I’m looking for more info on some of the CTCL schools in the midwest. A lot of them seem very similar to me, so I’d like to get a better sense of their differences, especially in terms of their student bodies. I know the best way to get a sense of this is to visit, but I’m not sure I’m going to get a chance to do that, and if I did I definitely wouldn’t be able to visit all of them. The ones I’m interested in are:
St. Olaf College
Lawrence University
Beloit College
College of Wooster
Earlham College
Kalamazoo College
Knox College
I am mainly looking for schools with a liberal, artsy, politically active, creative-type student bodies, if that helps at all. I’m also interested in studying music (both performance and composition/ethnomusicology/other things), which I know St. Olaf and Lawrence are very strong in. Any info on the music departments of the other schools would also be greatly appreciated!
You can find some visit reports if you do a search of the forums, though they don’t seem as common as they used to be. For example, former poster @carolyn wrote reviews of Earlham, Beloit, and Knox in the thread below. It’s 10 years old but might still be useful.
Wooster looks like it might be your 3rd best bet in terms of music. They offer a performance degree and had a decent number of majors. Pretty solid artsy contingent in general, it would appear, with a fair number of fine arts and dance majors as well.
Knox looks quite artsy, too, and I think exceptional players can participate in the Knox-Galesburg Symphony, in which many of the Knox music faculty play as well, I believe.
I just got accepted to Kalamazoo today. It definitely seems like the type of place you’re looking for.
As far as artsy, creative, and music go, there is an Art Hop every month in Kalamazoo that you’d definitely be interested in. K-zoo also hosts some movie showings every month if you’re interested in that. It seems like a strong community.
The west side of the state does tend to be more conservative, but Kalamazoo seems adequately liberal. It’s a small city, so there should be a decent amount of political activism.
If you search this forum for each school name, you’ll find a number of threads that compare and contrast several of them. I only have firsthand experience with one (a visit to Wooster), so can’t offer an authoritative run-down, but all were on my kid’s radar at one point or another, and it sounds as if any of them would meet your criteria. I’d agree that Lawrence and Wooster both have the strongest reps for music (Lawrence has a conservatory). Sometimes it’s helpful to check schools out on a map, or compare their size side by side. (Earlham and Beloit are the smallest on your list. St. Olaf is the largest.)
My son has visited all but St Olaf and Beloit on that list. Factors which differentiate them:
Trimester at Knox, Lawrence and Kalamazoo vs. semester at the others; greek life exists at Lawrence, Knox, Wooster and Beloit but is, compared to other schools, “non-traditional” vs. no greek life at Earlham and Kalamazoo; Earlham is 1100 students, Beloit under 1400, and Knox and Kalamazoo just over 1400, Lawrence I think closer to 1800, and Wooster around 2000. Kalamazoo and Wooster both require all students to complete a capstone research project, the others provide it as an option for specific majors. Location: most of them are in smaller cities small to medium towns/cities. Consider travel, especially if you are coming from a coast. Knox and Beloit are very accessible from Chicago airports, Wooster is accessible from Cleveland airport, Earlham would probably be Indianapolis airport.
All have accepting, warm communities where difference is supported and celebrated – we saw men in skirts at Knox and Kalamazoo, all colors of hair at Lawrence, and there apparently was “cape guy” at Wooster.
My son is interested in continuing his instrument in college, in a small way, and in addition to Lawrence and Wooster, he was impressed with the music opportunities at Knox.
All of these have very good merit aid to attract high achieving students, which was a big part of my son’s search.
I know I’ll get grief for this but my daughter found Beloit a bit too hipster for her taste and they dropped Ceramics for Printmaking without telling us after she was clearly interested in Ceramics as a potential major. We found that kind of rude and made us wonder how organized they were administratively. (This was their admitted student day.)
She is currently a Senior at Knox and couldn’t be happier for the last four years. She loves the trimester because whenever she is off from school she is done with classes for the term removing all pressure during vacations. She also found that she would be a bit more adventurous with the trimester because she could survive any class for ten weeks even if it wasn’t her favorite. The people are great, warm and giving, admins, profs, and kids. The programs are pretty flexible if you have a logical reason to change something they’ll listen and have been known to modify to more closely match what you are looking for.
They have a great alumni network and have raised enough money in the last few years to renovate and open a building that had been closed for quite a while and also begin construction on a new Fine Arts building which would separate the Fine Arts from the Performing arts by the end of 2016 I believe. They also have won numerous awards in many, many areas from Creative Writing to Science.
Oh and did I mention that the Honor Code is very strong there - you can take tests anywhere on campus except for the bathrooms.
I don’t know the other schools but can’t say enough great things about Knox. Good luck!!!
Wooster is strong in music, offers a Bachelor’s of Music and Bachelor’s of Music Education. There are also a good number of students within the department, and even more students in various musical activities on campus. The average student is usually left-leaning though not far-left. While it’s not a super artsy campus, I’d say creativity is very high and very valued here. The Humans vs Zombies game played every semester attracts tons of students and incorporates detailed plots, most seniors will dress up in costumes for the annual parade in their honor after turning in their capstone projects, and our entire marching band wears kilts and even has a group of students who play bagpipes, a position equal to a celebrity on campus.
St. Olaf is the largest of your group, has a stunning Music program, and is very Midwestern and welcoming. It is probably the most conservative of the group, but keep in mind that is for a college campus, which are notoriously liberal in general. No greek life at all, residential dorms, and tons of Skandihoovians!
@ColdinMinny I read that a lot of kids at St. Olaf come from the suburbs of Minneapolis. Do you know if this causes clicques in terms of people knowing so many from their HSs? For example, I know a bunch come from Edina HS. Is it easy for those coming in not knowing anyone to fit in? Thx
I do, indeed, think that some HS kids stick together. But with over 3000 students, you are going to “find your tribe” certainly. My S’s class had 5 go to Olaf, and as far as I know only 2 of those 5 are still hanging out together socially.