Dean College

Dean College in Franklin, Massachusetts, is quintessential New England campus in a quintessential New England town. Formerly a junior college, Dean still grants associate’s degrees, but only to about 4% of its students. 1100 students come from 36 states and 17 countries. 35% are students of color, 35% are student athletes, and 35% or more are neurodiverse. 7% of the students are international, and they would like that number to increase. 90% of students live on campus, and most of the remaining 10% are commuters. It’s pricey to rent in Franklin, so only a very small number of seniors choose to live off campus.

The arts are very big here with BFA programs in Dance, Musical Theatre, and Acting. There are also bachelor’s degrees in Arts Leadership, Dance, Dance Science, and Theatre, with tracks in Performance, Production and Design, and General Theatre. There are performances almost every weekend, which students and Franklin residents enjoy; town gown relations are excellent, and about 75% of students stay on campus on weekends. Freshmen cannot have cars on campus, but the commuter rail is a 3-minute walk, and the train brings students to Boston in less than an hour.

Dean also has a partnership with the Kraft Group at Gillette Stadium 15-20 minutes away; it’s the first college to partner with an NFL team. Kraft guarantees a guaranteed internship for one Dean student per semester, but typically up to seven students secure them each semester. While the Sports Management and Sports Broadcasting majors enjoy these internships, Business, Marketing, Exercise Science, and even Criminal Justice majors do as well; the latter partner with Foxboro’s security team.

Dean has extremely strong support for LD/ND students, including a fee-based academic support program which is in its 25th year - this is what Dean does well. This program includes early move-in, specialized core classes, one-on-one academic coaching three times per week for the first year, specialized academic advising, and an optional living and learning community. About 15-20% of all Dean students are in this program.

Dean also has a newer comprehensive social skills support program which is in its third year. This also includes early move-in, as well as weekly small group social skills-building sessions, specialized success and career advising, weekly evening study collaborative, weekly social skills programming, and an optional living and learning community.

Dean accepts about 74% of students who apply, and we were told that a student with a GPA of under 2.0 is hard to admit. Merit scholarships peak at $35K, the average is $30K.  I’ll finish with this: on my tour, I noticed that Dean students were among the nicest I have encountered in all my years of college visits. And that says a lot.