Pine Manor College

Pine Manor College
Latin: Pineae Manoris Collegii
Motto	Aymez Loyaute (Love Loyalty)
Established	1911
Type	Private liberal arts
Endowment	$13 Million [1]
President	Dr. Alane K. Shanks
Academic staff	66
Students	480
Location	Chestnut Hill, MA, USA
Campus	Suburban (60 acres)
Nickname	Gators
Affiliations	NCAA DIII
Website	www.pmc.edu

Pine Manor College (PMC) is a private, liberal arts women's college located in Chestnut Hill, a suburb of Boston, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1911 and currently serves almost 500 students, 75% of whom live on the 60-acre (240,000 m²) campus.

Most diverse

PMC was rated the nation's most racially diverse liberal arts college by U.S. News and World Reports, with only 13% of the student body identifying themselves as white (Zezima 2010).

The school also promotes diversity of social classes: Three out of five students qualify for Pell Grants, non-repayable federal funds given to low-income students (Khadaroo 2010). Two-thirds of students are from Massachusetts; one quarter are from other states, and the remaining students are from outside the country (Princeton Review).

Admissions

Admissions relies less on SAT-I scores or grade point averages, and more on the applicants' life experiences, with an emphasis on perseverance in the face of adversity (Zezima 2010). The average grade point average from high school was 2.4 (Princeton Review).

Costs

Although a private college, PMC's total cost is about two-thirds of what private colleges in New England typically charge (Khadaroo 2010). Most students receive some form of financial aid (Zezima 2010).

Academics

PMC offers nine majors: Biology, business administration, communications, English, history and culture, liberal studies, psychology, social and political systems, and visual arts.

Upon graduation, students receive the Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Science, Associate of Arts, or the Associate of Science.

Within each major, students can pick their own concentration from a list of more than 50 options.[2] For example, a student majoring in English can concentrate on creative writing or English education, while a student majoring in visual arts can concentrate on graphic design. According to the Princeton Review, the most popular majors at Pine Manor are business administration, communications, and psychology (Princeton Review).

PMC also offers a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing. Students in PMC's low-residency MFA Program may concentrate in fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, or writing for children and young adults.

Pine Manor alumnae represent 60 countries and all 50 U.S. states.

Athletics

PMC is a Division III member of the NCAA. Students compete in the Great Northeast Athletic Conference in the sports of basketball, cross country, lacrosse, softball, soccer, tennis, and volleyball. The mascot is the Gator.

History

Pine Manor College, originally Pine Manor Junior College, was part of the Dana Hall School in Wellesley center. In 1965 it moved to a 78-acre (320,000 m²) estate in Chestnut Hill. The estate, then known as Roughwood, was the residence of Ernest B. Dane. E.B. Dane was president of the Brookline Savings and Trust. Many of the school's buildings are original to the estate and have been renovated to accommodate the college.

The women's college was founded in 1911, at a time when even wealthy women were generally denied access to higher education, except at women-only institutions (Zezima 2010). Faced with declining enrollment in the 1990s, PMC decided to market itself to underrepresented and underprivileged women, who might not otherwise have the opportunity to attend college. Since then, enrollment has doubled (Zezima 2010).

Notable people

• Joan Wallace-Benjamin, former trustee
• Frederick Carlos Ferry, Jr., former president (1956–1974)
• Karyn Kupcinet, actor
• Dennis Lehane, author and a director of Pine Manor's MFA program
• Hillary B. Smith, Daytime Emmy-winning actor
• Pauline Tompkins, alumna and first female president of Cedar Crest College
• Dorothy McGuire, alumna and Academy Award-nominated actress
• Wendy Diamond, Television personality and founder and editor-in-chief of Animal Fair magazine
• Busty Heart, Entertainer and strip club owner, former stripper
• Alison (Cunha) Fornash, alumna, former Admissions Counselor, writer, "Boston's Best Blogger"

References

• Khadaroo, Stacy Teicher (13 December 2010). "How a College President Toppled the Ivory Tower". Christian Science Monitor. http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2010/1213/How-a-college-president-toppled-the-ivory-tower. 
• "Report on Pine Manor College". The Princeton Review. http://www.princetonreview.com/college/research/profiles/schoolsays.asp?category=1&listing=1024011&LTID=1. Retrieved 15 December 2010. 
• Zezima, Kate (30 May 2010). "Chestnut Hill Journal: Women’s Colleges Shift Gaze to Less Well-Off". The New York Times (The New York Times Company). http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/30/education/30pinemanor.html. Retrieved 2010-05-30. 

External links

• Pine Manor College
• Pine Manor Athletics