<p>Just one quick comment for this reply - On Ramapo’s home page it says: “New Jersey’s Public Liberal Arts College.”</p>
<p>[Ramapo</a> College of New Jersey](<a href=“http://www.ramapo.edu/]Ramapo”>http://www.ramapo.edu/)</p>
<p>Maybe I was too trusting in simply accepting this statement to be true.</p>
<p>I’ve ordered the book - Transforming a College - as it does sound very interesting. I guess I’m not surprised that a college was falsifying scores given the recent history of school districts manipulating the SATs.</p>
<p>[Cheating</a> scandal a serious crisis for Atlanta schools | Jay Bookman](<a href=“http://blogs.ajc.com/jay-bookman-blog/2010/02/12/cheating-scandal-a-serious-crisis-for-atlanta-schools/]Cheating”>http://blogs.ajc.com/jay-bookman-blog/2010/02/12/cheating-scandal-a-serious-crisis-for-atlanta-schools/)</p>
<p>Of course, the students themselves have a bit of history in this regard as well.</p>
<p>[SAT</a> Scandal Uncovered At Prestigious Great Neck School District On Long Island CBS New York](<a href=“http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2011/03/14/sat-scandal-rocks-prestigious-great-neck-school-district/]SAT”>http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2011/03/14/sat-scandal-rocks-prestigious-great-neck-school-district/)</p>
<p>[SAT</a>, ACT Cheats Get Off Easy - Agencies under fire for canceling scores without exposing, punishing students](<a href=“http://www.newser.com/story/32453/sat-act-cheats-get-off-easy.html]SAT”>SAT, ACT Cheats Get Off Easy)</p>
<p>And lets not overlook the testing process itself.</p>
<p>[The</a> Trouble With Testing - CBS News](<a href=“http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/04/03/eveningnews/main1467643.shtml]The”>http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/04/03/eveningnews/main1467643.shtml)</p>
<p>As an aside, I am very pro testing in spite of all of these things.</p>
<p>Thanks for the Ramapo link-for some reason I went right to the About Ramapo page that doesn’t have the same header. Report back on the book! I’m interested as well.</p>
<p>There is an historic explanation for why PA has so many more LACs than NJ (in addition to its much larger size and population). Many or most of the PA LACs began as institutions for religious training founded by groups which immigrated into Philadelphia, such as Haverford and Swarthmore with Quaker roots; Muhlenberg, Gettysburg and Susquehanna with Lutheran roots; Moravian; etc. As the settlers pushed west from Philadelphia, they brought seminaries with them, which often became colleges, or founded educational institutions of their own.</p>
<p>I find it interesting that PA appears to have more private LACs than NY, at all levels of admissions selectivity, although I have not found a comparative list.</p>
<p>Bear in mind, too, that the NJ student who wishes to attend college at least 90 minutes away from home for independence reasons virtually has to leave the state because of its geography, which may be why Muhlenberg has more kids from NJ than from PA. </p>
<p>I do find it surprising that the NYC area did not prove more of a magnet to LACs.</p>
<p>As for the selectivity rise of Elon compared to Monmouth, Southern schools have benefitted enormously in the past 20 years from offering milder winters and lower costs due to cheaper land and lower staff wages.</p>
<p>Lennon</p>
<p>Thanks for your recommendation. The book Transforming A College about Elon College/University was an interesting read. Unfortunately, the author wrote the text for and on behalf of the college as a consulting assignment. That alone minimizes the credibility of this work for me. Having said that, the success of Elon is undeniable and remarkable but it is not at all about the evolution or development of a liberal arts college. Elon is (again to me) like an evolved technical school on a plane somewhere between traditional technical schools and colleges. It doesn’t seem to me to be a liberal arts college at any meaningful level. They recognized a specific type of student (ENFP Myers-Briggs, financially able to pay their own way, pre-professional as opposed to intellectual – this turned out to also mean white and fairly affluent) and then they truly listened to what these students wanted and gave it to them. They have had terrific marketing, public relations and financial planning programs. They have grown since they wanted to grow. Elon may well represent the model for a new, hybrid type of college experience as claimed but it is not at all what I think of as a LAC. I continue to see intellectual rigor as the the heart of most LACs.</p>