<p>Does anyone have any experience with Loren Pope's 40 Colleges that Change Lives? Do they? How does a student today's experiences match up to the students described in his book?</p>
<p>Thanks--this would be very helpful to us as our daughter has applied to 5 schools, 4 which are CCL schools.</p>
<p>I applied to 4 CCL schools also, 8 schools total and ended up at one of the CCL schools.</p>
<p>Beloit College has been just what Pope had described so far. I love the enviroment, the classes and the people. I am a huge proponent of LACs and Pope’s 40 schools are ones everybody should look at.</p>
<p>I went to Rhodes and work there now. The description in the book is accurate.</p>
<p>Between two daughters they applied to five CTCL schools and looked at a couple more. DD1 attends Denison and loves it. I believe the description is accurate. If you have questions about specific schools I would post in those college forums or ask here about them by name.</p>
<p>My impression is that the CTCLs are solid LACs, with the same strong commitment to undergraduate education as the “top LACs”, but with less selective admissions standards. At one time, they were characterized as “great choices for B students”. </p>
<p>One ironic consequence of Pope’s book is that these schools have become increasingly well known and recognized, and therefore more selective. For example, it’s become increasingly difficult to see CCTLs like Whitman (66% of freshman had high school GPAs > 3.75, according to collegeboard.com) or Reed (70%) as schools for B students.</p>
<p>Erim’s Dad…</p>
<p>Do you know anything about Birmingham Southern College?</p>
<p>Pope’s book is spot on from what I can tell. </p>
<p>We considered a couple of schools in the book(s) and they were pretty much to the letter.</p>
<p>Whitman which we visited was very much like what Pope described and Denison was also.</p>
<p>Grinnell used to be in one of Pope’s older books, but has become more popular and has become more selective in recent years so it was not in the latest edition.</p>
<p>Grinnell seemed very much the way that Pope described it and was my S’s first choice school. He has just been accepted ED and will be attending.</p>
<p>St. Olaf is remarkably similar as well.</p>
<p>I really love that Pope has helped parents learn about some of these lesser known, but gem schools.</p>
<p>Pope’s book is spot on from what I can tell. </p>
<p>We considered a couple of schools in the book(s) and they were pretty much to the letter.</p>
<p>Whitman which we visited was very much like what Pope described and Denison was also.</p>
<p>Grinnell used to be in one of Pope’s older books, but has become more popular and has become more selective in recent years so it was not in the latest edition.</p>
<p>Grinnell seemed very much the way that Pope described it and was my S’s first choice school. He has just been accepted ED and will be attending.</p>
<p>St. Olaf is remarkably similar as well.</p>
<p>I really love that Pope has helped parents learn about some of these lesser known, but gem schools.</p>
<p>Jellyya, sorry. I don’t know Birmingham Southern College.</p>
<p>I found the descriptions accurate–except: 1) as Corbett noted, many became much more selective as a result of the book; 2) although described as emphasizing intellectual life, a number of CC posters have found some of the schools to be filled with more jocks, stoners and drunks than they expected; 3) many similar schools are not in the book, even when they are very close geographically to the included schools, so do not assume nearby schools not in the book are less worthy.</p>
<p>Catpb, as an aside, unless you have an acceptance in hand from a school your child would be happy to attend, or the 5 schools include 3 safeties, most guidance counselors would suggest you apply to at least 4 matches above 3 or 4 safeties. If you are seeking financial aid, I think even more application sis wiser, as I have seen schools give shockingly varying and unpredictable amounts of both merit and need-based aid.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>Thanks, everyone for your feedback! My daughter is accepted to our flagship state school, her financial safety (also her last choice!). She has first-rate credentials–academically, EC’s, leadership, service. I don’t expect any rejections, as she is in the top quartile for the schools she has applied to. We do hope for terrific merit aid, and carefully chose schools that have a high probability of delivering.</p>
<p>On a further level, has anyone noticed CHANGES in their kids that attend a CTCL or similar school, beyond what you would hope/expect to see or have seen in kids that attend larger, less personal schools?</p>
<p>yup-my D’s a freshman at Whitman. She absolutely loves it and came home at break just feeling really good about herself–academically, socially…She went to college a bit worried, well, about everything! She’s pretty much on fire right now.</p>