| Clarkson University Clarkson University is a small private University emphasizing Science & Engineering and Business. This combination makes us almost unique in the US. Clarkson is a nationally ranked University, among the top 120 overall in the latest US News & World Reports rankings, with several individual programs getting much higher ranking than that. Ranked #7 among small research universities. Administratively the University consists of three Schools: the School of Business, the Coulter School of Engineering, and the School of Arts & Sciences. The University population of approximately 2700 undergraduates, 500 graduate students and close to 200 faculty is culturally diverse, especially among our faculty and graduate students – every test-playing cricket country is represented! Our students are successful: The placement rate for our BS graduates is 98%, which is among the highest in the US, and with starting salaries averaging over $50,000. Over 120 companies visited campus last year alone for active recruiting of our students. The University is fully accredited by the Middle States Commission. All our engineering programs have full ABET accreditation; the business programs including our MBAs are AACSB accredited, and the DPT program is accredited by CAPTE. Our Location Clarkson is located in the very small town of Potsdam in the far north of New York State. Potsdam has a population of under 10,000 and is almost completely crime-free, a very safe place to live and work. Potsdam lies between the Adirondack Mountains and the St. Lawrence River, which separates the US from Canada. The nearest big cities are Montreal and Ottawa in Canada, and Burlington (VT) and Syracuse (NY). New York City is about 6 hours drive from Potsdam. There are three other Universities within about 10 miles, each with its own special strengths. These combine to give a rich cultural environment. The climate in Potsdam is very different from most of India! We have four seasons: cold winter with plenty of sun and snow and temperatures that are often below 0C even in the daytime, often beautiful spring, sunny, warm-not-hot summer with temperatures around 30C, colorful and mild autumn (or fall) when the leaves on the trees turn to all shades of yellow, gold and red. Programs Clarkson has about 40 undergraduate (Bachelors) degree programs in all areas of engineering, the mathematical, computer, physical and life sciences, the humanities and social sciences, and business. Pre-professional programs help students who wish to go on to professional graduate studies in medicine and other health disciplines, or law. In particular we have our own DPT (Doctor of Physical Therapy) program. Admissions to these undergraduate programs has been rising rapidly. Our programs are not all in the traditional disciplines. Clarkson emphasizes teamwork and this extends to our multidisciplinary programs which span the boundaries between conventional subjects. Good examples of this are the degree programs in Engineering & Management, Digital Arts & Sciences, Financial Information & Analysis, Software Engineering, Biomolecular Science, Information Systems & Business Processes. Graduate Programs Financial Concerns As a private university our tuition fees are higher than at some state schools – but there is very substantial financial aid available, and Potsdam is one of the least expensive places in which to live in the entire USA. Full-time Undergraduate tuition is approximately $30,000 per year with housing, meals and other expenses around another $10,000. A variety of Financial Aid packages are available to undergraduate students. Graduate tuition is approximately (a little more than) $1000 per credit. Typically graduate students take 10 – 12 credit hours per semester, so the total graduate tuition is between $20,000 and $25,000 per year. Again, overall living expenses are about another $10,000. ALL graduate students are eligible for merit-based partial tuition assistantships or scholarships which can cover up to 40% of the tuition cost. There is also a growing, though still relatively small, number of Research or Teaching Assistantships, especially in the sciences and engineering. These carry a stipend of approximately $22,000 per year and a 100% tuition waiver. Strengths The overall strengths of the University are illustrated by the national rankings mentioned above (which are remarkable for a small institution), by the success of our student in their careers (both in terms of initial placement and long-term achievement), and by the level of external funding for our faculty’s research activities. In the last year that external research funding totaled approximately $20M – for a faculty with fewer than 200 full-time members. Clarkson is often known as an Engineering school, but the research strengths are much broader than that suggests. Among our world-class research centers are the Center for Advanced Materials Processing, the Center for the Environment (which now includes a major thrust in renewable energy research), and the Center for Rehabilitation Engineering, Science and Technology. All of these rely heavily on multidisciplinary contributions from faculty in the Sciences and Engineering, often also involving faculty form Health Science, Political Science, and Business. All of these focus areas are supported by a significant strength in Computational Science & Engineering that involves faculty across almost all departments. The primary focus areas for the School of Business are in Supply Chain management and Innovation & Entrepreneurship. In summary, Clarkson is a small, private, highly technically oriented University with a very strong reputation and rankings. We have excellent faculty and students who then go on to successful careers. The location is very peaceful, but with plenty to do, in a rural setting with easy access to several cities with a variety of cultural characteristics. Peter Turner Peter Turner is Dean of Arts and Sciences at Clarkson University, a position he has held since July 2008. He grew up in England – in the Liverpool area in the Beatles era. He received his B.Sc. (Honors) in Mathematics in 1970 and his Ph.D in Pure Mathematics in 1973, both from the University of Sheffield. After a year as a postdoc in Applied Mathematics at Sheffield, he joined the faculty of the University of Lancaster as a Lecturer in Numerical Analysis. During this time his research interests developed to include systems of computer arithmetic. In 1987, Turner moved to the U.S. Naval Academy where he stayed as a Professor of Mathematics until 2002. At the naval Academy, Turner received awards for both his teaching and his research. He was also named to the first USNA Teaching Fellowship in 2000. He moved to Clarkson in 2002 as Chair of Mathematics and Computer Science. During this time he was responsible for the creation of the new BS degree program in Digital Arts & Sciences and for other program innovations. As Dean of Arts & Sciences at Clarkson he has responsibility for all teaching and degree programs in a wide range of areas including communication and media, the humanities and social sciences, as well as the physical and life sciences, mathematics, computer science and the growing range of health science programs. He has published four undergraduate texts in scientific computing, edited three volumes of conference proceedings, (co-)authored more than 40 research papers, and served on national committees for SIAM. Recently he has been named the inaugural Editor-in-Chief of SIAM Undergraduate Research Online (SIURO) a new publication which focuses on the best of undergraduate research in applied and computational mathematics. In January 2009, Turner also took the position of SIAM Vice President for Education. |