I remember taking “road trips” to numerous liberal arts colleges when my brother was preparing his college list (ended up at our state’s flagship), and there were much of a family bonding experience as they were educational and eye opening for me, a freshmen in high school at the time. I want to share with you the list of colleges within the “Midwest” that I remember visiting and others that I have heard good things about; a number of my friends have attended these liberal arts colleges. Not all are highly ranked, therefore they lack the “sex appeal” and prestige, so many CC posters may turn their noses upwards.
Let’s travel to the land of cornfields, flat land (not flat earth) and soybeans - to travel into the interior of America and into the “heartland.” Let’s see what this region has to offer.
Illinois
Knox College
Illinois Wesleyan
Elmhurst College
Illinois College
Millikin University
Monmouth College
Wheaton College
Lake Forest College
Indiana
DePauw University
Earlham College
Hanover College
Wabash College
Ohio
Oberlin College
Kenyon College
College of Wooster
Denison University
Antioch College
Baldwin Wallace University
Ohio Wesleyan University
Michigan
Kalamazoo College
Albion College
Hillsdale College
Hope College
Wisconsin
Beloit College
Lawrence University
St. Norbert College
Ripon College
Iowa
Grinnell College
Iowa Wesleyan University
Coe College
Cornell College
Minnesota
Carleton College
St. Olaf College
Macalester College
Gustavus Adolphus College
Hamline University
Concordia College
Sex appeal? Pray tell, in what way can a college have sex appeal?
Most CC posters are from either coast, so they tend to ignore Midwestern colleges from a purely distance standpoint. There are for sure some great ones in there though.
@ Qwert: As I wrote "Not all are highly ranked, therefore they lack the “sex appeal” and prestige … "
Is that enough praying and telling for you? Maybe I should say five Hail Marys and ten Our Fathers.
I’d also bet that many on CC who live on the West Coast or the Midwest apply to schools in the East, so maybe you should rethink that “purely distance” part.
D ended up in the South, but we visited 6 colleges on your list. I really liked Earlham. D liked Wooster and Denison–her best interview by far was with her Denison admissions officer, and she liked the senior research project that all Wooster students complete. Though many of the campuses are indeed flat, Kenyon and Denison are both situated on hilltops and both are beautiful. And even though Denison is located in a pretty, small town, it is very convenient to the Columbus airport.
Visited many midwest LACs with my 2 kids. They didn’t end up at any but amongst our favorites: Carleton (love this school and was a little sad when child turned down offer), Lawrence, St, Olaf, Macalaster, Kenyon. We’re big fans of the down-to-earth and friendly midwest demeanor.
University of Minnesota - Morris and Truman State are two public ones with relatively low out-of-state costs that routinely seem to be ignored on these forums (it seems that most posters only think of private ones).
@ ucb: I heard good things about Truman State. Another public liberal arts that’s strong is Grand Valley State in Michigan, though its undergraduate population is +20, 000.
So far D1 and I have visited Carleton, St. Olaf, Oberlin and College of Wooster. All great schools! If they were in Massachusetts or Vermont, they would be much harder to get into. She had a phone interview with Earlham today and really enjoyed that as well. We wanted to visit Grinnell, but it’s not happening this summer, no more time, no more money. I’ve only heard wonderful things about that school. A very high end college adviser in a snooty New England college town directs his clients to the midwestern schools and says they are the best deal in higher education.
We visited Carlton, Oberlin, Macalester and Grinnell. S fell in love with Grinnell and graduated from there (along with his now wife) several years ago. I had no intention of even considering colleges in the midwest - ‘flyoverland’ stereotypes. My bad - I’d have missed so much. Saved by my kid who loathes pretentiousness, posturing and any Ivy-league ‘wannabe’ vibe. The midwestern LACs are indeed treasures. Were the ones I mentioned above located on either coast, the selectivity would go through the roof.
Blue147; is it your point that there are very fine colleges in midwestern states? Well yes, there are. No secret there.
But I don’t buy the argument that if they were located in the coastal time zones they would be more popular. I mean, Occidental, Whitman, Lewis & Clark, Wofford, Belmont Abbey, Randolph Macon are all very fine colleges situated in coastal regions and they are certainly less well known than other schools on the Eastern Seaboard and in the west. Heck, they are even less well known than many colleges in the midwest such as Oberlin, Kenyon, Dennison and Cornell.
No disrespect to Occidental, Whitman, Lewish & Clark, etc…but the midwestern LACs that I mentioned are academically much more demanding and attract students for whom that’s a plus. Take a look at the Common Data Sets for each of the schools to compare them.
Whitman is a great and beautiful school. If it was such a pain to get to, it’s acceptance rate would be much lower. It suffers from a “you can’t get there from here” issue.
Midwestern LACs, particularly those in the “Colleges That Change Lives,” have long been viewed very favorably on CC, and Grinnell in particular has been aggressively promoted. That said, it’s nice to see some of the rarely discussed LACs like DePauw get a mention.
Carleton is perhaps a bit low, but the others have very respectable showings.
Kenyon had a notable year with a record 7077 applications (class of 2019). Admissions yields are low, however, for some colleges, irrespective of location, that have recently eased their application requirements.