<p>I'm hoping to start a new CTCL thread to help those looking at those schools for our kids who will graduate in 2014. The last CTCL thread was great until it was hijacked by someone who just wanted to argue against the CTCL philosophy. I'd love to see a thread where we can get past that. If you would like to debate CTCL great, I will too, but do that on your own thread.</p>
<p>I'm a graduate of New College of Florida, now looking for a school for my 2014 daughter. She loved NC when we visited and will apply. We are also interested in several other schools from the book, College of Wooster, Beloit, Kalamazoo, Lawrence, Puget Sound, and Whitman. Are there other schools from CTCL (or otherwise) that we should look at in this category? We are not looking at schools affiliated with religion.</p>
<p>If anyone has some great CTCL inspiration or recommendations, I would love to hear it.</p>
<p>I can’t speak to the others, but my D has visited Puget Sound twice, the second time just last week for an admitted student overnight. She loved it and would be very happy there. She has her choices narrowed to two- UPS and Case. I know these are vastly different but I think the thought of a slightly larger school, after her small high school, appeals to her but I think she felt extremely comfortable and welcomed at Puget Sound. Three former students from her HS- two sophomores and a freshman- attend now and all of them couldn’t stop talking about how much they loved it and encouraging her to attend. Everyone there was so nice and the area is beautiful, and only 30-40 minutes from Seattle. The Sea-Tac airport sits midway between Tacoma (not all that impressive) and Seattle so it is easy to get to campus. If you haven’t already, it’s worth the trip and there are several schools you could visit at the same time.</p>
<p>New College is actually at the top of my list! Haha. The more I think about being a student there, the more I feel like It’d be a dream come true. I just really need to go visit that school, see if it’s what I’m truly looking for, and see if I’d be comfy there.</p>
<p>Also, I might recommend the [Honors</a> Tutorial College](<a href=“Honors at OHIO | Ohio University”>http://www.honors.ohio.edu/), a constituent of Ohio University. It’s a very unique college that definitely produces a life changing experience within its students, even though it’s not in Pope’s book. :p</p>
<p>My '13 son will attend Puget Sound, but he was admitted with nice merit $$ to a number of other colleges including both Willamette ($20K) and Ohio Wesleyan ($20K) so if this is important I would urge you to add them to your list. Also, Ohio Wesleyan was the best admissions office experience we had anywhere.</p>
<p>My son applied to, and was accepted at, a number of CTCL and CTCL-like LACs: Knox, Wooster, Wheaton (MA), Bard, and St. Olaf. He had generous merit scholarships from all of them. He chose Hendrix, and it has been the perfect fit for him. By way of background, in high school he was what might be called a “brilliant slacker”–very intelligent but not engaged in most of the large lecture classes at his huge public high school. He had great test scores and good grades (without trying) and a few ECs that were important to him personally.</p>
<p>At Hendrix he has found a like-minded community of really smart but not competitive kids who are motivated, collaborative, and interesting. While the student body is mostly from the south, there are kids from all over the country and the world. One of the ways we evaluated colleges before he applied was to look at the average test score ranges for each of them. Hendrix is VERY self-selecting–it is not especially difficult to get into, but the test score ranges are the same as or higher than many more selective colleges. The kids who are there WANT to be there. So far he has loved his classes and received personal support from several faculty members as he explores his academic interests. His classes are challenging and he is engaged and working hard for the first time in his life. Hendrix has a fantastic program called Odyssey that funds research, internships and other personalized experiences for students, and he is starting to think about what he wants to do for his Odyssey requirements.</p>
<p>The campus is beautiful and well-maintained, and the location near the Ozarks is really appealing to outdoorsy kids. My son has made the most of opportunities to go backpacking, canoeing, climbing, fishing, and pretty much everything else you can do in a moderate climate. Plus Little Rock is a great small city with many restaurants and outdoor music festivals. A lot of kids have cars and he and his friends have made impromptu trips into LR for pho and other things they can’t get in Conway, which is a fine college town but not particularly exciting. Mostly, though, the kids stay on campus since there is always something going on. There are no fraternities so the dorms organize the parties, which are really fun and inclusive. They also bring a lot of bands to campus–Macklemore and Ryan Lewis played in the student center just after spring break.</p>
<p>I am now starting to work on child #2 in her college search, but I am not as confident I can convince her to go to a college smaller than her high school. I think she would love a lot of CTCL or similar schools–there are some real gems out there that stay under the radar for the most part.</p>
<p>I really hope this thread gets traction. I have a HS 2015 that sounds just like sally305 S! </p>
<p>St Olaf is in my neck of the woods. HIGHLY recommended by multiple neighbors that sent children there. All happy, engaged, and getting good jobs after graduation :)</p>
<p>What category do you mean?
LACs that are not super-selective?
LACs that offer merit aid?
LACs located anywhere in the USA but New England?</p>
<p>I’ve never been too clear about what distinguishes the ~50 CTCL schools from any of the other ~200 liberal arts colleges. Do Kenyon, Carleton, or St. Mary’s MD not change lives?</p>
<p>I’m not arguing against the CTCL philosophy, only against the idea that one can draw a clear boundary separating 50 colleges that fit the concept and 200 others that don’t.
My S is about to graduate from a LAC that is not on the CTCL list, but just about everything sally305 writes about Hendrix would apply to his school.</p>
<p>And, I don’t know if the O/P was referring to me when I have previously pointed out that the CTCL organization is strictly an advocacy / lobbying group … it has nothing to do with the quality of the member schools.</p>
<p>My middle S is finishing his junior year at Puget Sound-- it has been a great experience for him. He loves the school and the part of Tacoma where UPS is located. Like most cities there are others parts of Tacoma that are not great. It is easy to get to Seattle and to the airport. The school owns something like 55 houses surrounding the campus, which is a nice living option for students who want to be out of dorms but don’t want to deal with a lease, utility bills, etc that go along with off campus housing. If anyone has specific questions send me a PM</p>
<p>Oldest D went to Willamette (similar school) . She loved that as well The school is right across from the capital building so lots of opportunities for internships in the government/political science area. Again PM if you want to know specifics</p>
<p>Whitman is more selective than either of these schools. Other schools in NW that are similar are Lewis and Clark, Pacific University (the one near Portland, not U of Pacific in CA) Pacific Lutheran and Linfield.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that the organization evolved from the book by Loren Pope. The CTCL website describes his philosophy and the common criteria among these schools. It also says:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>It is important to realize that there are MANY colleges that fit these criteria, and also that the schools on the list are not equal in terms of intellectual capabilities among the students. I would encourage anyone considering ANY college to do their homework on common data sets or look at collegenavigator.gov to learn about the academic profiles of admitted students. Don’t just assume that because you have “heard of it” it is “better” than one that you haven’t.</p>
<p>For instance, using USNWR as a starting point (not that I am a fan, but it serves as a baseline or context for many people here), many would likely say some of the popular east coast LACs are “better” than those in other parts of the country, and they would use the rankings to support this assertion. In many cases they are “more selective” simply because more kids apply. But the stats tell a different story in terms of the makeup of the student body. So on USNWR, Hendrix is ranked #70, with a 25%-75% ACT range of 26-32. Bryn Mawr (#26) has a range of 26-30. So does Trinity (#38). Dickinson (#41) and Lafayette (#39) are 27-30, Bucknell (#32) is 27-31. The list goes on. If anything what the CTCL “designation” did for us was serve as a starting point to help characterize the type of environment we thought our son might thrive in, and introduce us to a range of schools we had never heard of because they were small and not in our area of the country.</p>
<p>There is no certification or accreditation process to being a member of CTCL.
There is no criteria at all.
Members are members for life.
Even if a school is very close to being bankrupt and has almost no students and no faculty.</p>
<p>Are there very good CTCL schools?
Yes.
But it is because of the college itself, not a function of being a member of CTCL.
That is the point.</p>
<p>I agree – even if a person hopes to attend a small LAC, it would be a mistake to limit one’s college search to the CTCL schools – there are a lot of other wonderful schools out there. Attending a college that is a good academic and social fit regardless of the school’s size, location, affiliation etc. will change a person’s life forever!</p>
<p>“I’m hoping to start a new CTCL thread to help those looking at those schools for our kids who will graduate in 2014. The last CTCL thread was great until it was hijacked by someone who just wanted to argue against the CTCL philosophy. I’d love to see a thread where we can get past that. If you would like to debate CTCL great, I will too, but do that on your own thread.”</p>
<p>Really, no need to debate CTCL here. You can do it elsewhere. I just want to hear about experiences with the schools . . . and merit aid.</p>
<p>And now the question above from tk:</p>
<p>“What category do you mean?
LACs that are not super-selective?
LACs that offer merit aid?
LACs located anywhere in the USA but New England?”</p>
<p>No. Although merit aid is nice. And some of these schools are quite selective, thank you. New College, Reed, Whitman. Tho not super selective. </p>
<p>LACs that are known for good teaching, where one is not just a number, with small discussion-based classes, where you often have to complete a significant research project to graduate. For me it would be a place that has little or no Greek life, and very little emphasis on sports, and a socially-conscious, liberal student body that enjoys philosophical discussion.</p>
<p>redpoint, you can’t fight the axe-grinders. They will hijack your thread for their own personal axe-grinding no matter how nicely you ask.</p>
<p>My close friend and colleague attended a CTCL school and it really did change his life. He went to Birmingham-Southern College. He was a guy from a family that never really encouraged school or learning, in an exurb outside Birmingham. He tells the story of comparable classmates who went to state schools, and the outcomes were mostly unhappy. He OTOH became a lifelong learner and continued his education with an MS in Engineering, an impressive accomplishment coming from a LAC. He is now a brilliant researcher. Of course he was talented to begin with, but BSC really nurtured that and gave him a chance to excel.</p>
<p>My D just committed to Whitman. She applied to a wide range of schools and was accepted to many. It came down to a choice between three widely different schools, Whitman, UC Berkeley and UChicago. UChicago did not offer very good aid - no merit (although I did not expect any from them) and very poor “need-based.” Berkeley offered no grant aid (again, was not expecting any), but we live in California and so it is relatively affordable (if you can use that term for colleges these days). Whitman offered nice merit aid and increased it 50% with need-based, putting it in the ballpark of Berkeley. My D was not willing to take on big loans to go to UChicago.</p>
<p>After soul searching (and advise) she came to the realization that the small liberal arts environment would be the way to go even though the name recognition and “prestige” might be higher at Berkelely. She is very excited to go to Whitman. It seems like a great place to me from reviews and reading (she visited but I have not). Although there is a significant Greek presence, it seems much mellower than at many other schools and the indies and Greeks mix without problems. It seems very rigorous, but also more laid back than most of other colleges that admit the same GPA/test scores. It has a strong outdoor focus (which suits my D), it has strong community service ties (again, great for my D) and the discussions in and out of classes seem vibrant. </p>
<p>I had heard of CTCL (although I have not read it) and am glad that Whitman is on list. As others have said, CTCL is just one of many sources that can be used to understand and evaluate your choices, but it is a good one. There are lots of great small schools not on the list, but being on it means that the college has some specialness. It makes me feel better about her chances of having a great experience that will help shape her into an even more impressive person than she already is.</p>
<p>Thanks Idahomom for info on Redlands…I am such a newbie they won’t let me do a private response. I really look forward to hearing about your sons exper. at U of R in the fall!</p>
I just really need to go visit that school, see if it’s what I’m truly looking for, and see if I’d be comfy there.</p>