<p>My son has just finished his junior year at a CTCL college (Hendrix). So far it has been a great experience. I suspect there are parents out there who would like to hear about the colleges in general from parents with students currently studying there. Questions? Experiences?</p>
<p>I am not a parent, but I just finished up my freshman year at McDaniel College and will be transferring to Earlham College in August.</p>
<p>Our oldest son graduated from Centre College in Kentucky last year and our younger son just finished his sophomore year at Rhodes, (and right now he is doing a Maymester in Belgium). Both schools I think definitely have lived up to their reputations as being schools that can change your life. Our two sons are very different kinds of people, but we found that both of these schools offered a great collegiate experience. It is kind of funny, but aside from both of these schools being CTCL schools, the reason that we really looked at Rhodes was that our Centre son said that many of the kids of his professors at Centre sent their kids to Rhodes. I have nothing but good things to say about these schools and have recommended to my friends that they should look at CTCL schools before they get too far into the college search process.</p>
<p>D choose between Denison, Goucher and Wooster. She will attend Wooster in the Fall. So far we were particularly impressed with Denison and Wooster. Will let you know in the Fall how it goes.</p>
<p>My son is finishing his second year at Whitman and it has been wonderful. He has been challenged to try new things and mentored in some wonderful ways. His maturity has deepened and his horizons have expanded. It definitely is a college that changes lives.</p>
<p>I love to see threads like this one. The people I know who went to CTCL schools aren't as recent as those posting above. Glad to hear Loren Pope's noted schools are still on track.</p>
<p>Our D just finished her first year at Wooster. She was very happy with the academics and the social environment. It is a great feeling to see her so excited to go back next year.</p>
<p>Our daughter will be starting at Beloit College this Fall. We visited campus several times during the search process and were very impressed. She can't wait until August!</p>
<p>My D graduated from Reed a couple years ago.
Alas, much more competitive for admission now. ( from the 70%s to 30%s)</p>
<p>My s will be attending Kalamazoo College in the fall. He is thrilled, we are thrilled and the college staff has been awesome.</p>
<p>Part off their first year experience is a trip they offer before orientation starts called Land Sea. It is optional (my son is going) but it is an intense two week+ backpacking trip into Killarney Provincial Park in Canada. How many schools do things like that?</p>
<p>Harvard has FOP (first year something program) where incoming freshmen can choose to go on week long backpacking trips on the Appl Trail, led by upperclassmen. D didn't go as a freshman, but led trips in subsequent years. She wished she had gone as a freshman. It's a great bonding experience.</p>
<p>Mary13 and bbkitty, what other schools did your kids look at? Fang Jr. visited and loved Beloit; he'll definitely be applying. Kalamazoo is high on his list as well.</p>
<p>Son has a friend at Beloit, very happy there.</p>
<p>Cardinal F., my daughter applied to Beloit, Wooster, Lawrence, Earlham and Grinnell. We were able to visit all the schools except Earlham. We liked every one of them, but something about Beloit "clicked" with her, and it was always her first choice. She applied early admission, which is a good idea if your son hopes to interview for a merit scholarship (it's not binding).</p>
<p>Cardinal Fang-</p>
<p>My son looked at UChicago (where he was waitlisted) and U of Michigan-which after a visit decided he HATED. He loved Kalamazoo. He really didn't look at other small schools. Their study abroad program was one of the main reasons he had it on his short list.</p>
<p>Our youngest just finished first year at Whitman. She had some adjustments and got into a math class over her head first semester, but reports that she has never been happier.
She was able to make friends with upperclassmen who knew how to make the most of the experience as opposed to some freshmen who just spend every weekend in the dorm "partying".</p>
<p>my nephew, a rising grade 11 student, has asked about rhodes. he lives in atlanta, loves playing baseball, and is a B student.
any info you can pass along would be much appreciated!
thanks.</p>
<p>Our older D. visited and applied to several CTCL schools based on her reading of the book. She didn't set the world on fire in high school, but she was offered merit scholarships from Beloit, Kalamazoo and Clark, and chose Beloit based on her visit and gut feeling. She can't say enough about her Beloit experience. She discovered a passion for academics that she didn't have before, she was mentored and nurtured by her professors, and she took advantage of the many opportunities she was offered. Now she's in Harvard grad school with a full ride. Our younger D. wouldn't look at Beloit since she was afraid of being in her older sister's shadow. But we would have been happy if she had chosen to apply.</p>
<p>D and I are going on a two-part "Thelma and Louise" college tour this summer, which will take us to Allegheny, Wooster, Denison, Juniata, Goucher and Ursinus. She is also going to a discovery day at Rhodes in a couple of weeks. I didn't realize until now how many of the schools on the list were CTCL schools...I'll be busy posting those visit reports (and reading the book)!</p>
<p>We visited 8, all neat schools. She liked 2 on the first pass and those 2 stayed on the list till the very end (Centre and Rhodes). She also visited and applied to Hendrix and Millsaps. It was not intentional as we never bought or read the book. It just so happens the things she liked were found at those schools.</p>