<p>baseballmom,</p>
<p>I think its smart to look outside NEast.</p>
<p>You have lots of good S. East suggestions. </p>
<p>I’d add midwest: Denison (a very sporty school, D3, & may need crew girls to counterbalance the large men’s program for title 9.) </p>
<p>Other schools to consider: Hanover, American, Pitzer (reach, but good geographic balance,) and maybe some smallwestern LACs like Whittier, U of Pacific, Cal Lutheran (also very sporty school,) Wilamette, Lewis & Clark, etc.</p>
<p>baseballmom - Check out the thread “Natural Improvement in Standardized Test Results.” Scores can improve A LOT between PSAT and October of the Senior year.</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=55527&highlight=natural+improvement[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=55527&highlight=natural+improvement</a></p>
<p>A couple of other schools to look at from East to West. Wells College in NY (students can take courses at Cornell U), Beloit College in Wisconsin (great faculty, nice campus), and The Evergreen State College in Washington (very good interdisciplinary programs, beautiful campus, no letter grades–portfolio and written evaluations, one of Newsweek’s 10 hottest schools for 2004, and an LAC education at state u prices). Also see Pope’s “Colleges That Change Lives,” though some of those schools have recently become much more selective.</p>
<p>idad, in that vein I understand that Loren Pope is (finally) going to release a brand new edition of CTCL in 2006. According to the blurb from the website:</p>
<p>"In the ten years since I wrote Colleges That Change Lives, many institutions have added new buildings or programs, reworked curricula or made other changes, and it is necessary to bring these things up to date. </p>
<p>However, the institutions themselves, the essential nature of what they do and how they do it, remain constant. The characters and ethos of these remarkable schools, which brought them to my attention years ago, are unchanged. </p>
<p>Likewise, the philosophy of the book and its message are updated and repeated: These schools do more and gleam even more brightly with the passage of time. In an era when grossly misleading college rankings drive the search process, and many students and parents feel they are left without good options, this book provides the help neededand with a lifetime guarantee. </p>
<p>I have added more testimony from current students, graduating seniors and young alumni on how their colleges affected them. Ten years ago, such stories were the inspiration for this book. Now, they provide evidence and insight that can never be quantified in a rankings column because they are talking about how their lives have been changed.</p>
<p>I hope this new edition will inspire even more students to look for a college that will do the same for them. LP"</p>
<p>What I find a little surprising is that even though a number of these schools have changed dramatically since the original edition of CTCL, Mr. Pope is going to apparently profile the exact same list of schools. I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised, actually – since the CTCL schools have become an informal consortium, it would be a big problem if some of them didn’t make the new edition. My concern is that while all of the CTCL schools are probably very fine schools, some of them could be replaced with other lesser-known schools which more fit the message that Loren Pope preaches, and which deserve to become better know.</p>
<p>Cangel chiming in. Jmmom is right, about some Southern schools being in the South, but not of the South. Your daughter also may find that having doors opened for you, and the other “southernisms”, a love of dressing up and down, sweet tea, asking after your family, please and thank you - are all kind of pleasant.
Emory is one of the least SOuthern of the Southern schools - it may be out of her reach, but Oxford College might not be. B’ham-Southern is a great little, non-selective gem, good for pre-med, never mentioned here. It would qualify as a Southern school, but is not at all rural. Another little discussed, non-rural school is Oglethorpe. It is not too Southern, in Atlanta,has a MARTA stop just outside the campus gate.</p>
<p>No one has mentioned Rhodes, again not rural, might be a possiblity.</p>
<p>As for Vermonters going South, our tour guide at Davidson was from Vermont, she had actually joined a sister at Davidson.</p>
<p>Mt son will be one of these average kids, and in 3 years when he is looking, I’m afraid all these good schools will be out of the question for average students from the South, a group that have been the mainstays of these schools for years.</p>
<p>I love these “Southernisms”…dying to know what “sweet tea” is…We take our tea Boston-style with milk and sugar. :)</p>
<p>I fear this college search is going to have me “busier than than a one-legged man at a butt-kicking contest” (from a Missourian)</p>
<p>Curmudge, I’ll let you field the sweet tea question ;).</p>
<p>Ariesathena, who is a newly minted ex- Bostonian, now Southerner, ahs put sweet tea into her location!</p>
<p>I think it must be a lot easier for a Northerner to go South than vice versa. Us Northerners can hardly stand each other!</p>
<p>Not to step on Curmudgeon’s line, but sweet tea is iced tea that is sweetened in the pitcher, so you don’t add sugar to the glass. Well, you could, if you want to bring on a diabetic coma – because when I say “sweetened”, that is pretty much the understatement of the century. Man it’s good, but I have a mouthful of silver from being raised on sweet tea and coca-cola.</p>
<p>lderochi-while you were drinking sweet tea to stay cool, we were drinking hot tea to stay warm!</p>
<p>B’ballmom, there is a definite line, hovering today somewhere around Virginia, between sweet tea and no sweet tea. When you cross the line, beginning first in home owned restaurants, then gradually spreading to chain restaurants and anything more elaborate than MickeyD’s, when ordering tea you will be asked “Sweet, or unsweet”. For most of us deep Southerners, that is the true demarcation of the South.</p>
<p>cangel-so much for the Mason-Dixon line, eh?!</p>
<p>Funny story-a few years ago, my company hired Webb Hubbell (of Whitewater fame) to give a talk on fraud and what not to do. Webb and his wife flew up north from Arkansas a few days early with another couple and visited Montreal before driving down into Vermont. In Montreal everything is in French, including most menus, so it’s easy for them to pick out foreigners. When their waitress heard them speak, she said, “Oh, you’re Yankees.” Well, Webb told me they all nearly fell out of their chairs! He said he never in his life ever thought anyone would mistake him for a Yankee!</p>
<p>Webb Hubbell the Yankee - :D. Years ago, DH and I lived in Virginia for a time. Many native Virginians have several particular pronounciations that are throwbacks to the early English settlers. English Canadians, particularly in Ont. are supposed to have some of the same inflections. When we visited Montreal from Va., the cabdrivers thought we were from Toronto, because of my husband’s English and French pronounciation - we wouldn’t count as Yankees either. We digress!</p>
<p><<so much=“” for=“” the=“” mason-dixon=“” line=“”>></so></p>
<p>For in-state tuition purposes I keep trying to explain to my S, who insists on going to college “in the south” (where we lived most of his life) that Delaware is below the Mason-Dixon line. He’s having none of it – he knows that if the supermarket sells scrapple but not grits, he’s not in the south.</p>
<p>scrapple vs. grits??? I’m clueless. ok, here’s one-on a hot day there’s nothing like a black and white frappe or maybe some ice cold tonic.</p>
<p>Continuing to digress…the box full of Red Sox caps for my son’s team arrived today, and there hidden amidst the 16 Sox caps was one Yankees cap! What’s up with that!!! ok, enough from me. Back to college talk!</p>
<p>How about Stetson in DeLand, Florida? When we visit my dad there, I love to watch their crew team practice from his lakefront home on Lake Beresford. Nice school, beautiful campus, nice little town, but convenient to Atlantic beaches and Orlando.</p>
<p>Wow-I’ve now got a list of 21 colleges to research–or should I say, to mention to my D should she be so inclined. Have any of you had to “light a fire” under your child to get them to take the initiative on the college search? I took my daughter to 7 schools so far, and, although she is willing, I was the one to pick the schools. I’m hoping she’ll see one that grabs her and she’ll take over the reins.</p>
<p>baseballmom -</p>
<p>If your D likes white water rafting one of the publics in Western MD has extreme sports! Can’t remember if it’s McDaniel or Frostburg, but the Washington Post ran a story regarding this within the last few weeks.</p>
<p>dudedad, ok now I have 23! thanks.</p>