Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If it has as a 3 in front of it, it is a B (albeit a high B).

Breathe, your kid is smart and will do fine, if you stop treating this like a competition

Where do you get the idea that I am treating this like a competition? I asked people to recommend schools their kids went to and liked.

The comment was made to the person who seemed to be questioning whether 3.9 could somehow be interpreted as an A since THEIR child had taken difficult classes

Just trying to understand the range of colleges we should be looking at with that profile. In other words, do colleges feel that all Bs are the same? Would it be better to take easier classes to get As if you want to go to a great college? My sense is that it isn't like that, in which case not all Bs are the same. Or are they?

Anonymous wrote:OP, my daughter went to Union college in Schenectady, NY and loved it. It's in a beautiful setting and has been around since late 1700's. You should check it out.

NP...I was curious about Union, but may be a little too much for a B student. Per CDS 2018-19: 39% acceptance, 1430 SAT (75% percentile) and 46% top 10% of HS class

Great ideas! Keep them coming. OP here and I am keeping a list and investing. I really admire Jesuit education (I went to Loyola myself). I just hope some of these Catholic colleges offer a lot of FA because they are $$$. My alma mater costs more per year now that I actually make in a year. That is craziness!

OP, my daughter went to Union college in Schenectady, NY and loved it. It's in a beautiful setting and has been around since late 1700's. You should check it out.

Anonymous wrote:Okay, I think we know everything you think on this topic.

Ad nauseum.

DP. I though her post was thoughtful and helpful. Yours on the other hand......

Anonymous wrote:Okay, I think we know everything you think on this topic.

Ad nauseum.

Sorry if my ideas actually involve analysis and more than just throwing out random colleges like so many other posters have.

Michigan.

note: No financial aid, legacy, private K-12, and five years of verified demonstrated interest (summer camps and programs).

Okay, I think we know everything you think on this topic.

Ad nauseum.

Anonymous wrote:Here's my thinking on the CTCL issue. Generally speaking, the schools' target audience is parents who really wish their kids could go top ranked private colleges but know that they can't. The book feeds into this insecurity by marketing the schools as somehow special. But they're not. They're mediocre and tend to attract underachievers with disappointed parents -- a recipe for low graduation rates.

If I were a parent of a B student (I wasn't), there's no way in hell I'd pay private school tuition to send my kid to a school full of pampered underachievers. I'd look instead at the top 10-15 schools on the regional university list on US News. Take the northeast region, for example. A half dozen of the top 10 -- Providence, Loyola of Maryland, Fairfield, Scranton, St Joe's -- are Catholic and mostly Jesuit. They are full of B students who worked hard in high school. They offer practical programs and practical degrees, virtually all of them have graduation rates above 80 percent -- which virtually none of the CTCL schools do -- and the students get good jobs. And it's not as if the schools have less name recognition; no one's heard of most of the CTCL schools at all.

To me, it comes down to who your peer group is. Are your fellow B students hard workers from solid families, or underachievers with pampering parents? You the former to rub off on your kid, not the latter.

I mean you WANT the former to rub off . . .

Here's my thinking on the CTCL issue. Generally speaking, the schools' target audience is parents who really wish their kids could go top ranked private colleges but know that they can't. The book feeds into this insecurity by marketing the schools as somehow special. But they're not. They're mediocre and tend to attract underachievers with disappointed parents -- a recipe for low graduation rates.

If I were a parent of a B student (I wasn't), there's no way in hell I'd pay private school tuition to send my kid to a school full of pampered underachievers. I'd look instead at the top 10-15 schools on the regional university list on US News. Take the northeast region, for example. A half dozen of the top 10 -- Providence, Loyola of Maryland, Fairfield, Scranton, St Joe's -- are Catholic and mostly Jesuit. They are full of B students who worked hard in high school. They offer practical programs and practical degrees, virtually all of them have graduation rates above 80 percent -- which virtually none of the CTCL schools do -- and the students get good jobs. And it's not as if the schools have less name recognition; no one's heard of most of the CTCL schools at all.

To me, it comes down to who your peer group is. Are your fellow B students hard workers from solid families, or underachievers with pampering parents? You the former to rub off on your kid, not the latter.

Anonymous wrote:As opposed to the smart folk who buy in to US News crap,

Oooh burn.

Arizona State (with $), Alabama (with $), Syracuse, U. of Illinois, Penn State, Drexel (with $). Unweighted B with 32 ACT

Anonymous wrote:As opposed to the smart folk who buy in to US News crap,

I don’t put much weight into USNWR rankings but at least it has a published methodology and a history....it’s a real ranking whether you agree with it or not. The CTCL list is just conjured nonsense.

As opposed to the smart folk who buy in to US News crap,

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Check out Colleges that Change Lives. It's a book about overpriced second tier colleges for B students for parents who wish their kids could get into top schools but can't. DCUM families drool over the book . . .

OP, instead of believing this nasty post, I suggest you search for other threads on DCUM about CTCL. No need to rehash here what has already been discussed ad nauseum by proponents and opponents of those colleges and the types of students who actually attend them

OP, CTCL schools give very generous merit aid. Get him to study for the SATs. It pays dividends.

OP, CTCL schools are second tier and half their students don't graduate. They're a total scam. Send your kid to a solid Catholic college -- Jesuit if you can -- and they'll actually graduate with a marketable degree and do well. Don't waste your time on second tier liberal arts colleges.

Why is CTCL a trigger word for someone in this forum? Many people have had good experiences there, and have a right to share that. It’s not marketing , it is the purpose of this thread.

DP. People find it irritating that rubes have bought into a marketing scheme for a fairly random group of mediocre LACs that some author cooked up 30 years ago.