Chapman University is a great school that at least in Asia, is a bit unknown, but has great facilities, programs, and location, so it’s definitely worth a look. I would characterize Chapman as a “pointy” school, a school that has clear strengths and impressive programs in some really interesting fields.

First off, the screen acting and film production programs are incredibly competitive to get into and is an audition-based program. In addition, their business school has a strong reputation, allowing students to major in accounting, finance, entrepreneurship, and international business. The school also has strong ties to companies throughout the Pacific Rim, and its own career center focused on helped students secure experience through internships and full time offers. Their health sciences majors are also growing rapidly, with a number of programs that allow students to get both a bachelor’s and a masters degree in 5 or 6 years, in fields such as physical therapy and pharmacy. And all science majors are growing rapidly, as a result of investment in professors and facilities for these programs. Finally, they have a new School of Communications, which seems to really address where the future of communication is heading (digital, social, etc.)

The school is located in Orange, CA, which is outside of LA (10 minutes from Disneyland, my tour guide mentioned he has lots of friends who work part time at Disney, some as characters, other in the corporate offices), and apart from Disneyland, there are lots of potential internship opportunities in the greater LA area that students take advantage of.

While currently, 60% of students are from California, it’s such a large state that most students live on campus their first two years, and there is a strong campus community. They also have 88 countries represented on campus (5% of undergraduate students). I think Chapman is a great school with a lot of strengths for the right type of student.