Do any schools fit this criteria?

College Search & Lists
1

<p>I’ve been researching schools for a long time but have yet to find one that meets all of my criteria. There are a lot of schools that I really like but I want to know if there are any I haven’t researched yet.<br>
I want (in order of priority greatest to least):

  • Within 2-3 hours of St. Louis, MO
  • Known for English and Lit program
  • Private
  • Small- less than 10,000
    -Co-ed
  • I don’t want a Greek oriented school
  • Selective (at most 50% acceptance rate)</p>

<p>My top colleges right now are:
Washington University
University of Chicago
Carleton College
Kenyon College</p>

<p>Carleton is my favorite by far but it is too far from home. Are there any schools like it closer to St. Louis?</p>

2

<p>Here are a few more liberal arts colleges in states neighboring MO:</p>

<p>Rhodes (Memphis, TN ~4.5 hrs. from St. Louis)
Grinnell (Grinnell, IA ~5.5 hrs. from St. Louis)
Centre (Danville, KY (~6 hrs. from St. Louis)
Hendrix (Conway, AR ~6.5 hrs. from St. Louis)</p>

<p>Farther away (8+ hrs to Gambier, OH) is Kenyon College, which has one of the strongest English departments of any LAC. It is also known for its beautiful campus (search Google images) and for the Kenyon Review literary journal ([The</a> Kenyon Review - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Kenyon_Review]The”>The Kenyon Review - Wikipedia)). ~34% admit rate. Fairly large Greek presence.
[About</a> the Department - English - Kenyon College](<a href=“http://www.kenyon.edu/x7912.xml]About”>http://www.kenyon.edu/x7912.xml)</p>

3

<p>Grinnell? Knox?</p>

4

<p>While these two schools are a bit farther than you would like I would give both Grinnell and Kenyon a serious look. Best of luck!</p>

5

<p>

</p>

<p>You have a lot of options if you use a plane. </p>

<p>Macalester is within that time frame. You have to fly to Minneapolis St-Paul, but it’s only a 90 minutes flight and the college is not far from the airport. </p>

<p>UChicago is even easier with Southwest to Midway Airport. </p>

<p>Tulane, Rice, UPenn, Swarthmore, and Johns Hopkins, and Duke all may be within 3-3.5 hours door to door depending on how close you live to the airport. </p>

<p>Not sure why you’ve ruled out Truman State which is in Kirksville, MO and is 3.5 hours from St Louis.</p>

6

<p>Add Emory, Georgetown, George Washington, American, and CMU. </p>

<p>There are also really cheap puddle jumpers to Truman Ste from STL that are only $50 and take an hour.</p>

7

<p>Really, since distance is the OP’s #1 criteria, and I suspect he/she is familiar with the concept of air travel . . . why suggest schools halfway across the country??? The objective is to find schools that are close to St. Louis!</p>

<p>If the OP hasn’t done this already, I’d suggest checking the [Colleges</a> That Change Lives](<a href=“http://www.ctcl.org/]Colleges”>http://www.ctcl.org/) and, if you fit the gender criteria, the [Women’s</a> College Coalition](<a href=“http://www.womenscolleges.org/]Women’s”>http://www.womenscolleges.org/).</p>

8

<p>Another vote for Grinnell: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/grinnell-college/438138-why-grinnell.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/grinnell-college/438138-why-grinnell.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

9

<p>Doing a search by distance only, I’m finding:</p>

<p>Knox College - as mentioned above
College of the Ozarks - quite difficult to get into, but don’t know about the English dept.
Brescia University - don’t know anything about it other than the fact that it fits your “under 50%” admissions requirement</p>

<p>A bit further away, there’s also:</p>

<p>Earlham College
Wabash College
Rhodes College</p>

<p>All from the “Colleges That Change Lives” list.</p>

10

<p>Is SLU too close?</p>

11

<p>^ College of the Ozarks has an admission rate under 10%, but the average GPA and scores are not as high as that might suggest (3.6 GPA, 22 average ACT composite). It is a Christian school that provides free tuition to all students in exchange for work.</p>

12

<p>

</p>

<p>Because she didn’t use distance as a criteria, she used time from St Louis. </p>

<p>My D1 is in a school 900 miles away and it takes 4.5 hours door to door. My D2 wants to go to a school 300 miles away and it takes over 5 hours to drive there and about the same to fly since there are no direct flights. Which one is really “closer”?</p>

<p>A good school near an airport with direct service to St Louis is “closer” IMHO than anything else mentioned here.</p>

<p>Actually, it’s a $60 shuttle van ride from MSP to Carleton. That’s probably not too bad. 1 hour checkin, 1.5 hour flight, 1 hour van shuttle. Add a little for the drive to the airport and the connections, maybe it’s 4 hours.</p>

13

<p>If you’re flexible with the under 50% acceptance rate, consider St. Louis University. It has about 8,000 undergrads, but about 5,000 graduate students. Its english offerings seem pretty extensive <a href=“http://www.slu.edu/Documents/arts_sciences/english/Spring2013CD(1).pdf[/url]”>http://www.slu.edu/Documents/arts_sciences/english/Spring2013CD(1).pdf&lt;/a&gt; (this just shows the course offerings for Spring 2013, so the actual offerings will be much greater). It boasts 26 faculty members ( [English</a> Department Faculty : Saint Louis University College of Arts and Sciences : SLU](<a href=“http://www.slu.edu/english-department/faculty]English”>http://www.slu.edu/english-department/faculty) ), so you’re basically guaranteed to find at least a few excellent English professors</p>

<p>Like many posters, I’m somewhat surprised you’re not considering Truman State. Though it’s not private, nor does it have under a 50% acceptance rate, it does offer PLENTY of english courses [Courses</a> - Truman State University - Acalog ACMS?](<a href=“Courses - Truman State University - Acalog ACMS™”>Courses - Truman State University - Acalog ACMS™) and has quite a few English faculty. Besides, IMO, many students will be from the St. Louis area, so finding transportation back home shouldn’t be an issue.</p>

<p>If you’re flexible with the 50% admit rate, Illinois Wesleyan University seems to have a pretty decent English department [Illinois</a> Wesleyan: English - Course Descriptions](<a href=“http://www.iwu.edu/english/courses/Course-Descriptions.html]Illinois”>http://www.iwu.edu/english/courses/Course-Descriptions.html) [Illinois</a> Wesleyan: Department of English Faculty and Staff](<a href=“http://www.iwu.edu/english/facultystaff/]Illinois”>Department of English Faculty and Staff | Illinois Wesleyan) IWU emphasizes writing to an extreme degree, so you’ll still be writing paper after paper in your gen ed classes. Additionally, they offer a program where they essentially temporarily import faculty from the nearby Illinois Sate University. I’m not sure how that works, but it’s worth asking about. Assuming you’re competitive for WUSL, you’ll probably get enormous merit aid from them.</p>

14

<p>To follow up on College of the Ozarks . . .</p>

<p>No, I’m not surprised that the GPA/ACT scores of admitted students aren’t Ivy caliber. I suspect that character is a more important criterion for admission than test scores. It is well known for its work program, but also boasts a rigorous and traditional core curriculum. and its English department is one of its strongest.</p>

<p>Don’t turn your nose up at this school just because of student GPA & test scores. If the OP could gain admission (and that’s a big “if”!), I’ve no doubt he or she would get an exemplary education.</p>