April 1, 2009 - Colleges That (Truly) Change Lives
April 1, 2009 - With every new college admissions season, pundits and doomsayers bemoan the difficulty of gaining admission into the “top” colleges. This horrid little game becomes an all-or-nothing, zero-sum death match whose purpose seems to be a Japanese- or European-style early determination of who gets on the track to lifetime success, financial security, career fulfillment, social prestige, and overall greatness. Getting on this track, according to these experts, can only be accomplished by those students who gain admission to a select group of colleges just off I-5, I-10, I-80, I-89, I-90, I-93, or I-95. Everyone else, of course, will have to settle for second or third best. Poppycock! There have always been, and there still are, hundreds of magnificent colleges out there just waiting to be discovered and appreciated. You can still get into these “gems” with SAT’s under 2100 and GPA’s under 4.1. You can even have the occasional “B” on your transcript, and they won’t hold it against you!
Foremost among these undervalued “gems” is a group of 40 colleges described by the late author Loren Pope as “The Colleges That Change Lives.” These colleges are primarily small (1,800 - 2,400 undergrads) with a focus on liberal arts. Their professors actually teach, and their educational emphasis is actually on undergraduate education! Every year, beginning in May and continuing into September, admissions officers from these colleges travel as a group throughout the country, putting on panel discussions and college fairs for interested students and parents. I have been to four of these sessions, and I can attest that each one of them was magnificent!
Juniors (‘10), sophomores (‘11), and even freshmen (‘12): wherever you are, set aside an evening and attend one of this year’s sessions. Specific information is available at www.ctcl.com. Here is the CTCL schedule for this year: May 16 Washington, D.C., May 18 New York City; May 19 Boston; May 20 Rochester, New York; May 21 Cleveland; August 1 Seattle; August 2 Portland, Oregon; August 3 San Francisco Bay Area (San Rafael); August 4 Los Angeles; August 5 Denver; August 6 Albuquerque; August 15 Houston (AM) and Austin (PM); August 16 Dallas; August 17 Birmingham; August 18 Atlanta; August 19 Raleigh-Durham; August 20 Nashville; September 12 Minneapolis; September 13 Chicago; September 14 St. Louis; September 15 Indianapolis; September 16 Cincinnati; September 17 Columbus.
”Change” is good!
June 6th, 2009 at 3:06 am
Good advice. I wonder—is Beloit on that list?
June 19th, 2009 at 7:05 am
Dear Alex,
Thanks for calling. I’ll see you at 11:00 on Saturday at the Coffee Roasting Company.
Beloit is indeed one of the “40 Colleges That Change Lives.” All right, Jory!
Regards,
Auty
P.S. We will definitely want to put the the word “blog” next to “Hot News.”
June 21st, 2009 at 5:45 am
Here’s a reply.