LasMa

This is one of the great things about LACs in general, and yes, Reed is one of the best. Thinking, discussing, challenging -- to me, that's the very definition of education.

rbouwens

That's outstanding!! ^ Sometimes I regret not applying to Reed....

merlin

The CTCLs have been prominent in my family. I did not attend one, but my younger brother and sister both attended College of Wooster, in the seventies, before Loren Pope published. I attended a large state flagship in New England. I actually felt jealous when I heard sister and brother describe their experiences. They knew their professors personally. I knew 2-3 profs in my University department, but had nowhere near the support that COW offered my sibs.

Flash forward:
My son attends Clark. My son's freshman lit class was Baseball in Literature. The teacher, who was also his advisor, took the entire class outside to play baseball. Life changing? Yes, in that it gave my son a sense of community. He plans to take the "free fifth year" option to earn a Masters degree.

Sister's son attends Knox. Similar experience.
I am glad that there is a variety of CTCL's to choose from.

familyof3boys

By the way, during a recent tour of CTCL schools, I was told that the organization (Pope has since died) had visited the schools recently and are planning to publish a new edition.

shennie

Hubby and I both attended Allegheny. There are many things I loved about the school, but the thing that really affected me was the fact that the professors are so involved with the students. Office hours were extensive and often used to discuss topics well beyond the scope of the class. Thirty years later, we are still in contact with some of our profs. We also formed life long friendships that we both cherish. In many ways, our friends and we "grew up" together.

We learned to think, to analyze, and to make connections between disparate topics. Allegheny requires a senior project from every student, regardless of major. When I had to do a master's thesis for my M.S., I was much better prepared to do so than any of my classmates who had never had to do major research before. I wouldn't change my college experience for anything. (And besides, I met a really great guy there, as well )

FLVADAD

I attended Wooster, and yes, it definitely changed my life in some very profound ways. I was an inner city kid that showed only modest promise when I arrived. Fortunately, at Wooster a number of professors took a personal interest in me. More than professors, they were mentors.

Just one example:

When I was too inarticulate to perform Shakespeare at even an elementary level, one professor arranged private sessigot ons for me with the head of Speech Communications. He took his personal time, 6:30 am, three days a week, working with me in his studio. He recorded my speech, trained me on the finer points of tone, sound, intonation, and phonetics. I was fascinated. Not only did this propel me to leading roles on the Shakespearian stage, but I was able to master virtually any dialect for any role, and even earned an income during summer stock teaching others. All this, from a professor with whom I never took a registered class.

That's just one example. There are plenty more.

Others taught me to think, to write, to aspire to much greater things than I previously thought possible. They could have riduculed me, ignored me, or just left me to struggle as a somewhat helpless case. I really did not have the academic background for a place like Wooster. Instead, they were tough, but always encouraging. They set the bar high and somehow made me believe I could reach it. They helped take a kid who really didn't know much of anything to become at home with scholarship. I was published before I graduated and earned honors that I grew up thinking were the domain of others - certainly not within reach for a kid like me.

My time at Wooster made me feel smart..confident.. capable. And that is the model I used to raise my own kids who are all far more accomplished than I was at their ages. Thus, I would argue the education I received at Wooster probably changed their lives as well.

shawbridge

FLVADAD, that is in inspiring story. I hope that professor (and the others) know how much of a difference that they made.

oodadoo

these storeis are inspiring...

for school beginning this Fall (2012) as a Freshman, our S is choosing between a CTCL (The Evergreen State College and University of Utah (Biomedical engineering @ their Honors College)

He has been offered several opportunities. His Passion is to design/build advanced prosthetics using sensory (neuroprosthetics) and will require advanced degrees in bioengineering.

He has been offered a wonderful opportunity at U of Utah (Honors College, where no class size is greater than 40 students, LAC style group lectures, Think-Tanks, senior thesis w/ an honors degree and it offers a Living/Learning community experience) - he is leaning this direction based upon its highly ranked biomedical engineering program and its specific involvement in neuroprosthetics already.

His other opportunity is to attend the CTCL's The Evergreen State College One of only 2 public LAC's on the list) - his experience there will not offer any engineering based opportunity unless he contacts research projects. It will offer a provocative, growth-oriented experience AND we can graduate from there owing about 70k less in loans...

His focus has been SO specific since 7th grade, we are encouraging him but a great education can be had that will require advanced degrees either way - just one of those ways may offer him a more rounded education and save in a BIG chunk of cash that he won't have to pay out down the road...

we shall find out his final choice soon.

Any opinions? Suggestions?

MizzBee

DS will be attending a CTCL, Wabash. He applied to Lawrence, Hiram and Ohio Wesleyan, all of which gave him great merit aid. Without the CTCL college fair, my DS would not have been as interested in the process.

fcrmom

These schools interest me, but when I look into their location and student body profile, I'm dismayed to see that most of them are mostly white, situated in areas of the country that are very white. I wonder whether Asians, Afr Americans and Latinos would feel comfortable/welcome in most of the schools. Any first hand experiences related to this?

ca_mom2000

Check Evergreen State College.

Both of my dds attended (or are still attending) CTCL schools. Older dd just graduated from Evergreen. She absolutely loved it. She loved the way the learning was set up in programs, not classes, the fact they had evaluations (more like the real world) rather than grades. I would say that school would be accepting of anyone.

Younger dd is attending Eckerd College in St. Petersburg. What she really appreciates is the small class size, that all classes are taught by full professors, the close relationship students develop with their mentor and other professors and the feeling that the students are faces, not numbers.

lynxinsider

@fcrmom: Rhodes, while it is about 3/4 white, is located in a city that is majority black, about 60%. The black student association on campus is one of the stronger student organizations. The mentoring program the students have for themselves is a model for other programs we offer.

bethievt

I went to Antioch College and so did my older sister. Definitely changed both of our lives in only good ways. The college is back in business and doing everything right.

cbug

Playing devil's advocate — every college is a CTCL college. Practically every moment at that age is potentially life changing. The question is how and why do you feel these moments that changed your life could have ONLY come at these schools?

sally305

My son will be attending Hendrix College in the fall. He was accepted at several other CTCL schools as well. I truly believe that many of them offer a consciously differentiated educational experience.

fcrmom, these colleges tend to be incredibly open-minded and welcoming, no matter where they are located. My son goes to a large public high school that is very diverse in terms of socioeconomic circumstances, race, sexual orientation, etc. Even though he is not a minority, he would not feel comfortable in a "vanilla" environment and in fact was turned off by several schools we visited before honing in on the CTCL list. If you can, you really should visit a few to see what feels right.

cbug, I get your point, but I disagree. Yes, this stage of life is inherently transformative. And no one can answer your question, because it is impossible to compare actual experiences to the path not taken. But back to my original point, I think the advantage of a lot of these and other small colleges is their ability to focus on a few things that are important to their mission--undergraduate research, service learning, foundations in the classics, or whatever. I don't think the mid-sized private colleges or large research universities are able to offer the same things, or at least without a lot of work on the part of the student seeking them.