<p>They added 4 new schools and LC is one-coming in August.</p>
<p>Thanks for that info! I stopped visiting the PR website a long time ago, sort of an evolutionary process. Is this their "Best 357 colleges" book? What are the other 3 new schools?</p>
<p>just checked their website - they say 8 new schools have made the cut. :)</p>
<p>Actually, I think the "8 new schools" blurb is for last year's edition ("Best 357 Schools"). The new book coming in August will now be called the Best 361 schools, so I assume there will only be 4 new schools, including Lynchburg.</p>
<p>Edit: Oops, I take it back. Just saw a press release from another schools that indicates there will be 11 new schools. So I guess they're dropping 7 schools as well.</p>
<p>I'd be sceptical about the ratings. They are based on things like number of alums who donate and other non-academic things. I have it from an inside source (a LC prof) that things are not going great. They're in big debt and their star professor of the year from 2003 quit on them (I heard out of disgust). Someone on another board was talking up the college with lots of figures. I bet one of the college people's on this site planting lots of rosy info to be sure potential students think it's all great. We know what they say about judging a book by its cover....</p>
<p>May I ask why you dislike LC so strongly? Have you attended the school, or just "heard" from inside sources?</p>
<p>I would be interested in this as well. Is your inside source, an LC prof, unhappy? Is this coloring his or her opinion of the school? Dr. Hale is still listed as a current professor on Lynchburg's website. </p>
<p>I'm not trying to be too terribly skeptical, but I would honestly like more info on your sources.</p>
<p>Inside SOURCES (plural). Most profs I know are unhappy. Some because of salary and some for other reasons. Dr. Hale has gone (quit) and will be teaching at James Madison next year. The fact she's still on the website says nothing except that the college doesnt want to acknowledge the loss of such a well known professor. Two other profs quit as well and I just heard yesterday that they didnt give tenure to one of their profs who has published a bunch of books. Remember that private colleges live and die by reputation and they have an office to spin and create image. Dont judge a college by its website.</p>
<p>Do you attend LC?</p>
<p>Thank you for the comments, ipso. It's always difficult to get a good feel for a college, so I don't but 100% confidence in anything, including websites, mailings, visits and CC comments. But they all go in the basket of knowledge. I can understand how LC wouldn't want to publicize the loss of Dr. Hale, but I'm surprised that JMU hasn't announced it. Also, like Justinian, I'd be interested in hearing if you are a current (or former) student.</p>
<p>Former. Graduated a couple of years ago, but I still keep in touch with a few friends and profs back in Lynchburg. Frankly, if I had it to do all over I would have gone somewhere else but once youre so far in your major it makes it tough to start somewhere else.</p>
<p>The atmosphere at LC is like a glorified high school. There were a few serious students but most were just interested in partying and sleeping around. My prof friends confided that the pressure to get good student evaluations makes them baby their classes. That was certainly my experience.</p>
<p>According to the NSSE survey most LC students disagree with Ipso.</p>
<p>Using the colleges own website to support your argument is not very impressive. In addition, the fact that Barron seems to make a living posting on this website (almost 3,000 posts) tells me that he (she?) has a vested interest in promoting this college. I think Shakespeare said it best, "Me thinks he doth protest too much." I would guess that Barron works for Lynchburg and spends part of the day on this site to promote the school and fight off "bad publicity". But what do I know? I only attended the school.</p>
<p>Ummmm. No. </p>
<p>While Barrons does live in Lynchburg (part-time, I believe) and is a fan of the school, your accusation that he's an insider shill isn't correct. FWIW, even though the info comes off the colleges website, I take the NSSE rankings seriously -- one of the few independent measures of what type of experience the students are getting.</p>
<p>Interesting, indeed!</p>
<p>I have no connection to LC. I just think it's a good school for what is often called the "B" student. I have met a few faculty and admins when living in the Burg.</p>
<p>Part of this discussion has been about the quality of LC. Here's an attempt to be objective. If you want a good measure of the strength of any college, do this (my professor in grad school recently taught me this). </p>
<p>Look at the college's endowment, the number of students enrolled, and the average SAT score, and you can get a pretty good estimate of what to expect in academic rigor. </p>
<p>If, like LC, the endowment is not super high (it's about $60 million), the number of students is not very high (about 2,000), and the average SAT is middle/average (LC's is a little over 1000), then you can make an educated guess that the college is very tuition dependent. This means that that there is a natural pressure NOT to push students too much or they might leave or fail out. This is exactly the story I have heard from some of my former professors at LC and some of the guys I knew back in school.</p>
<p>I was lucky that I entered LC very prepared and essentially learned by myself. But if I could do it again, I would have gone elsewhere. It's a great friendly place where you can certainly find lots of parties on the weekends, but it's not a very intellectual place (I mostly stayed in my dorm room or the library).</p>
<p>Enough said on this topic.</p>
<p>You revive a 2 and a half month old topic just to make one (pretty weak) point and then say "enough said on this topic"? Good grief.</p>