“Colleges That Change Lives”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:CTCL are second tier schools. No thanks.

Serious question: How many “first tier” schools are there? And according to whom?

[Anonymous]

What is with the poster that has a vitriolic reaction every time some one asks about the CTCL schools ?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is with the poster that has a vitriolic reaction every time some one asks about the CTCL schools ?

I suspect they’re a graduate of a “first tier” college who is very insecure.

[Anonymous]

went to Wooster; it is a fantastic school. Not hard to get into but amazing teaching. one of the few liberal arts colleges that require a thesis during senior year. Very high rates of getting students into grad schools. definitely feels midwestern versus new england... a bit kinder/less edgy, less preppy, overall an excellent education, especially for kids who can't or don't want a rat race but want to be challenged and be in classses with other students who want to engage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:went to Wooster; it is a fantastic school. Not hard to get into but amazing teaching. one of the few liberal arts colleges that require a thesis during senior year. Very high rates of getting students into grad schools. definitely feels midwestern versus new england... a bit kinder/less edgy, less preppy, overall an excellent education, especially for kids who can't or don't want a rat race but want to be challenged and be in classses with other students who want to engage.

sorry. same poster... forgot to say I was changed because I fell in love with learning for learning's sake. I went to a big local area high school and was in advanced track classes but was really social and more interested in parties than in class. The big classes were too easy for me to disappear and not be engaged. I went to Wooster and just lit up because of the amazing teachers and awesome courses. Came out the other side really ready to tackle adulthood in a way that I don't think i would have had i gone to a huge university.

[Anonymous]

Visited a fair number of them in 2011-2012, so maybe some things have changed since then. Also, we found schools to be different from when the book was written.

Denison: Very preppy & beautiful campus, people on campus were dressed up compared to other schools. Seemed to have a lot of resources and Granville seemed like a cute and safe town. Ended up not applying because it too preppy for my daughter.
Knox: Nothing stood out about it - it seemed okay but it didn't seem to have a lot of resources (only okay aid for stats) and the town was kid of depressing.
St. John's (Maryland): My daughter liked the school, Annapolis is a great city close to home. It didn't seem very diverse though. It seemed great for a specific thing, great books. Ultimately my DD wanted more flexibility in her schedule and the ability to do research, so she didn't apply.
Puget Sound: Bigger, seemed to have less resources, more pre-professional, loved Tacoma, daughter ended not wanting to be so far away, great aid
Wooster: Daughter really liked, really friendly, lots of normal kids, great aid
Kalamazoo: Generally liked, cool city, lots of resources, great aid, a little too Michigan student heavy
Reed: Great city & campus, strong academics, daughter liked it but decided it was too intense/kids seemed a little too out there, but the biggest kicker was no aid

Retrospectively, she wishes she would have looked at Whitman too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:CTCL are second tier schools. No thanks.

Serious question: How many “first tier” schools are there? And according to whom?

Ballpark I'd say about 20.......most of the Nescacs, Swat, Haverford, Wellesley, the Claremonts.......according to people that matter, and that doesn't include the vacuous commercial ranking companies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:CTCL are second tier schools. No thanks.

Serious question: How many “first tier” schools are there? And according to whom?

Ballpark I'd say about 20.......most of the Nescacs, Swat, Haverford, Wellesley, the Claremonts.......according to people that matter, and that doesn't include the vacuous commercial ranking companies.

Oh please tell me more about the "people that matter" because they sound super important.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:CTCL are second tier schools. No thanks.

Serious question: How many “first tier” schools are there? And according to whom?

Ballpark I'd say about 20.......most of the Nescacs, Swat, Haverford, Wellesley, the Claremonts.......according to people that matter, and that doesn't include the vacuous commercial ranking companies.

So, a college that’s merely one tier below these gets a “no thanks”? Strange.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:went to Wooster; it is a fantastic school. Not hard to get into but amazing teaching. one of the few liberal arts colleges that require a thesis during senior year. Very high rates of getting students into grad schools. definitely feels midwestern versus new england... a bit kinder/less edgy, less preppy, overall an excellent education, especially for kids who can't or don't want a rat race but want to be challenged and be in classses with other students who want to engage.

sorry. same poster... forgot to say I was changed because I fell in love with learning for learning's sake. I went to a big local area high school and was in advanced track classes but was really social and more interested in parties than in class. The big classes were too easy for me to disappear and not be engaged. I went to Wooster and just lit up because of the amazing teachers and awesome courses. Came out the other side really ready to tackle adulthood in a way that I don't think i would have had i gone to a huge university.

You have no way of knowing that you would have been "ready to tackle adulthood" had you gone to any one of 100 other colleges the size of Wooster. That's the point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:CTCL are second tier schools. No thanks.

Serious question: How many “first tier” schools are there? And according to whom?

Ballpark I'd say about 20.......most of the Nescacs, Swat, Haverford, Wellesley, the Claremonts.......according to people that matter, and that doesn't include the vacuous commercial ranking companies.

This is dumb. 99.9% of students cannot and will not get into/go to these schools. Should they just not go to college at all?

[Anonymous]

Here is my issue with the CTCL organization: Its board is made up of mostly of reps from the schools it promotes. Its income consists of membership (marketing) fees from the schools it promotes. As a non-profit organization, its “services” consist of paying one person to go around the country and promote these schools. There is nothing amazingly different about most of these schools from the hundreds of other schools out there. Some are quite good but many are struggling financially and there are many with horrible graduation rates. Schools should be considered on an individual basis, not because they are part of an irrelevant list.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm curious about people's experience with Ohio Wesleyan

My BIL graduated from there about 10 years ago and liked it. It’s religiously affiliated but not conservative Christian. It seems more geared toward Ohio students though and particularly students from around Columbus - it doesn’t seem to draw as many students from out of the area/OOS as Kenyon, Denison, etc. Delaware is a nice area and relatively close to Columbus so it’s a convenient location.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm curious about people's experience with Ohio Wesleyan

My BIL graduated from there about 10 years ago and liked it. It’s religiously affiliated but not conservative Christian. It seems more geared toward Ohio students though and particularly students from around Columbus - it doesn’t seem to draw as many students from out of the area/OOS as Kenyon, Denison, etc. Delaware is a nice area and relatively close to Columbus so it’s a convenient location.

We visited last summer at the recommendation of a poster on DCUM and my daughter loved it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here is my issue with the CTCL organization: Its board is made up of mostly of reps from the schools it promotes. Its income consists of membership (marketing) fees from the schools it promotes. As a non-profit organization, its “services” consist of paying one person to go around the country and promote these schools. There is nothing amazingly different about most of these schools from the hundreds of other schools out there. Some are quite good but many are struggling financially and there are many with horrible graduation rates. Schools should be considered on an individual basis, not because they are part of an irrelevant list.

+1. CTCL feeds into the insecurity of parents whose kids can't get into Tier 1.