M I L L SA P S Unexpected stories and fairly comprehensive information about a college that’s bigger than it looks.
We’re 1,100 students on a 100-acre campus in the capital city of Mississippi. We’re one of the only liberal arts colleges in the country with a Phi Beta Kappa chapter and an AACSB-accredited business school. We’re also one of only 40 colleges profiled in Colleges That Change Lives. We own a 4,000-acre biocultural reserve in Mexico, where students and faculty do cutting-edge interdisciplinary research. We develop and lead our own study abroad programs on nearly every continent. And we do untold hours of service and internships, locally and globally. Also, we like to hold big parties with boiled crawfish and live music and games and invite everyone we know. What do you call a college like that? You call it Millsaps.
FACTS 55% from beyond (sometimes way beyond) Mississippi 34 majors, 41 minors 10-to-1 student to faculty ratio 15 students in the average class 94% of faculty hold highest degree in their field 100% of seniors take comprehensive exams 50% of students study abroad 50% of faculty regularly teach or research abroad 0 student-run clubs 8 and organizations 18 NCAA Division III teams Over 90% of the most recent entering class received financial aid 94% of recent graduating classes report being employed or in graduate school within six months of graduation 96% of our alums would recommend Millsaps to a prospective student
Two of the many students (and one of the many professors) who do research in the Helen Moyers Biocultural Reserve in Yucatán, Mexico, somewhat incongruously talking about their experiences. Aubin: “We’d start at the crack of dawn, setting out mist nets to catch and identify birds and setting up trail cameras. On my last day there, we captured an image of a female jaguar. I think I stopped breathing.” Evan: “For the past two years, I’ve helped conduct excavations of a Mayan hilltop compound. When we got to the bottom floor, we saw signs that the site had been abandoned quickly. That’s very rare. My research tries to determine the rate of abandonment.” George: “He gave a paper on it at a conference of the Society for American Archaeology. He was the only undergraduate there.”
Photo © Kendall Messick
Photo © Kendall Messick
Aubin: “You get these opportunities . . . Another student and I collected medicinal herbs and plants with a Mayan guide for an herbarium in Yucatán’s capital. And before I went to Yucatán, I did a field course on the Galápagos Islands. It was like living in a nature documentary.” Evan: “Right now I’m choosing between two graduate programs in archaeology; both are offering full scholarships. They see the work I’ve done, and they know what it means.” Aubin: “You can’t learn everything in the classroom. You have to go out and do it.”
EVAN PARKER
senior, anthropology major
GEORGE BEY
anthropology professor and Associate Dean of International Education
AUBIN ST. CLAIR junior, biology major
A visit to Christie Campbell’s internship at the office of Dr. Manisha Sethi, with offstage commentary by Darby Ray. Christie: “I’ve always wanted to be a doctor. But I’ve had doubts. Am I tough enough? Can I handle the role? Going into the internship, I thought, ‘This will give me some answers.’” Darby: “There are a lot of ways to get internships here. Christie got hers through the Faith and Work Initiative. Students take a hard-core interdisciplinary course about the meaning of work, and then we find them an internship and a mentor in their chosen field. And the College counts that experience as an academic course.” Christie: “I had a strong faith coming into this. The course made me critically analyze what I’m doing. What am I leaning on? Why do I think what I think? And then the internship—it’s been the most amazing experience. Dr. Sethi has been the greatest mentor.” Darby: “She’s actually a Millsaps graduate. We’re very choosy about our mentors. They have to be at the top of their game, and they have to have the disposition to mentor the next generation in their field and to serve the public good. Which actually describes a lot of our graduates.” Christie: “Now I’m in the final round of the Rural Physicians Program For Undergraduates. It gives you a four-year scholarship to medical school, and in return you work for four years in a health facility in a rural area. That’s exactly what I want.” Dr. Sethi: “It has been a true blessing to be able to participate in Christie’s journey of fulfilling her life’s dream of becoming a physician. As a Millsaps graduate myself, I am so pleased to see our College assisting students in finding their passion in life. My door will always be open to the students of Millsaps College.”
DR. MANISHA SETHI (’94) founder, Internal Medicine and Pediatric Associates, Ridgeland, MS
CHRISTIE CAMPBELL
sophomore, biology major, chemistry minor
DARBY RAY (not pictured) religious studies professor, director of the Millsaps Faith and Work Initiative
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A chat with four members of the Student Body Association painting signs in their office in the Student Center. JAMI PITTMAN
junior, SBA executive board, psychology major
ALEX LAWSON
Jami: “The signs are to get people to come to the last Senate meeting of the year.” Alex: “The meetings are always open to everyone, but the last meeting is more of an event. The Secretary is making cookies.”
sophomore, SBA executive director of programming, business administration major
Laura: “We’ve got a $250,000 budget; we give it to groups that benefit all students. So we make a difference in pretty much everyone’s experience here.”
LAURA DOMINGUE
Abed: “We have the power to make positive progress. We deal with issues that really matter—sustainability, technology, and yes, better food. We don’t take our responsibility lightly.”
ABED HADDAD
Jami: “And we do programming of our own. Probably my favorite event last year was the 10-minute rave in the library during finals. We gave out glow sticks, turned the music up, and went crazy for 10 minutes.”
junior, SBA president, business and economics double major
freshman, SBA senator, chemistry major
Alex: “What was amazing is that when it was over, everyone went right back to work.” Laura: “No stragglers.” Jami: “No stragglers. It’s that kind of place. Throw a rave, get back to work. In high school I was voted ‘quirkiest.’ That’s not a problem here.”
Extreme experience. Theirs and yours. Four (of eight!) students in Greg Miller’s Core 5 class, reflecting on tutoring Sudanese refugees. JULIE TRUDEL
Julie: “We’re working with people who’ve come from an extreme experience— the most extreme I’ve ever known.”
TAYLOR TIDWELL
Taylor: “There’s a small community—maybe 50 people—of Sudanese refugees in Jackson. We’re helping them with their English skills, but really they’re helping us understand their country, their culture, and what they’ve been through.”
sophomore, Spanish major
sophomore, math major
CHELSEY OVERSTREET
sophomore, religious studies major
JAKE WARREN
sophomore, English and communications double major
Chelsey: “Part of the time we spend with them is interviewing them and documenting their experience. This is living history.” Jake: “In class we cover a lot of ground: economics, history, folk tales, literature. My final research paper is about the growing influence of China on Sudan.” Julie: “It’s interesting: a lot of Dinka folk tales seem violent to a Western reader. A lot of body parts get eviscerated, people turn into lions and do terrible things. But everything turns out all right in the end. We want it to end that way in real life, too.”
SARAH HARTZOG (’11) senior, accounting and Spanish double major
RECENT FULBRIGHT SCHOLARS: Chelsi West (’08) Nadia AlHashimi (’10)
Emily Tuberville (’11) Sarah Hartzog (’11)
Five deep thoughts from a Fulbright Scholar who knows her business. “In the last two years I’ve been to Mexico four times—for classes, on a grant from Millsaps, on an internship. It’s the kind of experience that brings together everything I’ve done at Millsaps.” “I was interning with a management team at a factory in Merida, working on new projects practically every day. The owner—who’s actually a professor at a university in Texas— would say, ‘This is what we’re doing tomorrow, go home and research it.’ And I realized I wasn’t just helpful—I was necessary. That’s when I knew I was in the right place.” “When you put a business school in a liberal arts college, you have to focus on the bigger picture. How does your work fit into a business—and a society? And there’s so much emphasis on problem-solving. If you’re not creative, how will you come up with a new solution?” “Professors here know what they’re talking about. Harvey Fiser was a practicing attorney for years; Kim Burke audited oil and gas companies. They teach from experience.” “Everything you learn builds a better you.”
T H E FA I R LY COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE TO
M I L L SA P S (If you wanted the most comprehensive guide to Millsaps, you’d come visit us. Not a bad idea!)
ACADEMICS THE CORE Ten classes, lots of options, full coverage
THE WRITING PROGRAM Home to our nation-
of the human experience. Core 1 is an intensive seminar in critical thinking, focusing on a range of specialized topics (the concept of beauty, urban living, digital experience). The classes in Core 2-5 explore the humanities in one of two ways: Heritage, a team-taught survey of world culture and history; or IDST, an interdisciplinary examination of single topics (“Everything Bad is Good for You”; “Science and the Problem of Induction in the Modern World”) in great depth. Core 6-9 take you through the social sciences, the physical sciences, math, and economics. Core 10 is a reflective, research-driven capstone experience.
ally recognized Writing Across the Curriculum initiative (i.e. writing not just in English classes but across all disciplines) and our student-staffed Writing Center. The Writing Program also oversees one of our graduation requirements: a portfolio of your written work. Ask any leader in any profession about the importance of writing, and you’ll see why it’s important to us.
COMPS We’re one of a select few colleges in the country that requires every senior to take comprehensive written and oral exams in their major field. Isn’t this the kind of thing you’d usually do in a master’s or Ph.D. program? It is. (Not coincidentally, about 70% of our alumni eventually get a graduate or professional degree.) We just think it’s the right thing to do: take stock of everything you’ve learned, analyze it, talk about it intelligently.
PRE-PROFESSIONAL PROGRAMS We have an unusually long list of programs (engineering, medicine, health, law, ministry, and public management), and the advisory boards for each program are unusually engaged with students. Faculty advisors might host a meal with students and local alumni, for example—and suddenly you’re networking in your field.
FORD TEACHING FELLOWSHIPS A selective intensive mentorship in college-level teaching. Ford Fellows receive funding for travel and research, teaching opportunities, and—crucially—a working relationship with a faculty mentor.
THE ELSE SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT Yes, a nationally known AACSB-accredited business school in a liberal arts college. It’s intentionally interdisciplinary, deeply engaged with the local community (through service and internships), and committed to entrepreneurial thinking and hands-on experience. Every business major takes the Millsaps core and the Else core; seniors take casebased coursework that addresses major issues in the field; the capstone experience is a business simulation. Plus, stick around one more year and you can earn your M.B.A.
PHI BETA KAPPA The most prestigious academic honor society in America; we have the state’s first chapter. We also have chapters of national honor societies in nearly every field of study, including Beta Gamma Sigma. It’s a very public way of saying that thinking matters, and we honor great thinking.
MAJORS A lot of students double major; and a lot of students put together major/minor combinations (geology and philosophy, say) that would seem odd anywhere else, but make complete sense at Millsaps. Good news, parents: you can do all of this AND graduate in four years.
MAJORS Accounting Art: Art History Art: Studio Art Biochemistry Biology Business Administration Chemistry Classical Studies Communications Computer Science Computer Information Systems Economics Education English European Studies French Geology History
Latin American Studies Mathematics Mathematics: Applied Mathematics Music Neuroscience and Cognitive Studies Philosophy Philosophy: Religious Studies Physics Political Science Psychology Public Management Religious Studies Religious Studies: Sociology/Anthropology Self-Designed Major Sociology/Anthropology Spanish
Photo © Kendall Messick
EXPERIENCE STUDY ABROAD More than half of our students study abroad; about the same percentage of faculty conduct research or lead Millsaps-only courses abroad; and a growing number of our students are international. One result: in almost every class, you’ll be working with students or faculty with serious global experience. Another result: you’ll probably be one of those students.
MAKING IT PERSONAL Our programs aren’t about sightseeing or clubbing. It happens; sometimes we make it happen; but the point of our programs is to study a place by living deeply within it. We establish meaningful ties with the local community, conduct ongoing research, and try to follow the rhythm of the local culture, work alongside local residents, and see their lives clearly.
AN INCREASINGLY COMMON STORY Nadia AlHashimi came to Millsaps from Franklinton, Louisiana. She joined Professor Galaty’s program in Albania’s Shala Valley, came back and did intensive research on the region, then returned to the valley on an independent sixweek trip, living and working with families and conducting research for her thesis. In 2010, she won a Fulbright Scholarship (the nation’s premier grant for post-graduate
international study) to conduct similar research with Bedouin families in Jordan.
A FEW OF OUR EXCLUSIVE, FACULTY-LED STUDY ABROAD PROGRAMS Applied Ecological Design (Yucatán) Black Star Rising: Ghana and the Making of Modern Africa Field Biology in the Ecuadorian Andes Global Business in Latin America Greek Civilization Field Studies History and Archaeology of Ancient “Israel” The History and Psychology of Food (London/Paris) International Sports Economics (Florence/Munich) Poetry, Painting, and Paris Roman Society in Cultural Context Summer in China Up from the Ashes: Nation- and Identity-Building in Albania Vietnam: More Than Just a War
THE HELEN MOYERS BIOCULTURAL INTERNSHIPS Our students take them in the city, the reRESERVE Four thousand acres in Mexico’s Yucatán Penin- gion, and around the world, sometimes with a small stipend, sula, featuring an off-the-grid research station and ongoing projects in (and across) biology, anthropology, business, you name it. Our students are there year-round, for weeks or months at a time, doing important, innovative fieldwork and research.
RESEARCH We take an entrepreneurial approach to research. If someone—a professor or a student—has a great idea, we jump on it. [With 15 students in the average class and a 10-to-1 student to faculty ratio, everyone is expected to a) have great ideas and b) jump on them.] Our faculty in the sciences, for example, publish an impressive number of articles in major journals; and an astonishing percentage of those papers are co-authored by students. Being across from Mississippi’s academic hospital provides real-world opportunities.
sometimes for academic credit. Important note: these aren’t coffee-making, resume-padding positions; they’re a chance to do real work in a field that matters to you. Equally important note: it helps that we’re in Jackson. We’re a phone call away from the state’s political, financial, and cultural leaders; and they take our calls (and some of them are alumni).
THE MILLSAPS FAITH AND WORK INITIATIVE Another Millsaps-only program: an opportunity to explore the meaning of life by exploring the meaning of work. Students enroll in an intensive interdisciplinary course (called, yes, “The Meaning of Work”), take a handpicked internship with an approved mentor, and meet to reflect and write about their experience. The initiative also offers focused vocational counseling and hosts career exploration events with regional and national firms and nonprofits.
ON CAMPUS ATHLETICS Our NCAA Division III athletic pro-
STUDENT ORGANIZATIONS We have
gram features storied rivalries (in football, the Backyard Brawl is played against our crosstown rival); recent championships in football, baseball, and softball, in the tough Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference; and a little trailblazing (our men’s and women’s lacrosse program is the first in the state). Facilities include the Hangar Dome (1,500 seats); Harper Davis Field (3,000 seats and a Sprinturf surface); and the 63,330-squarefoot Hall Activities Center, featuring a fitness center, a cardiotheater and aerobics room, fitness and weight training equipment, an outdoor pool, and three racquetball/handball courts.
more than 80. You’ll notice a lot of acronyms in the (abridged!) list below. We don’t call anything by its full name if we can help it. We don’t have time.
NCAA DIVISION III TEAMS Baseball Basketball (W, M) Cross-country (W, M) Football Golf (W, M) Lacrosse (W, M)
Soccer (W, M) Softball Tennis (W, M) Track and Field (W, M) Volleyball
Black Student Association CALLS (Considering a Life of Leadership and Service) Campus Ministry Team Catholic Student Association Cycling Club EARTH (Environmental Activists Ready To Help) Family and Friends Pride Coalition Fencing Club Islamic Student Organization Jewish Culture Organization Major Melodies Major Noise Majorly Dramatic Millsaps Masala/Diwali Millsaps Quizbowl Team Outdoor Adventure Club
Political Science Club Psychology Club The Purple and White (newspaper) Secular Society SLACKER (Society for Learning All Cosmic Knowledge of Epistemology and Religion) Spanish Club Speech and Debate Club SBA (Student Body Association) Students for Life Students for Global Citizenship The Stylus (literary magazine) Swim Club United Nations Association
SERVICE A huge presence on campus. Nearly every student club has a service component. Incoming students can join Challenge, our five-day, service-based orientation program in Jackson, the Delta, and the Gulf Coast; or live in Wellspring, a service-focused living and learning community run by their (slightly older) peers. Our student-run Campus Ministry Team organizes service trips and task forces throughout the city. Our 1 Campus 1 Community (1C1C) program establishes long-term relationships with local organizations to support long-term change. 1C1C recently won a Governor’s Award for its partnership with nearby Brown Elementary School; every classroom at Brown was adopted by a student group at Millsaps.
THE GREEK SYSTEM We’re proud to have a strong Greek system: about half of our students are members of a fraternity or sorority, and some chapters are more than 100 years old. We’re especially proud that it’s not the standard Greek system. Chapters are campus leaders in service hours; they work together, they borrow from each other; they delay recruitment (so no one feels pressured); and most of their social events, by custom and by choice, are open to all.
EVENTS Lectures, concerts, gallery openings, film screenings, all-campus throwdowns (like the week-long, spring-fever Major Madness)—frankly, we do too much.
REUBEN’S The secret heart of residential life: a grill, a few rooms, a porch, open till 2 a.m. Burgers, pizzas, wraps, nachos, sweet potato fries, and an alarming caramel-topped thing called The Elvis.
TRADITIONS Such as The M Bench: if you kiss on the old stone bench in the shape of a wavy M, on a full moon, at midnight, you’ll marry. Or Fourth Night, a special celebration to welcome students to the Millsaps community. Or Caf’ sitting, which is less a tradition and more of a sport: sitting in the Caf’ long, long after your meal is done, talking about everything. We’re social creatures.
J A C K S O N, M S JACKSON is the capital of Mississippi. It’s big
FONDREN Fondren is a lively neighborhood to the
enough to be substantial (500,000 people in the metro area) but small enough that you know your neighbor and can get something started. Jackson has an excellent art museum, a natural history museum, an opera, an orchestra, and some very fine dining; it also has a great music scene (Hal and Mal’s, F. Jones Corner), plus great ribs, burgers, fried catfish, and other fried things, including fried Twinkies at the annual State Fair. There’s a high concentration of smart young people (30,000 students in the aforementioned metro area), a strong entrepreneurial spirit (there’s a homegrown indie film festival; Jeff Good, a Millsaps alumnus, has opened three different restaurants), and a general air of uncomplicated human kindness. People here think creatively about how to make a great small city even better, and they’re not averse to throwing a huge parade (Mal’s St. Paddy’s Day Parade and Festival, the Zippity Doo Dah Parade, etc.) just to celebrate the pleasure of being together right here.
north of Millsaps. It’s home to shops, cafés, galleries, restaurants (tapas, sushi, new American), a natural food market, and a lot of lovingly preserved or thoughtfully re-purposed architecture (a yoga studio in a former gas station, a lunch spot in a former dry cleaners). It’s unexpected, unpretentious, irrepressible.
CONNECTED Everyone in Jackson knows Millsaps, and everyone at Millsaps knows Jackson; we’re connected to the city’s (and the state’s) leaders in business, culture, and politics. That’s helpful in a way that most people can easily imagine; what’s exciting is that it’s also helpful in ways you can’t imagine yet.
Jackson, Mississippi A brief tour
A FEW OF OUR FAVORITE THINGS Keifer’s,
ROAD TRIPS The lush, lovely Natchez Trace Park-
just down the street, has quick and good Middle Eastern food, with a deck. The Eudora Welty House, in the Belhaven neighborhood just across the street; Welty used to be a regular on our campus, and her biographer is one of our professors. The Rez, a recreation area alongside a huge reservoir just outside of the city. Lefleur’s Bluff State Park camping grounds. The Old Capitol in downtown Jackson, now a surprisingly engaging museum; the handsome restoration was overseen by architect Bob Adams, a Millsaps alumnus. Come see for yourself.
way runs right through Jackson; so does the historic Mississippi Blues Trail. Mississippi is beautiful all around, really: you’ve got easy access to the beaches of the Gulf Coast, Okatoma River (actually a Class 1 river, great for canoeing and tubing), the legendary bike trails on Longleaf Trace in South Mississippi. Plus, New Orleans is a three-hour drive. Memphis is three hours and change.
AFTER MILLSAPS CAREER CENTER An invaluable resource at every stage of your life at Millsaps. Two offices (one in the Campbell Center, one in the Else School), a professional staff, print and electronic resources, and a long list of career fairs, networking events, and on-campus recruitment sessions. Also: one-on-one counseling, group workshops, and sound advice about graduate school, internships, and employment—not as isolated events, but as part of a comprehensive vision of the life you’re making for yourself.
WHAT WILL YOU DO WITH THAT DEGREE? The short answer: everything. The long answer is the story of our alumni, who have found meaningful work in every field, in communities around the world. Following are a few recent job placements. Alaska Wildlife Adventures The American Institute for Research BlueCross BlueShield Coca-Cola Enterprises Entergy Ernst & Young FBI
Horne LLP KPMG Reznick Group SAKS, Inc. Trustmark Wells Fargo Financial Le Ministére de France
A FEW NOTABLE ALUMNI Rodney Bartlett (’66), winner, American Chemical Society Award in Theoretical Chemistry Betsy Bradley (’84), director, Mississippi Museum of Art Will Flatt (’97), COO, Parkway Properties Jeff Good (’86), founder and co-owner, Bravo, Broad Street, Sal & Mookies James Graves (’75), judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit Casey Parks (’05), journalist, The Oregonian Randall Pinkston (’73) correspondent, CBS News Larry Goodpaster (’70) president, Council of Bishops, United Methodist Church Robert Robbins (’79) professor, Cardiothoracic Surgery, Stanford
GRADUATE AND PROFESSIONAL SCHOOL About 70% of our alumni eventually pursue a graduate or professional degree. Alumni who start a program within a year after graduation study in these fields: arts and sciences (44%), law (21%), business (15%), medicine (14%), and education (6%). Those numbers tell you something about our alumni: they’re focused, they’re qualified, and they’re not easy to categorize. Below are a few recent graduate school placements. Clemson University Emory University Florida State University Harvard University Howard University Johns Hopkins University Louisiana State University New York University The Ohio State University Princeton University Texas A&M University
Tulane University University of Alabama University of Chicago University of Houston University of Miami University of Mississippi Medical Center University of Pittsburgh University of Virginia Vanderbilt University
ADMISSIONS AND F I NA N C I A L A I D ADMISSIONS We’re looking for students who are
HOW TO APPLY You may use the Common Ap-
restless but not lost, ambitious but not ruthless, openminded but not gullible. We’re looking for students who expect more of themselves and who give more of themselves to others. We’re looking for students who see opportunities everywhere, who create new opportunities if they don’t see any, and who believe college is not a fixed set of programs but a web of possibilities that is roughly the size of the universe.
plication or the Millsaps College Preferred Application to apply online to Millsaps. Both applications include an essay, official copies of your high school or college transcript, official copies of your ACT or SAT scores, and a teacher recommendation. Students for whom English is a second language should submit results from the TOEFL or IELTS. Additional required documents include the Secondary School Report (for high school applicants) and the College Official’s Report (for transfer applicants).
FINANCIAL AID Our financial aid program is generous—aggressively so. Over 90% of the most recent entering class received financial aid. We offer two kinds of aid: merit-based (to honor the achievement and the promise of incoming students) and need-based (to support high-achieving, promising students who demonstrate financial need). Our goal is to make Millsaps affordable and accessible to the students we’ve admitted. Our alumni will tell you that a Millsaps education is an investment with immediate practical benefits and a lasting, profound effect on the course of your life.
For the most current deadlines, an updated calendar of admission events (at least one of which relies heavily on fried catfish), and detailed information about visiting, start here: www.millsaps.edu/admissions.
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HISTORICAL NOTE Millsaps was founded in 1890 by Major Reuben Webster Millsaps, who graduated from Harvard Law School and attained the rank of major in the Civil War. Major Millsaps’ founding grant was matched by contributions from Mississippi Methodists. Millsaps College celebrates its connection with the United Methodist Church. At a prominent (yet somehow modest) place on campus, you’ll find a statue of John Wesley, the founder of Methodism; the plaque at its base features one of his bestknown sayings:
“Do all the good you can, By all the means you can, In all the ways you can, In all the places you can, At all the times you can, To all the people you can, As long as ever you can.” When we say we’re United Methodist connected, we mean we’re proud to hold ourselves to that standard.
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Millsaps College Office of Admissions 1701 North State Street Jackson, MS 39210-0001 (800) 352-1050 admissions@millsaps.edu www.millsaps.edu
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