Favorite College that changes lives?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wish I could've gotten kid to consider Beloit or Lawrence. They both looked really good on paper. DD met Lawrence rep at a college fair, and said the rep was raving about the music program... "I'm not a music person," DD told me. And for her, that was that.

You know I was looking at Jeff's summary of this thread, (I didn't realize he did that), and it's depressing. The summary is all about our stupid troll and how tiresome we all are. But I think we've been able to exchange some great information. I know I appreciate what I've learned, and this discussion.

Amidst all the bashing and bickering, there are some real gold nuggets of information here about the actual schools themselves. I'm not the OP, but this is information I hoped to glean when I read the initial post. I skipped over pages and pages of insults to get to those and found them extremely helpful, so a big thank you to those who shared your thoughts and experiences! There are some very informative, thoughtful, and supportive posts here. For example we weren't considering SLACs in the Pacific Northwest, but now we're inspired to visit, and the information about other CTCLs and schools like them has been extremely helpful.

Jeff didn’t say anything about anybody “trolling.” He just said that the very mention of “CTCL schools” as a group gets folks worked up on both sides. There’s actually very little bashing of any individual school on this thread other than maybe Evergreen State but that school probably deserves it. The complaint by the so-called “CTCL haters” is the idea that these schools all somehow belong in a special and exclusive grouping. They don’t - they are very different from each other in terms of focus, degrees offered, financial health, admissions standards and graduation rates, etc. The one common feature is that they’re all small and focus on undergraduate teaching - but literally so does the entire US News list of “liberal arts colleges” and there are a couple hundred of them.

Even Jeff sounded somewhat skeptical of the grouping and suggested that it is only of marginal benefit to several of the schools that have established good reputations for themselves entirely independent of being a so-called CTCL school.

Jeff may very well be right and the current CTCL categorization is certainly out of date. Reed and Denison may have moved up out of the CTCL category, and other schools have entered it. Whether the grouping is "only of marginal benefit to several of the schools" is not as important to me as the benefit of the school to my kid. I've found this discussion helpful in trying to find high quality SLACs that will accept, develop, and nurture my DC, who doesn't have a hook and is a B student. Other families appear to be looking at SLACs that are cheaper options for their high-achieving children who are being offered generous merit aid. My family loves the SLAC model with small classes and dedicated teaching professors. Elite SLACs would not look at my kid, and I know there are excellent regional publics that would work well and more cheaply, but we really want a small school.. I appreciate the exchange of thoughts and impressions here. It has generated some more options that we plan to explore.

Your summary was more unbiased than Jeff’s! 😉

Good luck to your child. It sounds like you are on the right track.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have a child that attended Eckerd, and whose second choice was Juniata. DC picked Eckerd because the student body was more geographically diverse and they liked the FL weather. Both Juniata and Eckerd gave comparable merit aid. Although DC picked Eckerd,we were both impressed by the significant personal attention that Juniata gave its applicants. In retrospect, I wish perhaps DC had picked Juniata. Eckerd had more entitled B student rich kids and there was a significant drug culture. I also think that when looking at small LAC it is important to figure out the social organizing piece. Schools need something---either a traditional greek system or "houses" like they have at Rice, or co-ops like at Oberlin--otherwise freshmen are cast adrift and have even more difficulty finding their people.

Juniata has a good inbound experience (open to all incoming freshmen—not just those who can afford it). The kids get to pick from a wide range of fun experiences . That way, you are automatically introduced to other freshmen who chose the same focus. And when classes start you have some built in familiar faces.

Tell us more about Juniata! 😂

It sounds like many parents are grateful for details about specific CTCL’’s, if they are considering them, or trying to narrow their list.

And obviously, personal experience at a school is more useful than some snob’s impression from afar.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wish I could've gotten kid to consider Beloit or Lawrence. They both looked really good on paper. DD met Lawrence rep at a college fair, and said the rep was raving about the music program... "I'm not a music person," DD told me. And for her, that was that.

You know I was looking at Jeff's summary of this thread, (I didn't realize he did that), and it's depressing. The summary is all about our stupid troll and how tiresome we all are. But I think we've been able to exchange some great information. I know I appreciate what I've learned, and this discussion.

Amidst all the bashing and bickering, there are some real gold nuggets of information here about the actual schools themselves. I'm not the OP, but this is information I hoped to glean when I read the initial post. I skipped over pages and pages of insults to get to those and found them extremely helpful, so a big thank you to those who shared your thoughts and experiences! There are some very informative, thoughtful, and supportive posts here. For example we weren't considering SLACs in the Pacific Northwest, but now we're inspired to visit, and the information about other CTCLs and schools like them has been extremely helpful.

Jeff didn’t say anything about anybody “trolling.” He just said that the very mention of “CTCL schools” as a group gets folks worked up on both sides. There’s actually very little bashing of any individual school on this thread other than maybe Evergreen State but that school probably deserves it. The complaint by the so-called “CTCL haters” is the idea that these schools all somehow belong in a special and exclusive grouping. They don’t - they are very different from each other in terms of focus, degrees offered, financial health, admissions standards and graduation rates, etc. The one common feature is that they’re all small and focus on undergraduate teaching - but literally so does the entire US News list of “liberal arts colleges” and there are a couple hundred of them.

Even Jeff sounded somewhat skeptical of the grouping and suggested that it is only of marginal benefit to several of the schools that have established good reputations for themselves entirely independent of being a so-called CTCL school.

Jeff may very well be right and the current CTCL categorization is certainly out of date. Reed and Denison may have moved up out of the CTCL category, and other schools have entered it. Whether the grouping is "only of marginal benefit to several of the schools" is not as important to me as the benefit of the school to my kid. I've found this discussion helpful in trying to find high quality SLACs that will accept, develop, and nurture my DC, who doesn't have a hook and is a B student. Other families appear to be looking at SLACs that are cheaper options for their high-achieving children who are being offered generous merit aid. My family loves the SLAC model with small classes and dedicated teaching professors. Elite SLACs would not look at my kid, and I know there are excellent regional publics that would work well and more cheaply, but we really want a small school.. I appreciate the exchange of thoughts and impressions here. It has generated some more options that we plan to explore.

Put Ohio Wesleyan University on your list. It's a wonderful place.

Thank you! I will look at it

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wish I could've gotten kid to consider Beloit or Lawrence. They both looked really good on paper. DD met Lawrence rep at a college fair, and said the rep was raving about the music program... "I'm not a music person," DD told me. And for her, that was that.

You know I was looking at Jeff's summary of this thread, (I didn't realize he did that), and it's depressing. The summary is all about our stupid troll and how tiresome we all are. But I think we've been able to exchange some great information. I know I appreciate what I've learned, and this discussion.

Amidst all the bashing and bickering, there are some real gold nuggets of information here about the actual schools themselves. I'm not the OP, but this is information I hoped to glean when I read the initial post. I skipped over pages and pages of insults to get to those and found them extremely helpful, so a big thank you to those who shared your thoughts and experiences! There are some very informative, thoughtful, and supportive posts here. For example we weren't considering SLACs in the Pacific Northwest, but now we're inspired to visit, and the information about other CTCLs and schools like them has been extremely helpful.

Jeff didn’t say anything about anybody “trolling.” He just said that the very mention of “CTCL schools” as a group gets folks worked up on both sides. There’s actually very little bashing of any individual school on this thread other than maybe Evergreen State but that school probably deserves it. The complaint by the so-called “CTCL haters” is the idea that these schools all somehow belong in a special and exclusive grouping. They don’t - they are very different from each other in terms of focus, degrees offered, financial health, admissions standards and graduation rates, etc. The one common feature is that they’re all small and focus on undergraduate teaching - but literally so does the entire US News list of “liberal arts colleges” and there are a couple hundred of them.

Even Jeff sounded somewhat skeptical of the grouping and suggested that it is only of marginal benefit to several of the schools that have established good reputations for themselves entirely independent of being a so-called CTCL school.

Jeff may very well be right and the current CTCL categorization is certainly out of date. Reed and Denison may have moved up out of the CTCL category, and other schools have entered it. Whether the grouping is "only of marginal benefit to several of the schools" is not as important to me as the benefit of the school to my kid. I've found this discussion helpful in trying to find high quality SLACs that will accept, develop, and nurture my DC, who doesn't have a hook and is a B student. Other families appear to be looking at SLACs that are cheaper options for their high-achieving children who are being offered generous merit aid. My family loves the SLAC model with small classes and dedicated teaching professors. Elite SLACs would not look at my kid, and I know there are excellent regional publics that would work well and more cheaply, but we really want a small school.. I appreciate the exchange of thoughts and impressions here. It has generated some more options that we plan to explore.

Your summary was more unbiased than Jeff’s! 😉

Good luck to your child. It sounds like you are on the right track.

Thank you! I understand some of these schools are not for everyone, but they are wonderful for some of our kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wish I could've gotten kid to consider Beloit or Lawrence. They both looked really good on paper. DD met Lawrence rep at a college fair, and said the rep was raving about the music program... "I'm not a music person," DD told me. And for her, that was that.

You know I was looking at Jeff's summary of this thread, (I didn't realize he did that), and it's depressing. The summary is all about our stupid troll and how tiresome we all are. But I think we've been able to exchange some great information. I know I appreciate what I've learned, and this discussion.

Amidst all the bashing and bickering, there are some real gold nuggets of information here about the actual schools themselves. I'm not the OP, but this is information I hoped to glean when I read the initial post. I skipped over pages and pages of insults to get to those and found them extremely helpful, so a big thank you to those who shared your thoughts and experiences! There are some very informative, thoughtful, and supportive posts here. For example we weren't considering SLACs in the Pacific Northwest, but now we're inspired to visit, and the information about other CTCLs and schools like them has been extremely helpful.

Jeff didn’t say anything about anybody “trolling.” He just said that the very mention of “CTCL schools” as a group gets folks worked up on both sides. There’s actually very little bashing of any individual school on this thread other than maybe Evergreen State but that school probably deserves it. The complaint by the so-called “CTCL haters” is the idea that these schools all somehow belong in a special and exclusive grouping. They don’t - they are very different from each other in terms of focus, degrees offered, financial health, admissions standards and graduation rates, etc. The one common feature is that they’re all small and focus on undergraduate teaching - but literally so does the entire US News list of “liberal arts colleges” and there are a couple hundred of them.

Even Jeff sounded somewhat skeptical of the grouping and suggested that it is only of marginal benefit to several of the schools that have established good reputations for themselves entirely independent of being a so-called CTCL school.

Jeff may very well be right and the current CTCL categorization is certainly out of date. Reed and Denison may have moved up out of the CTCL category, and other schools have entered it. Whether the grouping is "only of marginal benefit to several of the schools" is not as important to me as the benefit of the school to my kid. I've found this discussion helpful in trying to find high quality SLACs that will accept, develop, and nurture my DC, who doesn't have a hook and is a B student. Other families appear to be looking at SLACs that are cheaper options for their high-achieving children who are being offered generous merit aid. My family loves the SLAC model with small classes and dedicated teaching professors. Elite SLACs would not look at my kid, and I know there are excellent regional publics that would work well and more cheaply, but we really want a small school.. I appreciate the exchange of thoughts and impressions here. It has generated some more options that we plan to explore.

Me too, and that's what I was hoping for when I started the thread. It was less about "the list" and more as the list as a jumping off point for a certain type of school and student.

We have merit offers from 3 schools on "the list" and another two schools that have also been mentioned. This is really helping me figure out more about them.

Congratulations on the merit offers! I've also got some great ideas from this thread, so thank you for starting it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have a child that attended Eckerd, and whose second choice was Juniata. DC picked Eckerd because the student body was more geographically diverse and they liked the FL weather. Both Juniata and Eckerd gave comparable merit aid. Although DC picked Eckerd,we were both impressed by the significant personal attention that Juniata gave its applicants. In retrospect, I wish perhaps DC had picked Juniata. Eckerd had more entitled B student rich kids and there was a significant drug culture. I also think that when looking at small LAC it is important to figure out the social organizing piece. Schools need something---either a traditional greek system or "houses" like they have at Rice, or co-ops like at Oberlin--otherwise freshmen are cast adrift and have even more difficulty finding their people.

Juniata has a good inbound experience (open to all incoming freshmen—not just those who can afford it). The kids get to pick from a wide range of fun experiences . That way, you are automatically introduced to other freshmen who chose the same focus. And when classes start you have some built in familiar faces.

Tell us more about Juniata! 😂

It sounds like many parents are grateful for details about specific CTCL’’s, if they are considering them, or trying to narrow their list.

And obviously, personal experience at a school is more useful than some snob’s impression from afar.

Did you know it’s against the rules on DCUM to say anything negative about Juniata? If you do, your post is immediately reported and removed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have a child that attended Eckerd, and whose second choice was Juniata. DC picked Eckerd because the student body was more geographically diverse and they liked the FL weather. Both Juniata and Eckerd gave comparable merit aid. Although DC picked Eckerd,we were both impressed by the significant personal attention that Juniata gave its applicants. In retrospect, I wish perhaps DC had picked Juniata. Eckerd had more entitled B student rich kids and there was a significant drug culture. I also think that when looking at small LAC it is important to figure out the social organizing piece. Schools need something---either a traditional greek system or "houses" like they have at Rice, or co-ops like at Oberlin--otherwise freshmen are cast adrift and have even more difficulty finding their people.

Juniata has a good inbound experience (open to all incoming freshmen—not just those who can afford it). The kids get to pick from a wide range of fun experiences . That way, you are automatically introduced to other freshmen who chose the same focus. And when classes start you have some built in familiar faces.

Tell us more about Juniata! 😂

It sounds like many parents are grateful for details about specific CTCL’’s, if they are considering them, or trying to narrow their list.

And obviously, personal experience at a school is more useful than some snob’s impression from afar.

Did you know it’s against the rules on DCUM to say anything negative about Juniata? If you do, your post is immediately reported and removed.

Completely unaware of that trend.

Our DCs did not look @ Juniata but I visited it for work decades ago. At that time, I found the campus charming - I’m a sucker for a river town. Their strengths were STEM, IIRC, especially biology. They wanted to expand their international studies program so that’s why I visited.

Checking them out now online, looks like they offer a master’s in some type of info sciences. Wonder if a student can get that in 4 years.

Guessing they draw from Philly, Pitt, maybe NJ. More international students than when I visited.

[Anonymous]

I went to a CTCL in the midwest and had a great experience! It was very small, and not much going on in the surrounding town, so the student body was very tight. I got to experience all the things - sports, music, various clubs, Greek life, study abroad, won a science research fellowship for the summer working with one of my professors, and more. After I came back from study abroad, my focus had changed and I felt adrift. I popped into the Dean of Students' office (he knew all of us, or at least it seemed like he did) and asked him for advice. He referred me to a bunch of prestigious fellowships, and I applied and won one. It truly did change the trajectory of my life and my career path.

Of course, I couldn't say that any other small school wouldn't have done the same. But where I otherwise at this stage of life might be advising my teens to steer clear of tiny schools in the middle of nowhere, I now know that these schools do offer tremendous opportunities and can change your life, so I will encourage my kids to consider them.