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Transfer Thursdays

We're excited to have prospective transfer students at our Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, campus! Transfer Thursday appointments are meant for transfer students interested in our traditional day program , which offers 75+ undergraduate majors. If you are interested in one of our online, accelerated degree programs through the School of Graduate and Professional Studies, you will find information on our  Etown College SGPS website. To register for a campus visit, you can view available time slots using the calendar.  If there are no available times that fit your schedule, please contact us at [email protected] or 717-361-1400.

* Please email your unofficial college transcript(s) as soon as possible to  [email protected]  so we can prepare your personalized transfer credit evaluation before your visit.

Visits begin at the Office of Admissions located at  348 East College Ave, Elizabethtown, PA 17022.   Parking is available in the lot behind our office (entrance on South Mt Joy St).  Please check out our campus map . What to expect during your visit:

• You will have the opportunity for an individualized campus tour focused on your academic and personal interests.
• If available, you will meet with a faculty member from your desired academic major.
• You will meet with an Admissions Transfer Coordinator to review the transfer process, discuss credit transfer and your degree plan, and learn about scholarships and need-based financial aid available to transfer students.

We look forward to meeting you and showing you what being a Blue Jay is like!

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Elizabethtown College Hosts Fourth Annual Video Festival Event for Local High Schoolers

May 30, 2024 | Academics & Research , Arts & Culture , Campus & Community

Elizabethtown College’s Department of Communications recently hosted nearly 100 local middle and high school students for the fourth annual Regional Video Festival on May 20.

The students gained hands-on experience in real-world media operations by spending the day on Etown’s campus planning, filming, and editing videos.

“This was a wonderful opportunity for middle and high school students to work together with students from other schools who shared their interest in video production,” Elizabethtown College Professor of Communications, Kirsten Johnson said. “It’s a test of their teamwork skills to be able to come up with a concept, shoot, and edit a video in just a few hours. I’m always extremely impressed with the videos that students create!”

The middle school contest was a short video based on the prompt, “The contest.” The winning group included Conor Bland, Grace Wagner, and Neal Patel (Centerville Middle School), Charlotte Hobbs (Manheim Township Middle School), Noelle Hooper and Brady Schoelkoph (Landisville Middle School), Presley Lewis (Eastern York Middle School), and Allison Nikolaus (Hempfield Middle School).

High school underclassmen were tasked with completing a 30-, 45-, or 90-second commercial for the best spot on Etown’s campus. The winning group included Ace Brown and Lindsay Over (Hempfield High School), Jack Kelly and Ava Swartz (Lancaster Catholic), Victoria Ruane (Dallastown High School), and Chase Rutt (Solanco High School).

Senior high schoolers created a music video for a KidzBop song. The winning group included Landen Brenner and Greyson Way (Hempfield High School) and Kara Herr and Walter O’Connell (Solanco High School).

The Department of Communications’ state-of-the-art equipment and facilities were utilized by students, who were taught how to operate the equipment and software to best serve their concept.

The event included students from four regional middle schools (Centerville/Landisville in the Hempfield School District, Eastern York, and Manheim Township), along with five high schools (Dallastown, Donegal, Hempfield, Lancaster Catholic, and Solanco).

The program started in 2018 with an idea from Matthew Binder, a Broadcasting and Communications Technology Teacher at Hempfield High School. He partnered with Johnson to create the event as an opportunity to help local high school students practice their video production and teamwork skills.

About the Elizabethtown College Communications Department

Etown’s Communications Department offers an interactive and innovative curriculum to prepare you for a career in radio, television, corporate communications, public relations, marketing, and social media. Students learn theory, production techniques, and the skills necessary to advance in their careers – writing, speaking, production, and strategic communication. Interested in studying Communications at Elizabethtown College? Discover more.

About The Author

DaniRae Renno

DaniRae Renno is a junior journalism major from Mount Carmel, Pa. She began working in Elizabethtown College's Office of Marketing and Communications in spring 2023 as a Student Assistant, serving as a contributor to the Etown News site.

Elizabethtown College Athletics

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May 28, 2024 - Cabinet Minutes

Ectc president's cabinet.

Tuesday, May 28, 2024 9:00 a.m. – RPC 200C, Board Room

Department of Labor Threshold Update

• All employees classified as Band 9 or below are automatically listed as non-exempt.

Off-Campus Instructional Site Evaluation Policy

• Cabinet was presented with the Off-Campus Instructional Site Evaluation Policy for review and comment, the policy has been approved by College Council. Cabinet approved the Off-Campus Instructional Site Evaluation Policy as presented.

Leadership Hardin County

• Cabinet discussed a nominee to apply for the Hardin County Leadership program.

Education First Employers

• Education First Employers are employers who are supportive of employees attending college.
• Cabinet discussed ways to support the project.

Office Moves

• Dr. Sellars discussed with Cabinet members several office moves that he would like made in the near future to better accommodate current employees when new hires are made.
• Cabinet approved the requested moves.

Student Success Data Updates from Spring 24 Term

• Dr. Brittany Inge shared with Cabinet student success data from the Spring 24 term.
• Our first-time, full-time Spring 24 graduation rate was 57.3% and included a 9% gain in credentials awarded. For comparison, our Spring 23 graduation rate was 50%.

Meeting adjourned at 10:30 a.m.

Respectfully submitted, Emily Allen (Executive Administrative Assistant)

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Admission Guidelines

The Elizabethtown College Office of Admissions seeks qualified students from a wide range of geographic, socioeconomic, ethnic, religious, and cultural backgrounds. While the ability to meet the challenges presented by Elizabethtown’s curriculum is the primary consideration, all aspects of the applicant’s profile can and will be considered.

Elizabethtown College emphasizes personal attention throughout the admissions process, and the Office of Admissions strives to assure the proper “fit” for both the College and the student. As such, Elizabethtown encourages applications from students who will contribute to and benefit from the College’s academic, co-curricular, service, and cultural programs. Each application is carefully reviewed to determine the student’s seriousness of scholarship, range of talents, and depth of character using the following guidelines:

Applicants must graduate from an accredited secondary school or a state Department of Education-approved program with at least four years of English, three years of mathematics, and two years each of laboratory sciences, social studies, and foreign languages.

Accompanying recommendations from a school guidance counselor and an academic course teacher must attest to the academic ability, potential, and personal character of the applicant.

Students who rank in the top 10 percent of their high school class are able to waive their standardized test scores from Elizabethtown’s review for admission and merit-based scholarship consideration. If a student attends a high school that does not rank, a grade point average of 3.50 or better (on a 4.00 scale) will allow that student to waive his/her standardized test scores. Students applying to the Elizabethtown College Honors Program must submit their standardized test scores to be considered for admission to the Honors Program.

The application form should include references to participation in activities, arts, service, athletics, and other interests beyond the classroom, as well as employment, which indicate the talents, leadership, and abilities the student will bring to the Elizabethtown community.

A writing sample – essay, personal statement, or graded paper – must be provided as an example of the student’s ability to clearly communicate his or her thoughts.

A campus visit is strongly recommended.

An interview is required for students applying to the Elizabethtown College Honors Program, Law Early Admission Program, and the occupational therapy program and is strongly recommended for all other applicants.

The following lists provide some insight into what Elizabethtown considers in the areas of academic, co-curricular and social fit:

Requests for applications and other information regarding admissions should be directed to:

Office of Admissions Elizabethtown College One Alpha Drive Elizabethtown, PA 17022-2298 (717) 361-1400 [email protected] www.etown.edu

The Application Process

Elizabethtown College admits students on a “rolling” basis with an application deadline of April 1. Most prospective students apply before January of their senior year. The Office of Admissions begins to notify students of acceptance decisions – usually beginning in mid-September – and continues to admit students until late spring. Students who are offered admission to the College must respond to the offer by May 1 for the following fall semester.

An application is considered complete when the following items are submitted for review:

College Application. The use of the Common Application is encouraged and can be accessed on the College website ( www.etown.edu ). An Elizabethtown College application is also available on the College website as an alternative. The College does not assess an application fee.

School Report and Recommendations. Applicants should notify the appropriate high school office and direct them to complete the School Report and Recommendations. Additionally, one teacher must complete a letter of recommendation on behalf of the applicant. Applicants may submit additional recommendations from other individuals who know him/her well, such as a coach, musical director, clergy member, or employer.

Official High School Transcript. All applicants must submit an official high school transcript.

Standardized Testing Results. In order to make the admissions process as easy as possible for families during this unique time period, Elizabethtown College will review applications with or without standardized test scores for students applying for admission to Etown’s Class of 2025, which will enter the College in Fall 2021. The decision is in the hands of the applicant and there will be no penalty for choosing not to submit scores. This update includes students who are submitting a transfer application for entry to Etown in Fall 2021.

Writing Sample. All applicants must submit an example of their writing by submitting an essay on one of the topics suggested in the application. Students may also choose to submit a personal statement.

International Applicants

In addition to the previously stated requirements, international applicants also must submit the following items:

The International Student Financial Aid Application. Contact the Office of Admissions to request this form.

International Student Certification of Finances Guidelines. Contact the Office of Admission to request this form.

Personal Statement. A 250-word personal statement discussing their choice to apply to Elizabethtown College.

Standardized Testing Results. The official results of the SAT, ACT, TOEFL, IELTS, EIKEN, Pearson PTE English Proficiency, and Cambridge English Examination.

Transfer Applicants

Transfer applicants in good social and academic standing at an accredited college, university or two-year institution are encouraged to apply. Transfer students are accepted for both the fall and spring semesters.

All transfer applicants are encouraged to complete the Elizabethtown College transfer application. Students may also complete the Common Application for transfer students. In lieu of the school report, transfer applicants should submit the Transfer College Report and a letter of recommendation from a professor, teacher, or employer. Additionally, all transfer applicants must submit a high school transcript and official transcripts from all previous college work.

Transfer applicants with an earned associates degree , consisting of at least 40 corresponding general education credits, may be recognized as meeting all of the Elizabethtown College Core Program with full junior standing. For more information, please refer to the Transfer Credit policies under Academic Policies   .  

All potential transfer credits – up to 64 from a two-year institution and up to 84 credits from a four-year institution – are evaluated by the Office of Registration and Records to determine how the credits will transfer to Elizabethtown College.

Special Application Requirements

Because of limited and selective enrollment opportunities, applicants to some of Elizabethtown’s programs are encouraged to submit an application earlier than the normal deadline of March 1. Those programs, with their suggested application deadlines, are as follows:

Students considering a degree in music, music therapy, or music education must complete an audition and are encouraged to contact the School of Arts and Humanities at (717) 361-1212 to learn more. Audition forms are available online through the School’s website ( www.etown.edu/FAPA ).

Personal Interviews and Campus Visitations

A personal interview with a member of the Admissions staff is strongly encouraged for all prospective students. It is suggested that prospective students plan to interview prior to January 1 of their senior year. Campus interviews and tours are available throughout the year. Individual appointments are scheduled between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m., Monday through Friday. Morning appointments also are available on select Saturdays in the fall and spring. Simply contact the Office of Admissions at (717) 361-1400 or visit the website at www.etown.edu/visit to schedule a campus visit.

Many on-campus programs are available throughout the year. Contact the Office of Admissions or visit the College’s website ( www.etown.edu/visit ) for the dates of Open Houses and other specialized on-campus programs.

Advanced Placement

Elizabethtown College participates in the Advanced Placement (AP) program of the College Board. Depending upon approval of the School concerned, the College grants advanced placement credit to students who score four or better on the College Board’s AP examinations. Please visit the Office of Registration and Records website at www.etown.edu/registration for our current AP credit policy. Credit through the International Baccalaureate Program may be granted for scores of five or higher on the higher-level examinations, depending upon the School concerned. (See Academic Policies    for more information.)

Transfer of Dual Enrollment Credits

Dual Enrollment refers to the practice of a student being enrolled at two schools simultaneously, as may occur when an advanced high school student registers to take a course from a college or university. Elizabethtown College has adopted specific rules to define the conditions under which this type of course may transfer to Elizabethtown College. Students can transfer courses from accredited institutions that are judged by the Registrar and the appropriate School (in the case of courses for a major/minor) to be high quality, involve active delivery methods (ongoing exchange of ideas with an instructor), and are consistent with the mission and program goals of Elizabethtown College. No online courses that are independent study or correspondence can be transferred. It is recommended that students request the credit-granting institution include a cover letter with their transcript verifying the course completed adheres to our policy for the Transfer of Dual Enrollment Credits .

For further information, see www.etown.edu/registration/registration-records .

Non-Degree Students

Students who are not candidates for a degree but who wish to enroll in one or more courses should complete the College’s application for admission. Non-degree applicants should arrange for an admissions interview to discuss course selection and special application requirements.

Early-Admission Students

Superior high school students may accelerate their higher education by beginning their college work immediately after completion of their junior year. Students who are admitted enter the College as a regular first-year student. When they successfully complete their first year, they receive their high school diploma in addition to the college credits earned. This program has the cooperation and support of the Pennsylvania Department of Education.

In addition to the fundamental requirement that early-admission applicants must have completed their 11th year in an accredited curriculum, they must exhibit the mental ability, scholastic achievement, social maturity, and personal motivation to adjust to the academic and co-curricular programs of the College. Following enrollment, early-admission students receive close academic advising by selected faculty members.

Early admission to Elizabethtown College after careful, individualized screening is based on the following:

Class Rank and Academic Aptitude. To be considered, students must rank among the top of their high school class and achieve a superior result in the SAT.

Recommendations. Written by the student’s high school principal, guidance counselor, and teachers, recommendations must indicate the student’s suitability for early admission.

Parental, High School and Elizabethtown College Support. The written approval of the student’s parents, high school principal, and guidance counselor is mandatory before acceptance. Included in the approval is the assurance of a high school diploma upon successful completion of the first year at Elizabethtown. The selection process also requires an interview with the Office of Admissions.

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Q&A: The power of tiny gardens and their role in addressing climate change

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To address the climate crisis, one must understand environmental history. MIT Professor Kate Brown’s research has typically focused on environmental catastrophes. More recently, Brown has been exploring a more hopeful topic: tiny gardens.

Brown is the Thomas M. Siebel Distinguished Professor in History of Science in the MIT Program in Science, Technology, and Society. In this Q&A, Brown discusses her research, and how she believes her current project could help put power into the hands of everyday people.

This is part of an ongoing series exploring how the MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences is addressing the climate crisis.

Q: You have created an unusual niche for yourself as an historian of environmental catastrophes. What drew you to such a dismal beat?

A: Historians often study New York, Warsaw, Moscow, Berlin, but if you go to these little towns that nobody's ever heard of, that's where you see the destruction in the wake of progress. This is likely because I grew up in a manufacturing town in the Midwestern Rust Belt, watching stores go bankrupt and houses sit empty. I became very interested in the people who were the last to turn off the lights.

Q: Did this interest in places devastated by technological and economic change eventually lead to your investigation of Chernobyl?

A: I first studied the health and environmental consequences of radioactive waste on communities near nuclear weapons facilities in the U.S. and Russia, and then decided to focus on the health and environmental impacts of fallout from the Chernobyl nuclear energy plant disaster. After gaining access to the KGB records in Kiev, I realized that there was a Klondike of records describing what Soviet officials at the time called a “public health disaster.” People on the ground recognized the saturation of radioactivity into environments and food supplies not with any with sensitive devices, but by noticing the changes in ecologies and on human bodies. I documented how Moscow leaders historically and decades later engaged in a coverup, and that even international bodies charged with examining nuclear issues were reluctant to acknowledge this ongoing public health disaster due to liabilities in their own countries from the production and testing of nuclear weapons during the Cold War.

Q: Why did you turn from detailed studies of what you call “modernist wastelands” to the subject of climate change?

A: Journalists and scholars have worked hard in the last two decades to get people to understand the scope and the scale and the verisimilitude of climate change. And that’s great, but some of these catastrophic stories we tell don’t make people feel very safe or secure. They have a paralyzing effect on us. Climate change is one of many problems that are too big for any one person to tackle, or any one entity, whether it’s a huge nation like the United States or an international body like the U.N.

So I thought I would start to work on something that is very small scale that puts action in the hands of just regular people to try to tell a more hopeful story. I am finishing a new book about working-class people who got pushed off their farms in the 19th century, and ended up in mega cities like London, Berlin, Amsterdam, and Washington D.C., find land on the periphery of the cities. They start digging, growing their own food, cooperating together. They basically recreated forms of the commons in cities. And in so doing, they generate the most productive agriculture in recorded history.

Q: What are some highlights of this extraordinary city-based food generation?

A: In Paris circa 1900, 5,000 urban farmers grew fruits and vegetables and fresh produce for 2 million Parisians with a surplus left over to sell to London. They would plant three to six crops a year on one tract of land using horse manure to heat up soils from below to push the season and grow spring crops in winter and summer crops in spring.

An agricultural economist looked at the inputs and the outputs from these Parisian farms. He found there was no comparison to the Green Revolution fields of the 1970s. These urban gardeners were producing far more per acre, with no petroleum-based fertilizers.

Q: What is the connection between little gardens like these and the global climate crisis, where individuals can feel at loss facing the scale of the problems?

A: You can think of a tiny city garden like a coral reef, where one little worm comes and builds its cave. And then another one attaches itself to the first, and so on. Pretty soon you have a great coral reef with a platform to support hundreds of different species — a rich biodiversity. Tiny gardens work that way in cities, which is one reason cities are now surprising hotspots of biodiversity.

Transforming urban green space into tiny gardens doesn’t take an act of God, the U.N., or the U.S. Congress to make a change. You could just go to your municipality and say, “Listen, right now we have a zoning code that says every time there's a new condo, you have to have one or two parking spaces, but we’d rather see one or two garden spaces.”

And if you don't want a garden, you’ll have a neighbor who does. So people are outside and they have their hands in the soil and then they start to exchange produce with one another. As they share carrots and zucchini, they exchange soil and human microbes as well. We know that when people share microbiomes, they get along better, have more in common. It comes as no surprise that humans have organized societies around shaking hands, kissing on the cheek, producing food together and sharing meals. That’s what I think we've lost in our remote worlds.

Q: So can we address or mitigate the impacts of climate change on a community-by-community basis?

A: I believe that’s probably the best way to do it. When we think of energy we often imagine deposits of oil or gas, but, as our grad student Turner Adornetto points out, every environment has energy running through it. Every environment has its own best solution. If it’s a community that lives along a river, tap into hydropower; or if it’s a community that has tons of organic waste, maybe you want to use microbial power; and if it’s a community that has lots of sun then use different kinds of solar power. The legacy of midcentury modernism is that engineers came up with one-size-fits-all solutions to plug in anywhere in the world, regardless of local culture, traditions, or environment. That is one of the problems that has gotten us into this fix in the first place.

Politically, it’s a good idea to avoid making people feel they’re being pushed around by one set of codes, one set of laws in terms of coming up with solutions that work. There are ways of deriving energy and nutrients that enrich the environment, ways that don’t drain and deplete. You see that so clearly with a plant, which just does nothing but grow and contribute and give, whether it’s in life or in death. It’s just constantly improving its environment.

Q: How do you unleash creativity and propagate widespread local responses to climate change?

A: One of the important things we are trying to accomplish in the humanities is communicating in the most down-to-earth ways possible to our students and the public so that anybody — from a fourth grader to a retired person — can get engaged.

There’s “TECHNOLOGY” in uppercase letters, the kind that is invented and patented in places like MIT. And then there’s technology in lowercase letters, where people are working with things readily at hand. That is the kind of creativity we don’t often pay enough attention to.

Keep in mind that at the end of the 19th century, scientists were sure that the earth was cooling and the earth would all under ice by 2020. In the 1950s, many people feared nuclear warfare. In the 1960s the threat was the “population bomb.” Every generation seems to have its apocalyptic sense of doom. It is helpful to take climate change and the Anthropocene and put them in perspective. These are problems we can solve.

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