<p>I'm the parent of a high-school sophomore, starting to help her build "the list" of college choices. Can anyone comment on the quality of education--as well as the educational philosophy at the College of Wooster? The impression I'm getting is that, while it's less selective than, say Kenyon or Oberlin, it provides a solid, nurturing educational environment and makes students better thinkers and writers than they were when they started. That's pretty cool. What I'm looking for is what's "between the lines."</p>
<p>Marie – I have the same impression as you do, but mine, as yours, is from the outside. We met a couple of professors and students and got a good vibe when we visited Wooster last Fall, but that is not the same as going through 4 years as a student.</p>
<p>Wooster is well known in academic circles. It focuses on teaching with some research. Students appear to be happy with Wooster. The few negative comments I have read at <a href="http://www..com%5B/url%5D">www..com</a> (<a href="http://www..com/OH/CWT.html%5B/url%5D">http://www..com/OH/CWT.html</a>) are generic (i.e. I think those students would be unhappy in most other places) and complain about lack of urban life in Wooster.</p>
<p>When I hear negative or positive feedback about a college, I try to look for specific examples provided in support of that feedback. If the feedback is generic, I mostly ignore it because I think the student providing that feedback would be happy or unhappy in most other places.</p>
<p>A college degree prepares a student for grad school or a career. But we also need to determine how much the evaluators on the other side, such as employers and grad school ad coms, value Wooster’s education. My impression so far is that while Wooster does a great job of preparing students, it is underrated. I’m noticing that Wooster is picking up recognition. For example I went to a thread in college search forum where about 400 messages were posted on the topic of “list of colleges you have applied to” and found that 11 applied to Wooster. That is higher than what I expected and is also higher than a few other LACs that are better known than Wooster. I have also looked at another thread that listed underrated and overrated colleges/universities and found that Wooster was often listed in the underrated category (while U of Florida and a few other large state univs were listed as overrated). My tentative assessment is that Wooster is up and coming and if the trend continues it will be a better known school in 4 or 5 years when the 2013 and 2014 classes graduate.</p>
<p>Would like to hear other opinions.</p>
<p>Edit: The *'ed website is “students” + “review”, all one word. Add dot com at the end.</p>
<p>Thanks. Poking around CC, I have mostly read good things about Wooster, but am looking for all the info I can get. Yikes. These kids going to college all used to be BABIES.</p>
<p>Our son graduated COW in May, 2009 with a sociology degree. Loved the school, academics, professors, friends. Small town life not so much. However, lots of kids complained, but then seldom made the trek to Cleveland.</p>
<p>Wooster has a very high percentage of students who are children of educators. That fell into my comfort zone.</p>
<p>Happily, our son’s COW degree earned him a job! One of 10 hired out of 200 applicants. His current coworkers have degrees from Harvard, Amherst, Dartmouth, U of Chicago and a few other more “prestigeous” spots.</p>
<p>Marie, I had one more thought about Wooster - actually several!</p>
<p>When we visited campus the feeling was that COW would work with our son based on his interests and wants for the undergraduate experience. At other schools we sometimes heard the message, “You child is SO LUCKY to be able to come here”. Not the same at all.</p>
<p>Also, COW very recently made the top ten in a list of schools highly regarded for undergraduate education.</p>
<p>Finally, COW is well known among educators and counselors, not so well known among the general public. </p>
<p>Hi Marie - just a story to add to what others have already said…</p>
<p>A recent grad of COW (same major as my D) secured a position at a pretty prestigious lab at the university here doing some groundbreaking stem cell research. With the experience she gained at COW (including the IS, which equates to a grad thesis in many cases), she is now working alongside researchers from much better-known/higher ranked schools and doing quite well. D is going to visit the lab during the spring break and (hopefully) work there during the summer, she doesn’t care if she spends all day cleaning equipment, she’d do it for nothing!</p>
<p>My son is a freshman at Wooster, and he’s extremely happy there. He went 7-for-8 in his applications (only rejected from Oberlin) at a nice cross-section of selective midwestern liberal arts colleges, and chose Wooster. As he was offered a nice dean’s scholarship, the cost is lower than many of the other “more selective” schools, and he is working quite hard with professors who are caring and responsive. He has expressed (to us and to others) his feeling that “Loren Pope was right. Wooster is the best kept secret in the college world”. He’s also looking forward to his IS, and expects the work on that project to develop an expertise that may be used professionally beyond his college years.</p>
<p>He does note that the town of Wooster is pretty small, and there’s not much reason (other than alcohol runs – yes there is some alcohol use at Wooster) to leave campus. But that was true for every one of the schools to which he applied.</p>
<p>As far as reputation goes, I don’t see Wooster hurting him or helping him any more than any other small liberal arts college does. My own college’s reputation (an Ivy League university) has done very little for my personally or professionally. Provided my son gets the exposure to a wide variety of learning materials and studies hard in the areas of his interests, I expect that he will make his own reputation in the field of his choice. So far anyway, he’s choosing to take his college experience seriously, and the College of Wooster seems to be supporting his choices very well.</p>
<p>He loves the experience so far, and we’re delighted with his choice. Good luck.</p>
<p>Now as to my 16 year old daughter’s possible college choices… Hmm.</p>
<p>college of wooster seems to be coming up the ranks of “great schools you’ve never really heard of” and becoming more selective. highly regarding by college counselors and attendees.</p>
<p>I don’t put much stock in rankings, but COW is easily a Top 40 liberal arts college–on par with Rhodes, Gettysburg, and Furman. I predict that COW will rise in the U.S. News & World Report over the next few years. First of all, the college has become much more selective --at around 59% the last few years. More importantly, better students are applying to COW, getting admitted, and actually choosing to attend. That will increase overall statistics of the incoming class as well as the yield.</p>
<p>Still, COW has always had strong academics and that will continue. No one there really cares about rankings in the sense that it dictates what is taught, how it is taught, how students feel, and what they learn. Nevertheless, a move up the U.S. News & World Report rankings would help students, especially recent graduates. </p>
<p>Also, there’s a new marketing campaign in effect so that COW isn’t a “hidden gem” anymore, but rather a well-known LAC in Ohio on par with Denison and even Kenyon and Oberlin. (I think Denison and Wooster are fairly equal, though some folks are under the impression that Denison is ahead of Wooster academically. Not at all. Kenyon and Oberlin are a little bit stronger academically than both Wooster and Denison.)</p>
<p>My daughter graduated from Wooster in May 2012 and she has transformed into a strong, confident young lady with no fears about her future. If she gets the interview, she gets the job offer. The independent study is ranked second to Princeton and it’s value is enormous whether they intend to apply to graduate school of a job. I cannot say enough good things about this school. It is truely life changing. I understand why so many professors send their children there and why it is so highly regarded when it comes to grad school admisions. Do not skip taking a good hard look at this school.</p>