Has anyone attended a CTCL event? I’m thinking of going due to the sheer number of colleges that will be represented. The event is in LA. I was originally planning to visit UCLA and USC but I think the CTCL event would be more worthwhile. Does anyone have experience? Is it worth attending?
We just attended a CTCL event last night. There was a 30 minute presentation by a rep prior to the fair. The speaker was very good at highlighting advantages of a liberal arts education. She gave several examples of finance and tech firms that are hiring liberal arts graduates because of their abilities to look at the bigger picture and actually be able to talk with people. One particularly interesting example was gaming companies hiring anthropology grads to design games because they know what the insides of ancient ruins and tombs look like.
The fair was held in a large room and each school had a table with information and brochures. Students and parents could talk and ask questions to the reps at each table.
My D talked to the rep at one of her top choice schools and got information from a couple of others. She said the event reaffirmed her thoughts that a liberal arts education is the right fit for her.
I had a bit of a different experience, but I think it comes down to what one wants to get out of the event. If your child is unsure about whether an LAC is right for her, I think it could be a very valuable experience.
In my D’s case, she was already quite sure, so we saw the event very pragmatically as an opportunity to “demonstrate interest” to as many of the schools as possible. After the 30 minute pep talk (yes, we heard the exact same script as Calimom), everyone is given a list of the participating schools, and the student just checks off in which schools s/he is interested and turns it in at the registration desk.No real interaction with those schools is necessary. For my D, there are three types of questions about any school. There are the general objective questions (e.g., what is average class size) that an admissions rep could answer, but could just as easily be found on-line. There are the subjective questions (do I “fit” here), which an admissions rep can’t answer, and then department/major-specific questions which typically cannot be answered by an admissions rep.
So we chalked it up as a bit of a waste given our circumstances, but it was only a 45-minute drive, so no harm done.
@calimom23 i decided to go to the fair as well! i have to agree, seeing the opportunities from each college solidified my decision to shy away from large universities and look more closely at LACs
We just attended one in LA on Sunday. All in all it was a worthwhile event for us, especially given the short drive (~ 45 minutes as well). We enjoyed the presentation by the the CTCL speaker.
My D was already pretty interested in some CTCL schools, so this was an easy way to get info on some additional schools and rub elbows with the reps from her targets. It turns out we discovered a couple other schools that she is now considering.
All that said, CTCL schools are generally the antithesis of USC & UCLA. You can get a great education at all sort of schools, just a matter of finding the right fit for you.
To be honest, we didn’t stay long in the room. My D had back surgery recently and between the drive, the presentation, and stopping at a couple of tables, she was hurting. But we had a nice chat with the rep from one of her top choice schools and she got information from another two but that was it.
I have the book, and think everyone applying to college should read it! I would attend for sure!
My daughter and I went last year to the CTCL fair and liked it much more than the enormous fair with 250+ schools (both in Northern Virginia).
You can chat informally with the reps before the presentation while getting coffee or tea. D chatted with the admissions director of Willamette although we didn’t know that. I think D discovered a new major from the chat. We waited a while after the presentation and then went to the fair - it cleared out so there were not so many people there. The small number of schools meant you can talk for quite a while with a rep. D talked to the one from Hampshire for about five minutes and in the end realized the school was not for her. She talked to several other schools as well.
I highly recommend going and staying. Have your child take advantage of the opportunity to talk to these reps and ask a lot of questions.
I recommend a little bit of research in advance so you have a smaller number of schools you would like to speak with and/or get information from. There are a lot of Christian schools on the CTCL list which doesn’t work for us, so I knew to eliminate them from the visit, some were in areas we weren’t interested in, etc. But we found the whole event very worthwhile.
I found it very worthwhile even though I take the LP book with a liberal sprinkling of salt. It’s a pretty efficient way of getting a lot of information quickly if you are seeking LACs that offer merit aid. There were a few I’d never heard of, and I found the admissions reps to be informative enough that I will research them further.
Many of the schools are very good to outstanding. The ones in the Northeast like Clark, Allegheny, Juniata and Ursinus are really excellent schools.