<p>Well, my S took it down to the wire, but as the deadline draws near, his enthusiastic choice is Colorado College. We just dropped the deposit check in the mail.</p>
<p>This has been a long process. The final decision came down to CC and our state's public "honors college", where total costs (even after factoring in a CC merit scholarship) would run quite a bit less. The public LAC (like CC) has a beautiful campus in a gorgeous natural setting, and a good academic reputation. But it just did not seem to have the same sparky intellectual atmosphere (not to mention the Block Plan).</p>
<p>For example, in the other school's classrooms, he observed that the chairs generally face the white board in row after row. In the class he attended, the professor did almost all the talking. At CC, chairs are arranged in circles. The class he attended was discussion-based with lots of student dialog. To him, that's a better way to learn. He likes the idea of focusing on material one subject at a time, too. The daily class schedule can run a little more like baseball than football (no clock, it ends every day when it ends.)</p>
<p>CC seems like a lively, intimate community where people are nicely engaged with each other, with ideas, and with the natural world. It offers better opportunities for outdoor recreation than just about any other highly ranked school in the country. Throw in an interesting music scene, plus Division I hockey, and it all adds up to a nice little gem of a college.</p>