Favorite College that changes lives?

[Anonymous]

Here's a list of the schools in question. Which ones do you like? Hate? Have never heard of?

https://ctcl.org/category/college-profiles/

[Anonymous]

Reed is kind of an outlier among them – it takes students with pretty high stats and is known for being super-rigorous. Among the others, I've heard great things about Whitman, Kalamazoo, Wooster, Beloit & St. Olaf.

[Anonymous]

Juniata seems to get a lot of rave reviews here. Have also heard good things about Kalamazoo.

[Anonymous]

We loved our Juniata tour. Our DD is attending Admitted Students day before finalizing her decision of school to attend.

[Anonymous]

Following with the hope that someone with a kid that attended chimes in.

[Anonymous]

Hillsdale by a mile.

[Anonymous]

I liked the CTCL book, which is basically about helping people understand the value of small colleges and then a list of some *examples* of small colleges that are not (or were not) highly selective. There are plenty of colleges that are similar to the CTCL list that are worth considering in the same set. The list hasn’t been updated in over 10 years. So, definitely need to do your due diligence on the current status of schools in that set. Some have gotten a lot more selective, others less so and some in earlier editions have closed/merged. This college counselor wrote blog post several years ago about other schools that are similar and worth considering: https://educatedquest.com/colleges-that-should-be-colleges-that-change-lives/

My DD is a freshman at Juniata and considered several on the CTCL list + the list linked above. Juniata became her favorite. I know there are at least a couple other Juniata parents on here since I read their comments when we were researching the school. I’ve written about her experience recently so you can find that by searching.

One thing I don’t think I’ve mentioned is that as she was considering a bunch of small schools that were generally safeties/good merit for a B+ student I was really focused on understanding the financial footing and the schools’ trends, strategic plan, etc. i.e. we didn’t want to pay for a school on the way down that would be closed in a decade. I liked that Juniata seems to be on an upswing. This year’s freshman class is one of the largest in their history. There’s a lot of construction on campus. They recently had a very successful capital campaign plus high profile large donation dedicated to expanding the environmental science field station program (her major), completely rebuilding the library (now the “learning commons”), building up the music program by refreshing the performance hall + offering music scholarships (she gets an additional $5k/year for that), and a recent large donation is targeted to upgrading housing. It also tends to rank well on the PhD feeders list.

In addition to attending admitted students day, I really recommend doing their “Eagle for a Day” visit. My DD didn’t like the huge group events but that visit let her sit in on a biology class, meet with an environmental science professor, and have lunch with a couple bio/ES students. After that I don’t think she really considered anything else on her list.

[Anonymous]

I grew up in the GPNW and know the schools on this list from that region pretty well--have had friends attend all of them. They're all great places for kids who dig their respective ethos. In alpha order:

Evergreen State is super hippie. Like a left coast version of UNC-Asheville only more so. Or a mini UC Santa Cruz. More intellectual than academic, if that makes sense.

Reed is intense. Like a less selective but no less ambitious Swarthmore--but with lots of black eyeliner and hard drugs. If you're not both brilliant and cynical, it's not your spot.

UPS is kind of like a miniaturized flagship. Solid for business, music, and liberal arts and sciences. Wide range of kids there, almost all of them happy.

Whitman is like west coast Middlebury but in a bigger, better town (but also way further from anything else). For kids who check the "intellectual," "outdoorsy," and "at least somewhat preppy" boxes, it's heaven.

Willamette is right next to the state capital and is a school for go-getters, across a decent range of raw intellectual firepower levels.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I grew up in the GPNW and know the schools on this list from that region pretty well--have had friends attend all of them. They're all great places for kids who dig their respective ethos. In alpha order:

Evergreen State is super hippie. Like a left coast version of UNC-Asheville only more so. Or a mini UC Santa Cruz. More intellectual than academic, if that makes sense.

Reed is intense. Like a less selective but no less ambitious Swarthmore--but with lots of black eyeliner and hard drugs. If you're not both brilliant and cynical, it's not your spot.

UPS is kind of like a miniaturized flagship. Solid for business, music, and liberal arts and sciences. Wide range of kids there, almost all of them happy.

Whitman is like west coast Middlebury but in a bigger, better town (but also way further from anything else). For kids who check the "intellectual," "outdoorsy," and "at least somewhat preppy" boxes, it's heaven.

Willamette is right next to the state capital and is a school for go-getters, across a decent range of raw intellectual firepower levels.

Which of these schools would work for a moderately conservative student who is interested in that area of the country?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I grew up in the GPNW and know the schools on this list from that region pretty well--have had friends attend all of them. They're all great places for kids who dig their respective ethos. In alpha order:

Evergreen State is super hippie. Like a left coast version of UNC-Asheville only more so. Or a mini UC Santa Cruz. More intellectual than academic, if that makes sense.

Reed is intense. Like a less selective but no less ambitious Swarthmore--but with lots of black eyeliner and hard drugs. If you're not both brilliant and cynical, it's not your spot.

UPS is kind of like a miniaturized flagship. Solid for business, music, and liberal arts and sciences. Wide range of kids there, almost all of them happy.

Whitman is like west coast Middlebury but in a bigger, better town (but also way further from anything else). For kids who check the "intellectual," "outdoorsy," and "at least somewhat preppy" boxes, it's heaven.

Willamette is right next to the state capital and is a school for go-getters, across a decent range of raw intellectual firepower levels.

Which of these schools would work for a moderately conservative student who is interested in that area of the country?

UPS or Willamette for sure. Probably Whitman, too. Definitely not Reed or Evergreen State.

[Anonymous]

Denison has so many things going for it including an amazing president, a large endowment, and a beautiful campus. It is in the quaint village of Granville but only 30 minutes away from Columbus. The students are well-rounded and are from all over.

https://denison.edu/fast-facts

[Anonymous]

OP: thanks for the article!

Between the original list and that added one there's nearly every place DC was accepted. How to choose after that, I still have no idea.

She didn't apply to Juniata, however.

[Anonymous]

I went to Kalamazoo College ("K") and left after a quarter. It's a provincial LAC with a lot of students who aren't all that bright.

[Anonymous]

I feel like CTCL always brings out the snobs.

I know kids who have gone to Ursinus and McDaniel. McD actively promotes their programs for kids with learning differences, and the kids I know who have gone there seemed very happy. I have a harder time characterizing Ursinus, but I do hear good things.

It's funny how few East Coast schools are on the list.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went to Kalamazoo College ("K") and left after a quarter. It's a provincial LAC with a lot of students who aren't all that bright.

Was this last year?