Long time lurker on College Confidential and this is my first post. Yikes! Sometimes this forum can be a little harsh and I ask this question full of sincerity.
I am an OWU alumna, my hubby a Wittenberg alumnus. We now live over 400 miles away from each but with a HS freshman daughter have begun to think about all Ohio LACs and other Midwest CTCL.
I do not want to hijack, but @Midwestmomofboys can you please briefly explain OWU as an outlier? When I read the original list, from my time living in Ohio, and from 2 alumni magazines, I would have placed Witt, OWU and Denison in one basket with similarities, and Kenyon and Oberlin in another. Don’t know enough about Wooster to feel informed.
Times change and I am not afraid to admit that but you did really peak my curiosity and I hope you will please shed a little light, hopefully with kid gloves.
I am really enjoying reading other similar suggestions on this threats. Thanks, all.
@Whitimane I wouldn’t call OWU an outlier, exactly, but I can say that to us it looked better on paper than in person. Maybe it was because there was a lot of construction, maybe we caught it on an off day, maybe the particular hodge-podge of students we met wasn’t truly representative, but it felt - to us - like a place that had seen better days. I think the faculty is very strong, and I know at least one (not recent) graduate who loved it, but it didn’t sing to us. Still worth visiting though. Another day might be a different experience, and if not, for us, at least, the contrast helped shine a light on other schools.
I feel I have to mention that Witt is (still) going thru budget issues and their majors are in flux.
@porcupine98 -thank you for offering your observation. Marketing departments
can do to amazing work with published pieces.
You’re pretty close to Earlham College in Indiana. It’s just on the IN/OH border, a couple hours from Wittenberg.
Allegheny is not too far away either, on the other side in PA. I think it’s 2 hrs from CoW, actually.
Also, @Whitimane, we found OWU’s freshman retention (79%) and 4-year graduation (60%) rates somewhat sobering. Contrast with Denison’s (89/79) or Kenyon’s (98/85) or even Wooster’s (89/70) and it raises some questions.
Numbers aren’t everything, but sometimes if you get a feeling about something, the numbers can shine some additional light. All that said, I’d still visit. It might have that special something a given kid is looking for, and the faculty is supposedly excellent. There’s a reason it’s included in the CTCL group.
Depends what your D is interested in and looking for, but having lived in Europe, would guess is not really into preppy/greek life?
Gettysburg, York, Franklin and Marshall I thought had a big greek presence?
Yikes I do tend to get everywhere on time @Midwestmomofboys so I do need to watch my foot on the gas. I have a large collection of tickets from around the country. Thanks for the warning! PS -for some reason my replies are not going under the original comment…
Yes I agree with the plan to rank the schools. We did that with D1 and it served us well -even at one point D1 suggested we hit the coffee shop half way thru a tour since she was not feeling the love on any level. Next step is to really dig into the retention rate, beat the NPC a bit harder, and have a Plan B, C and even D as far as what to nix before or along the way. I just wanted to cull as many that would be easy enough to visit / tour / explore and then par it down. Love all the help and suggestions!
@Whitimane When I described OWU as the outlier in that group, I was thinking about factors like, national vs. regional focus of the students/school, greek life, selectivity of admissions. OWU, Wittenberg, along with schools like Manchester in Indiana, Muskingham in Ohio – are schools with a more regional focus/student body.
Oberlin/Kenyon have become super selective and I would consider them peers in terms of academics and admissions. Denison and Wooster use merit money to build a more academically focused and diverse (especially at Denison) student body, and seem to have their eyes on getting close to Oberlin/Kenyon tier. As an anecdote, at a Denison admitted student day, my high school senior met someone choosing between Stanford and a full tuition scholarship at Denison (they chose Stanford) as well as students chosing between for ex., Northwestern, Brown and Denison, who chose Denison.
In building a list, take a look at the US News and Common Data Set for schools of interest, and see where your student falls in terms of gpa/test scores. If they fall 75% and above, they have a good chance at acceptance and merit. If in the bottom 25%, admission could be tough.
Hope that helps!
I hope this OHIO and a touch of PA road trip thread is helping others making the same journey. We took Oberlin off the list after Daughter determined there weren’t enough back up majors and she felt Obelrin wasn’t going to make it past the first cut list. Then Dickinsin was promptly placed on the list for many reasons and it is on the end of the route from Allegheny on our way to DC. As it is now, only two days have two visits…otherwise one school a day with lots of wandering around / eating / feeling the vibe time included.
Glad you added Dickinson. Which schools are currently paired up?
Hi @DoDEAMom18 - Life long Ohio resident here. I think you have the cream of our LACs on your list, and lots of other interesting places as well. A couple of thoughts. If your D does not like small (you mentioned that you thought Earlham was too small) then I would say that Kenyon is also VERY small, and fairly isolated. I absolutely LOVED it - but my D (who went to a small HS) thought it was not enough of a change. She liked Denison much better (and was accepted with significant merit aide)
Based on the stats you have posted, I think that there are some schools on your list that may be reach-y, especially if you are looking for merit aide. Doesn’t mean you shouldn’t visit- just go in with your eyes open 
You also have some schools that do not fit into what I think of as the “traditional” LAC basket. Doesn’t mean you won’t like it, but they may not be what you were originally looking for. I think the key to college visits is an open mind
If you are throwing one more school in PA- you might want to look at Bucknell (not far from Allegheny)
Watch your speed on 71 in Ohio, also. We travel between Columbus and Cleveland frequently, and there have been times that there have been 10 speed traps on that stretch. Sometimes, though, there are none. Just be watchful.
I agree that Columbus is also a foodie town. Maybe 10 years ago it wasn’t, but it is now. You don’t have to go far from OSU to find great food: German Village, Short North, south Clintonville, the Arena District, and more all have wonderful selections. Some of our favorites are Harvest Pizza (fantastic appetizers–best hush puppies ever with yummy honey butter, and I’m not a huge fan of hush puppies in general), Angry Bear (delicious, mostly unique combinations of local, healthy foods), North Market (walk around and choose from a variety of places, including Jeni’s ice cream, then eat upstairs or at the tables outside), Schneider’s (stop by their store basically next door and get homemade chocolates for later–you’ll be full from their dinner and cream puffs if you go and made those great choices), Mohawk (try the Mohawk sandwich), Nada (Mexican), and so many more. If you like ice cream, Graeters and Jeni’s are fantastic.
Cleveland also has great food choices, many of which have been mentioned here. West Side Market is a terrific place to experience, as someone else suggested. There aren’t a lot of prepared food places there (other than snacks, desserts and crepes, etc.), but there are some great restaurants around it. Mitchell’s is my favorite ice cream place in the Cleveland area. East Coast Custard is also great.
We travel a lot and use Yelp reviews, which we’ve found to be pretty reliable most of the time.
It sounds like you’ll be busy just visiting schools and driving through areas, but both Cleveland and Columbus have a lot to offer if you have time–nationally well-regarded zoos, beautiful parks, Lake Erie (Rocky River Park beach, Huntington Beach, and Edgewater are great places to view it), COSI, the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame, Playhouse Square, Cleveland Natural History Museum, the Scioto Mile in Columbus, art museums (Cleveland’s is world class; Columbus’ is much smaller but offers a lot of neat hands-on activities which make it unique), botanical gardens, etc… Columbus has some fantastic neighborhoods and towns all around it, including the area around Denison.
Happy exploring!
“Bucknell (not far from Allegheny).” Not really. Allegheny is in NW Pennsylvania. Bucknell is 3 1/2 hours to the east. In terms of Pennsylvania, Allegheny and Dickinson do sound like good ones to look at.
@sevmom - full disclosure, I have never been to Allegheny in my life (though I do have a loose idea of where it is- my D has a couple of friends there). I know it is in NW PA, (about an hour and a half of where I live in Cleveland) and I was thinking of it in terms of the drive BACK to DC - when they would have to be cutting across the LONG state of PA.
I also thought Bucknell fit more in the profile of some schools that seem to be of interest (Kenyon, Oberlin, Denison) than some of the others. There seems to be a wide range of academic profiles. That’s not a bad thing, a wide net is good. But if the goal is a “traditional” LAC experience, Bucknell fits that really well. And it’s another place where my D got strong merit aide (which seems to be a goal of the OP)
Also, in an earlier post, someone suggested Case Western in Cleveland…but since the OP stated that her D doesn’t want a science/math heavy school - I don’t think Case would be a good fit.
Agree that Case wouldn’t be a good fit with the others (though it’s well worth visiting with a tech-seeking kid). Not sure about Bucknell. Among the ones under discussion, itt seems on the farther end of the preppy/fratty spectrum – at least by reputation. I’ve never actually visited myself.
Also, the area around Bucknell might present a bit of a culture shock for someone who is living in Europe. My son spent a summer up there working in one of the state parks and could not wait to get out of there.
Thanks for the fabulous foodie insight @myloves …we don’t want to miss a meal and enjoy exploring towns based on our next snack! I was already starting a list of sights to have in our hip pocket to help get a feel for the towns. I agree @toowonderfull Kenyon was the next one on the chopping block as we are sure that it will be too remote but it is an easy visit even if we don’t take the official tour. We also just gained another day but have promised to not add on another school. D2 is much more open, easy going, and a bit funky that D1 (who is as black and white as a student could ever be), so we are looking forward to letting her explore and get the vibe. D1 was slightly obsessed since her freshman year on the college search while we claim that D2 would be fine if we just said “you are going to this college”. Fat Merit Aid is every parents dream but even with just the normal amount of merit aid based we are fine. But, shhhh don’t tell that to any colleges
I don’t know when foliage peaks in Ohio this year, but if that’s when you’re there, Kenyon may be worth visiting for sheer prettiness!