well as those joining us in the future.”
“We sit in a unique place in an enterprise, which is composed of Jefferson Health, Jefferson Health Plans, and Jefferson University. This enterprise is like a three-legged stool that makes up Jefferson. Within that structure, we have enormous opportunities for students to get involved. For example, 550 nurses were hired in Jefferson Health, and they were all Jefferson graduates. We need to take advantage of these connections and find new opportunities for our students.”
Jefferson will be 200 years old in 2024, marking a significant anniversary in the university’s history. Its distinctive history also comes with great responsibility to continue to improve as the school changes and improves. Currently, nearly half of the population on the East Falls campus are minorities, but there is always a call to increase diversity.
“...550 nurses were hired in Jefferson Health, and they were all Jefferson graduates.”
“When I visited the involvement fair, I was very proud of how diverse the campus is. To continue that trend, we have hired some extraordinary leaders to come into the enterprise to reflect the city and environment we are living in,” said President Aldridge.
This generation of students has come a long way by bouncing back from the pandemic, since the first year students spent most of their high school years online. Midterms season was a wake-up call for many students because it was the first time they had to double down and learn how to study. Although faculty office hours and peer tutoring are an extremely important part of academic success, President Aldridge believes participation in clubs and social life on campus is crucial. Due to the isolation that COVID-19 had brought, there is a need to engage with people in the community through common interests such as clubs, arts, and sports. Students are more likely to succeed in academics if they are involved on campus because they will be plugged into a community that supports their needs.
“I’m going to challenge students to attend at least one game for each of the seventeen Division II teams we have here,” said President Aldridge.
Now that Jefferson is ranked in the top 50 colleges, there is much room to improve, yet so much to be thankful for. This is an achievement that can continue to fan the flame of ambition for Jefferson and encourage the entire population to unite and work towards the future of the institution.
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