<p>These are two schools that never seem to be discussed. Back when I was a teenager in Chicago, I knew a fair number of students who went to these two schools, either because they couldn't get in to U of I or because they wanted to go to a smaller school.</p>
<p>The daughter of a friend is a 3.0 student looking for a smaller school, although not necessarily a LAC--possibly interested in a business curriculum, and these schools occurred to me.</p>
<p>Any up to date info on these schools?</p>
<p>At first glance I thought this thread was about the singer, Drake. 
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<p>I have nothing to add, but I’ve been wondering the same thing. Both those schools were top-of-mind for college-bound students from my small Illinois high school back in the day. I don’t think I’ve seen either mentioned here on CC. </p>
<p>Every year several students from my daughters’s high school go on to study at Bradley. We live in a medium size Illinois city. It seems as if Bradley attracts students who don’t want to move too far from home, but don’t want the big campus UIUC experience.</p>
<p>I also think Bradley has been generous with scholarships to high stats students who might otherwise choose UIUC. </p>
<p>I know of a several kids/adults who go to/went to Drake. It seems to be a career-oriented school–people who go there get hired–that’s my impression of it. It has a good reputation in this area.</p>
<p>I think this because of the 'regionalism" of our college system. Every area - at least in the midwest - has a couple of these institutions that are well thought of regionally that produce kids that get hired.There are several of those institutions in Michigan that never, ever get mentioned. Remember marketing on a national level is an expensive endeavor and not necessarily every institution needs nor desires to tackle that beast. The vast majority of college students do not leave their region for college. They may venture one state over, but they are not “launching” a national search for a college, nor do most college bound students need to do that. One compelling reason to “search” nationally is if the student wants or needs to live in that region post-graduation because most hiring frankly is also done regionally or perhaps that desired job is regional specific. In those cases there might be a leg-up to looking nationally. </p>
<p>I’ve also been surprised that Drake isn’t mentioned here much (I don’t know Bradley). My son is currently finishing his junior year in business at Drake. It’s been great for him! His dad and I both graduated from Wash U in St. Louis and we assumed our kids would go to similar kinds of schools. But that wouldn’t have been the best fit for him. He got a good score on the ACT (33) and had a reasonable high school GPA (3.5) with lots of AP classes. He played sports and did occasional extracurriculars in high school. He wanted a school that was challenging academically without being oppressive, small enough so that he could stand out but not too small, and with a friendly, comfortable student body. Drake has been all of that. In addition to a broad liberal arts and business curriculum, there have been lots of applied business experiences from freshman year onward. He has gotten internships the last two years-- and has one this summer that will likely turn into a job offer at graduation. It is easy in business to have concentrations, minors and to double major. From what I can tell with him and his friends, most kids graduate in four years. It was also appealing to us that the school is focused on undergraduates and is the main university in Des Moines-- so students get recruited a lot. I wasn’t familiar with Des Moines and it’s been a pleasant surprise-- a vibrant downtown with shops and restaurants and fun festivals. He’d like to stay there and work after graduation (darn it!).</p>
<p>In comparison, my daughter is now graduating from high school and looked at Drake among other schools. I think she would have done well there, and she also liked how comfortable and friendly the atmosphere was. But she is a liberal arts kid and ultimately chose a school (Emory) that she thought had more of a national research presence. </p>
<p>^^Congrats to your daughter on Emory–my oldest son went there, and loved it.</p>
<p>Also, thank you for your information on Drake–it goes along with what I remember of the school. It just seemed to me that no one ever mentions Drake or Bradley any more, and yet I remember both as being solid schools that achieved good results for their students.</p>