Admissions 

With nearly 300 guests on the Downers Grove Campus, the official spring open house was a smashing success!

In just a few days, the Downers Grove campus will be holding the annual spring open house on Wednesday, April 22nd at 4:00 PM. The event is formally called the Health Professions Career Day.

If you are interested in learning more about Midwestern University's Glendale Campus, Saturday, October 11, 2008 is a great day to visit.

With the growing and aging population, and continued forecasts of physician shortages, MWU is once again stepping up to the plate to meet society's health care needs.

For those of you who enjoy online social networking, you know that Facebook is actually quite cool. Where else can you blend your personal, professional, and even political lives together and then share with your coworker, your neighbor, your best friend, and your boyfriend from the sixth grade? Definitely cool.

MWU was pleased to have a visible presence at the recent meeting of the National Association of Advisors to the Health Professions, which was held in Chicago last week. Admissions staff from both our Downers Grove and Glendale Campuses attended sessions and participated in the "Meet the Deans" event.

On Thursday, April 17, nearly 150 prospective students and their guests visited our Downers Grove Campus for the annual Spring Health Professions Open House. Each MWU college and program had an information table set up in the atrium of Littlejohn Hall to welcome the interested students and answer questions. The event also included panel discussions with current students and tours of campus.

In the past few weeks, MWU launched its annual direct marketing campaign for prospective students. The theme for the campaign is "Want to Treat Patients?" and this appears prominently in both the email and the postcards. If you did receive the email or postcard, I'm interested in your feedback.

MWU is pleased to announce that our new DVDs, "Views and Voices," have just been produced. Separate versions are available for each campus.

Today's guest blog comes from Wendy Kulpinski, Assistant Director of Admissions on the Downers Grove Campus, who provides an update on the current admissions cycle.

This week at our Downers Grove Campus, a third-party consultant is conducting focus groups of our interviewees, current students, faculty, and administrators about our public web site (www.midwestern.edu). We are asking people to evaluate our current site and offer their suggestions for improvements. The current site is probably about four or five years "old," so it is definitely time to reconsider its design, navigation, and features. Over the past two years, we have made some improvements, such as creating an improved virtual tour; simplifying the home page (with direct "clicks" to our degree programs at both campuses); adding InteractNow tools for accepted students; and, of course, piloting this blog.

The beginning of the calendar year gives us a good snapshot of our admissions cycle for summer or fall enrollment. Deadlines for many of our programs have already passed, while applications are still being accepted for our programs with rolling admissions. For all of our programs, the best advice I can give you is this: APPLY EARLY! This is the best way to ensure that your application file gets full and complete consideration in the process, and that you will be as competitive as possible for admission. And, overall, Midwestern University's applications continue to increase each year.

Yesterday on the Downers Grove Campus, the President hosted the annual Faculty/Staff Holiday Luncheon. Today's entry is a third-person account of this event written by our Director of Admissions, Michael Laken. It just goes to show, holiday wishes do come true.

Private health care education is not cheap. We believe the costs are well justified by the value received. This year and next, Midwestern University will contribute more than $1.5 million to our Need-Based Scholarship Program.

After several weeks of blogging, I realized that I haven't really introduced myself to you or given you an overview of what you will find on MWU Now. So, here goes.

Our Fall Health Professions Career Days were held at both of our campuses for prospective students.