Admit what you know

For a lot of people there is something magical about scoring 600 verbal (critical reading) and 600 math. When I was in school, counselors and parents felt that “600 or better” was a good score, and that prestige schools have averages of at least 600 600. For those of us who fall a little below that magic line, there are actually some amazing schools that are still possibilities. That’s the reason for producing the 590-590 list which details the most prestigious schools that fall in our range.

In December 2008, I had a similar list. Since then Smith, Union (NY), and Kalamazoo all bumped up their scores above the 590-590. However, there are many new schools now in our target range. Because there are so many new schools, I’m not going to repeat some of my favorite schools from the last list such as Hendrix, Centre College, Wofford, Austin College, Elon University, Earlham, Southwestern University, DePauw, University of Dallas, Rochester Institute of Technology, Millsaps, Birmingham-Southern, Eckerd, McDaniel, and Guilford. While those are still some of the best schools under 590-590, I’m going to focus on institutions I haven’t mentioned as much. Starting with the toughest admissions standards, we have:

St. Olaf College (590-700 CR 590-710 M): A Lutheran school in Minnesota known for its music program, its study abroad opportunities, and its largely blond student body. Besides music, St. Olaf boasts strong departments in English, economics, and a highly-respected pre-med program.

Occidental College (590-690 CR 590-680 M): This excellent school is one of the few small powerhouses in California. Its known for its friendly environment, its diverse student body which Fiske calls "a thriving community of high achievers", its international affairs programs, and its campus that’s often used by Hollywood filmmakers when they need to shoot college scenes. Considered a school where students work hard and have fun, Oxy probably will not stay below 600 for long.

Furman University (590-690CR 590-680M): I mentioned Furman in this list last year, but I'm going to discuss it again. This is South Carolina's premier school and often grouped together with Duke, Vanderbilt, and Emory as one of the South's finest institutions. Furman provides a conservative atmosphere for industrious students. While no longer a Baptist institution, many Furman students are religious. On the other hand, some do like to party as over 30% of students go Greek. A good place for sweet-natured Southerners willing to work hard, Furman is known for its stunningly beautiful campus and famous swans. Students say academics are fiercely competitive and a large percentage are targeting graduate school. Although called a university, Furman is ranked as one of the nation's top liberal arts colleges and excels in departments such as history, political science, biology and chemistry.

Knox (590-700CR 580-660M): This Midwestern liberal arts college trades places with Kalamazoo in the 590-590 range. With the exception of Grinnell, most of its close rivals, such as Earlham, Illinois Wesleyan, and Beloit, aren't quite as selective, so a large percentage of the students are going to come in with the enthusiasm of getting into their number one choice. It's known for its progressive political climate, close-knit community, and an environment that fosters independent research. The school excels in fields such as math, natural sciences, psychology, and creative writing.

University of Richmond (590-680CR 590-680M): This is a wealthy and highly-regarded liberal arts college with a beautiful campus. It’s known for its leadership studies, its business program, and industrious, fairly conservative students although you won't run into too many Virginians as less than 20% come from in-state.

Skidmore (580-680CR 590-670M): Skidmore is an upstate New York liberal-arts college that competes heavily with many institutes in the area that are usually tougher to get into such as Vassar, Hamilton, Connecticut College, and Middlebury. While known for art and drama, Skidmore also offers strong social science and business programs.

Pitzer College (580-690CR 580-680M): This California school may be a back-up for powerhouses like Pomona and Claremont McKenna, but it’s becoming more prestigious in its own right. Proximity to the other Claremont schools means being able to take advantage of each institution’s strengths. As befitting a school near Los Angeles, Pitzer is strong in film and media programs. However, it’s also strong in social sciences and biology.

Wheaton College (580-680CR 580-670M): This strong liberal arts school is located in Massachusetts and also competes with the same crowd as Skidmore. A women’s college until fairly recently, Wheaton’s strongest programs include humanities and foreign languages.

Rhodes (580-680CR 580-670M): This school in Memphis is one of the south’s premier institutions. This is a school where students work very hard, usually with the goal of going to graduate school. Like most of the SCAC schools, there's heavy emphasis on learning to write well. (SCAC is the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference, a grouping based on academic quality similar to the Little Ivies' conference, the NESCAC.) Rhodes is strong in a large number of fields, especially so in international studies, business, economics, the sciences, political science, and English.

University of the South (570-680CR 580-680M): “Sewanee” is one of the more traditional members of the SCAC with students sometimes wearing academic gowns to class, although it seems like the practice is waning. Although admission standards are tougher than they were last year, conservative Sewanee is slightly easier to get into than Wake Forest or Furman, but with the same powerhouse academics found at most SCAC institutions. Its English department is nationally famous. Humanities, social sciences (particularly history), and math are also notably strong. Parents love Sewanee for how safe and protected they feel their kids are at this rural campus with a watchful administration and nurturing faculty. Fun often centers on the Greek system, but schoolwork is the main priority. Financial aid is among the best in the nation.

Denison (580-690CR 570-680M): A couple decades ago, this Ohio college was known as a party school for rich kids. After closing down frat row, the school has begun to earn a reputation as a liberal arts college for intellectually curious students. Less selective and more conservative than area rivals such as Kenyon and Oberlin, Denison provides access to top programs in natural sciences, creative writing, philosophy, international studies, music, and computer science.

St. Mary’s College of Maryland (580-680CR 570-660M): I often tout small public colleges, and here’s one of the best in the country. Yes, it really is a public school despite the name. Known for its social sciences and English department, St. Mary’s is located on the water, and most students learn to sail.

Ursinus (570-680CR 570-670M) This small liberal arts college in Pennsylvania competes with more selective schools like Franklin & Marshall and Dickinson. However, college guides consider academics at Ursinus just as rigorous. It combines the benefits of a small town campus with the excitement of nearby Philadelphia.

College of Charleston (570-650CR 570-650M) Another of the finest public liberal arts colleges in the country, College of Charleston offers strong academics in a beautiful city at a much lower price than Furman or Wofford.

Besides my usual list of favorites, there are some other impressive schools with scorse just below those of the ones I’ve detailed above such as St. Lawrence University, an upstate New York school getting lots of attention for environmental studies; Emerson College, an amazing school for those interested in acting, music, journalism or creative writing; Beloit, a top liberal arts college in Wisconsin; Fordham, a Jesuit university in New York City; Hobart, an upstate New York college whose popularity is heating up; and Hollins, one of the strongest women’s colleges under 590-590.

Rankings While these schools may not be as widely known as the Ivies, here's more evidence of their prestige: University of Richmond, Furman, Occidental, University of the South, Centre College, Skidmore, St. Olaf, DePauw, Pitzer, Rhodes, and Denison are all in top 50 of 2009 U.S. News National Liberal Arts College Rankings.

St. Lawrence, Wheaton, Beloit,Wofford, Earlham, Hobart, Southwestern, Austin College, Hendrix, Birmingham-Southern, Ursinus, Millsaps, St. Mary's College of Maryland, and Knox are all in the top 100. College of Charleston is the #9 master's university in the South, and Rochester Institute of Technology and Emerson are #9 and #15 in the North respectively.

The new list of Forbes top schools just came out, and for the most part I find it worth looking at if far from perfect. One issue I had: The headline on Shine from Yahoo blared “U.S. Military Academy is America’s Best College! Better than Harvard!”

Then you read the article and see that things aren’t quite so clear. It cites an issue known as “group think” which is going to skew Forbes’ results. Forbes ranks schools on five categories.

1. Graduation rate: How good a school is at retaining students and shepherding them through in four years. This strikes me as a fair barometer. I wouldn’t want to send someone to a school that can’t engage students well enough to keep them or is too tangled in red tape and budget cuts to make sure a student can get the courses she needs to graduate on time. Yes, this hurts big, overcrowded universities, but that’s why nearly all college experts recommend small colleges.

2. The number of national and global awards won by students and faculty: Hmm, okay. This is a little vague, and it favors the richest schools that can attract faculty famous for winning awards even though they may not be great at teaching undergraduates. But okay, I’ll go with this.

3. Student Satisfaction with their Instructors: Okay, this is where “group think” makes things ridiculous. The article quotes instructors from military academies who state they don’t produce independent thinkers or graduates who are good at handling “humanistic, open-ended problems.” While I’m not going to go as far as the concept of brain-washing, I think it’s fair to say there is some unwarranted cheerleading at military academies, some religious schools that focus on a group mentality, and schools like Texas A&M that focus on a cult of personality where not liking the school is a tad treasonous. So this is one variable that strikes me as too subjective. However, what’s interesting is how a lot of schools that do encourage independent thought did very well in these rankings. I just think some schools did better than is warranted, although I suppose it could be argued if a student is happy with his school because of its “group think” atmosphere, that’s still happiness. But is it fair to high school students and their parents to reward schools that turn their students into sheep with high rankings? There is something called the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) that is highly regarded for its assessment of the quality of each college’s education (it doesn’t produce rankings nor are the findings made public unless the schools makes them public), so I do know that student satisfaction is seen as a valid measurement by a respected organization. However, we need to know more about how “satisfaction” and “engagement” are quantified by Forbes to know if their findings are compelling.

4. Average Debt Upon Graduation: I think it’s fair to judge certain schools like mine (which I call Bonkley-Foible University) harshly on this front because it’s a very wealthy school and there is no excuse for their graduates to have the debt they do. However, by including the military academies, Forbes has bungled this category. You may not have financial debt, but a student is required to do military service, and that is often grueling and highly stressful. Just because you can’t quantify that kind of debt does not mean it’s not there, so for that reason alone, I have a problem with this ranking system. Other than that complaint, I do think debt is a factor that families should be aware of so if Forbes’ rankings encourage schools to become better values, then power to them.

5. Postgraduate vocational success as “measured by a recent graduate’s average salary and vocational success.” Okay, that sounds great, but again that’s pretty vague. We need more information. How is the study measuring “vocational success”? Is the study taking into consideration if recent graduates go to graduate school instead of going into the workforce? If one student becomes a happy and highly skilled nurse while another becomes a miserable and nearly incompetent doctor, how does that look on a scale of vocational success? Still, I accept this variable as more or less valid because there really aren’t many ways to gauge the quality of an education. Even if money and career status don’t mean everything, if you’re going to bother ranking colleges, that’s one of the few results that really can be measured.

Here is the BIG trouble: Severe volatility in the rankings truly undermines their legitimacy and usefulness. Last year, Westminster College was #39. This year it’s #126. Last year Bates was #45. This year it’s #113. Last year Trinity College was #58. This year it’s #156. There are many more examples. This is a real problem when using these rankings. How are students and parents supposed to know if they’re right this year or last year? Will they finally be right next year? There is no way that a school can drop a hundred places as schools do not ever change that much in a single year. Thus, there is something hugely flawed in their system.

So what useful information can be gleaned from their rankings? Perhaps we can look at some rankings that have been consistent and see if certain findings of other studies that have been around longer have been confirmed.

Princeton, Harvard, Yale and Stanford are all in the top ten. So are Wellesley, Williams, and Amherst. Vassar, Swarthmore, Bowdoin, Colby, and Kenyon made the top 25. To me this means that Forbes found that there is validity to other rankings lists and to lists of competitiveness, prestige and reputation at least some of the time. But keep reading…

Only four schools that have freshman classes larger than 3,000 made it into the top 100. (#64 University of Virginia, #68 UNC/Chapel Hill, #73 UC/Berkeley, and #78 UCLA) There are only 11 if you count up to 200. So this reaffirms what most experts say: small schools are better most of the time.

Women's colleges are excellent places to go. The Seven Sisters live up to their reputations. (#6 Wellesley, #31 Smith, #35 Bryn Mawr,, #40 Barnard, #47 Mount Holyoke). But even less highly regarded women's schools did well, too. (#55 Mills, #69 Sweet Briar, #95 Hollins). Men’s school Wabash was 35 and Hampden-Sydney was 54. (Does Hampden-Sydney benefit from rah-rah group think? I’m certain, but not enough to boost it this high.)

Here is something odd: Some of the most prestigious Historically Black Universities didn’t make the top 500 including Spelman, Morehouse, and Howard. I would object but the list does include #309 Fisk and #494 Dillard so perhaps I don’t have the information to know which HBU’s really should be considered the top ones. To be honest, I already had a high regard for Fisk and Dillard, but I am surprised that Spelman and Howard aren’t there.(Correction. Spelman is #238.) On the other hand, what I’ve heard about Morehouse in places like Princeton Review seems pretty negative.

Some powerhouses seemed to be ranked too low. Brown, Dartmouth, U. Penn? I’d like to know why they don’t live up to their reputations, but Forbes doesn’t supply the facts. And by the way, Brown was #27 last year. Why is it #72 this year? I don’t think we can accept this as good, responsible journalism without more information.

Except for MIT and CalTech, prestigious schools known for sciences and engineering that rank highly elsewhere overwhelmingly DO NOT rank highly here, or at least rank much lower than one would expect. This was true last year, too. Examples: #173 Johns Hopkins #267 Carnegie-Mellon #439 Case Western Reserve #472 Rensselaer Polytechnic. (I believe Worcester Polytechnic, Stevens Institute and Rose-Hulman didn’t even make the list.) Why so low? My guess is bad teachers. Princeton Review also marks down these schools because students just do not like their professors. Apparently they are often hard to understand and uninspiring. I know for a fact this was a problem at Bonkley-Foible. Whose to blame? The American government for not encouraging more American youths to go into the sciences. Studies show government cutbacks during past administrations have put us far behind China and India, and if American students can’t understand professors from China and India, it’s going to be a vicious cycle which the government must reverse. Something else that will help? Requiring that individuals going into professorial tracks in the sciences can speak and write English on a college level. I doubt that’s going to be feasible anytime soon though.

Schools that tend to foster a rebellious, anti-establishment vibe still did fairly well even though they promote the near-opposite of group think. (#65 Sarah Lawrence, #131 Bard)

Schools often labeled as high-prestige frauds that really don’t educate had mixed results. #125 Hampshire did fine although it did better last year. Bennington and Antioch, as far as I could tell, didn’t make the 500 at all. (I'm wrong. See correction below.) That reaffirms my belief that Hampshire really does help students who have the maturity to study independently without much structure while Bennington apparently doesn’t. But can I really say that when Bennington was ranked #134 last year? Probably not. (Correction. Bennington is 236.) Antioch has a lot of financial troubles right now, but it is still touted by Loren Pope. I hope Antioch pulls through.

Rankings of some of my favorites: #14 Centre, #26 Union #62 Rhodes, #71 Wofford, #81 Hendrix, #94 University of the South, #101 Millsaps, #114 U. Dallas, #189 Birmingham-Southern, #203 Southwestern University (#133 last year), #259 Guilford, #264 Eckerd, #347 College of Charleston. I'm happy with most of those although I think Southwestern and College of Charleston are too low.


Comments on some of the results:

# 14 Centre College: This school came in very high last year too, and deserves to move into the ranks of the most prestigious schools (in my opinion), and maybe Forbes will make it happen, but I bet it won’t if only because it’s in Kentucky.

#26 Union College: I’ve always thought it was underrated, and (for now) it’s a great way for students who didn’t blow away the SATs to get into an incredible school. (I’m not overlooking the fact that Union was only #99 last year. Confusing, huh?)

#114 University of Dallas: I think this is a great school. I’m glad it got this level of recognition and suspect it deserves more.

#163 Rockhurst University: Not yet a prestige school, but it seems that it turns a lot of mediocre students headed for business or health sciences into real winners.

#190 Texas A&M: I guess you all know I’m not a big fan of A&M, but I am surprised with how low this result is. If it didn’t inspire such loyalty in its ranks, how low would it be then?

#279 Bob Jones University Why is this even listed? It may have apologized for past racial hatred recently, but it still has a very long way to go. I don’t support including such a bastion of prejudice (I quote “It’s okay to be intolerant of intolerance.”), and I’m more than certain that group think is what puts it here. (Please see my note on religious schools below.)

#318 St. Edwards University: I think this Austin school deserves to be higher, but I’m happy it’s included. It’s innovative and, i.m.o., on its way up. It narrowly beat out rival St. Mary's University of San Antonio and its competitor in Houston, University of St. Thomas, didn't even make the list.

#355 New York University: Well, I’m not surprised it’s this low. I’ve often felt that it’s too big and bureaucratic. The surliness of the administration engenders a bad rapport with its customers. On the other hand, I would imagine that a lot of its graduates are now high-earning New Yorkers, so maybe it is surprising it’s not somewhat higher. Rival Boston University only did marginally better.

#487 Auburn: This is another school I’m not fond of, but I’m a bit surprised its so low because it does inspire a lot of loyalty. I’m curious to know where Auburn loses points.

Here are some results that seem much too low.

#72 Brown, #83 University of Pennsylvania, #98 Dartmouth, #104 Duke, #106 Georgetown, #113 Bates, #142 Grinnell, #156 Trinity College, #166 Occidental (was #233 last year!), #170 Furman, #207 Cornell University, #270 University of Rochester, #293 Trinity University, #396 Lehigh

Some that seem surprisingly high: (In most cases, I’m not knowledgeable enough to know if the rankings aren’t deserved.)

#56 St. Mary’s College of California, #58 George Fox University, #66 Doane College, #70 Drew University (although I like Drew a fair amount), #90 Huntington University

I did some research on some of these. George Fox gets group think support, I suspect. After looking up Doane, I am pretty impressed. They have a four-year graduation guarantee, just like Centre College, and they’ve been singled out by Princeton Review, Kaplan, and US News as a hidden gem. So that’s my own lack of knowledge. St. Mary’s was #136 last year, so that's another inconsistent wild card. Huntington is another evangelical Christian university that, again, must get a rah-rah group think boost.

My school, Bonkley-Foible was below 400, and again, I’m not surprised. It’s another monolith that fails to take a keen interest in its students. Considering its wealth and prestige, it should be ashamed of this ranking although, in my opinion, its probably deserved.

A quick note on my views of religious schools: For the most part, I really like schools that have some affiliation with a church. A lot of religious schools foster responsibility and a civic service ethic that is invaluable to society. I’m thinking of places like Southwestern, Millsaps, Austin College, Wofford, University of Dallas and so forth. However, they do not require their students to be Christian and in most cases invite philosophical and theological debate. On the other hand, there are some schools that require students to be Christian (or perhaps some other religion) and seem more interested in indoctrinating their beliefs instead of opening minds. This I’m much less comfortable with although one can’t paint all schools that require Christianity with the same brush. I’m also willing to admit that if we cared to do the research, we’d probably find that in some cases faculty and graduates of these schools do make important contributions in one way or another. Still I object to requiring students to be Christian as it significantly restricts an individual’s exposure to alternate views and values, and I have much stronger objections to schools that openly discriminate based on race or sexual orientation. Perhaps that limits my ability to be completely objective, but as someone who is Christian himself, I’m comfortable that I’m being pretty fair in my assessment.

It's not as important as most people think, but there are some points to consider. First, why isn't it all that important?

The Dale-Kreuger Study, done by an economist at Princeton, shows that, financially, students who go to the most reputable schools do not fare better than those who got into those schools, but attended elsewhere. (Why concentrate on financial success? Apparently any other kind of success, such as life satisfaction, is not quantifiable and thus, can't be studied.)

For example, students who were accepted at Harvard or Amherst, but went to, say, Occidental or Kenyon, have an equal shot at big time success. What this shows is what Loren Pope has been saying all along. The top schools do not make their students great. The top students make their schools great. If your child is a motivated and smart student, it doesn't matter as much where she goes.

Now then, what if you're one of the millions with a B average or below? How important is it to go the most reputable school that will admit you, even if it's much more expensive? Well, first, experts will tell parents NOT to sacrifice their retirement for their kids' college no matter what. Students should NOT go more than 20,000 to 25,000 in debt for TOTAL costs. Much more than that, and the student will probably still be in debt by age 30, when many people want to start a family.

Here are some other factors to consider:

1) A school that has a good reputation usually is hard to get into. While that's not important on its own, students who managed to get into tough schools will usually value studying, and your child's peers will have more influence on how seriously he takes academics than anything else.

2) Schools with top reputations are often rich, and wealthy schools can offer world class professors, world class guest speakers, and world class facilities. Please note that this is something that will figure more into an undergraduate education at a small school like Rice or the University of Richmond than a huge public campus like Texas A&M or Ohio State. At the huge schools, much of the time the undergraduates don't have access to the top professors or facilities anyway.

3) While some private college consultants will have you believe that you have to go an elite private school to have a shot at big time success (and that's not true), you most likely shouldn't go to a school that has a "bad" reputation if it can be avoided. What am I talking about? One big California school is known as a druggie campus. An Alabama university is known for giving something akin to fake classes so it can pass its athletes. True, scandals can happen anywhere, but it pays to do research.

4) While I almost always promote small schools, an advantage of going to flagship state school is the alumni network. If you plan to work in Houston, going to U.H., UT, or A&M is probably not a bad idea. A lot of NYU students (I know, that's a private school, but a very big one) do end up with successful careers in Manhattan.

Still, according to studies, the alumni networks and a school's reputation only make a difference in a career trajectory for about five years after graduation. After that, the candidate's track record takes focus.

So here we are again--what's more important than anything? A school that will sharply hone the two most important skills - writing and public speaking. If you get far enough in almost any field, you'll have to do some writing and do some presentations.

What schools are considered the best for this? Small liberal arts schools. If you read the experts, the best choices (that aren't incredibly hard to get into) include Millsaps, Hendrix, Centre College, Rhodes, Southwestern, McDaniel, University of the South, Birmingham-Southern, Wofford, and Agnes Scott. Note that most of these schools are listed in Barron's as "Very Competitive" or higher so even though they do not have the reputation of Yale, they're still highly esteemed by human resource directors and graduate school admissions officers.

It’s April, and decisions are pretty much in. There are going to be some people who didn’t get in anywhere, and there are going to be more people who didn’t investigate their safeties very well and now don’t want to go. Then there are people who thought they’d go to college with a boyfriend or girlfriend or stay at home and go to community college, and now those ideas have been thrown out.

Luckily, there are some top schools with very strong reputations that have late deadlines (honestly, more true of small liberal arts colleges as great small schools have more trouble filling spots than great large schools). Now, I’m sure you realize that the most competitive schools have very early deadlines, rarely later than January 15th, so how can there be good schools with late deadlines? The reason is usually location. Few people think of Arkansas or Mississippi when choosing a powerhouse college.

So, perhaps you’ll see a new part of the country, but a) you’ll almost certainly have more extracurricular, cultural and educational opportunities than you would at community college or Last Chance State University, b) you’ll be with a large percentage of “positive” students who wanted to go to that college and will keep school spirits up instead of bumming about being at Last Chance State (college “aura” is more important than most people think when it comes to striving to do one’s best academically), c) your chances of getting into graduate school are greater if you go to a school that can educate better (through smaller class sizes and better facilities than low-rung public schools) and offer a stronger reputation, and d) you’ll get the necessary transition-to-real-life experience of going away to college that helps students mature which you won’t get at community college.

Here’s a partial list:

(please double-check all deadlines. Some schools have been moving their deadlines earlier as they get more popular and sometimes if schools with rolling admissions receive an unexpectedly high yield of accepted students confirming attendance, they stop admitting.)

Liberal arts colleges:

Birmingham-Southern College: A terrific, conservative LAC (liberal arts college) in Alabama. Known for business, theater/music and for one of the strongest Greek systems in the country. Recommended by Loren Pope (Colleges That Change Lives and John Palladino (Finding the College that’s Right for You. Deadline Open

Eckerd College: A beautiful campus on the Florida coast makes this a hit with water lovers and has a leading program in marine science. Another nurturing school featured in Loren Pope’s books and also touted by educational author Tamra Orr. Deadline Open

Hendrix College: One of the best LAC’s in the South if not the country. Located in Arkansas, it’s a hit with left-wing students, and is especially good at producing politically-minded, socially conscious adults who are well-prepared for grad school. Recommended by both Loren Pope and Jay Mathews (Harvard Schmarvard). Deadline August 1st

Millsaps College: A great LAC in Misssippi. Known for creating great writers and orators, which is excellent for future lawyers, politicians, business leaders, and college professors. Recommended by Loren Pope and Jay Mathews. Deadline Open.

Simon’s Rock: A school often chosen by students leaving high school early, Simon’s Rock is affiliated with liberal powerhouse, Bard. Located in Massachusetts. Deadline May 31st

University of Tulsa: Although as small as a liberal arts college, this top school really offers the diversity of a large university with strong programs from visual and performing arts and journalism to business and engineering. One of the most competitive schools with an open deadline. Deadline Open.

Tech Schools

Illinois Institute of Technology: An engineering powerhouse in Chicago. Deadline August 1st.

Kettering University: An engineering school that has taken a hit from being located in Flint, Michigan. Still produces scores of successful graduates Deadline Open

Missouri Univ. of Science & Technology: A very attractive tech school known for producing engineers, scientists and, most impressively, astronauts. Deadline July 1st.

Rochester Institute of Technology: While a strong school in nearly every program, this is THE school to go to for photography programs thanks to cooperation with Eastman Kodak. Nearby SUNY Geneseo and University of Rochester make for a youthful, educated local population. Deadline Open:

University of Texas/Dallas: A school specializing in computer science, it has the highest SAT averages of all public colleges in Texas including UT/Austin. Deadline July 1st.

Major Research Universities

Michigan State: A true smorgasbord. While heavy with agricultural, business, and education majors, you can study everything from acting and architecture to philosophy and physics. Deadline Open

SUNY Stony Brook: This has gone from a definite back-up school to a top hundred school on the US News list. While Binghamton and Geneseo still reign in New York, Stony Brook holds its own. Deadline Open

Texas Tech University: Despite its name, this is not just a stronghold for the sciences as they have arts, classics, social sciences and so forth. Deadline May 1st.

Catholic Universities

Bellarmine University: Kentucky may seem like an odd place to go to school, but with Centre College, Murray State, and Berea, Kentucky actually has quite strong academics. Bellarmine is right up there, too. Deadline Open

Duquesne University: Often considered a major research university, Duquesne benefits from the cultural and educational opportunities of Pittsburgh and features a strong business program. Deadline July 1st.

Rockhurst University: Located in cosmopolitan Kansas City, Rockhurst is strong in business and health professions. Deadline Open.

Saint Edwards University: Austin, Texas has more than one terrific school, and innovative and engaging Saint Edwards is one of them. A terrific business program is complimented by strong social sciences, humanities and education offerings. Deadline May 1st.

Saint Mary’s University: John Palladino recommends this San Antonio school very highly for mid-range students who need a boost. Deadline Open.

Women’s Colleges

Alverno College: This Catholic school is largely a pre-professional school specializing in business and health professions. It’s located in Milwaukee. Deadline Open

Stephens College: This Missouri school is known for the liberal arts, particularly theater. Deadline Open.

A Mishmosh of Other Schools

Augustana College: An exceptional school in Illinois run by the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Deadline Open.

Augustana College: Is this a repeat? Nope, this is an exceptional school in South Dakota run by the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Recommended by John Palladino, particularly for programs in biology, business and education. Deadline August 31st.

Murray State: A small public school in Kentucky that’s reputation has earned it the nickname “Kentucky’s public ivy.” Deadline August 1st.

University of Tampa: Cited in Jay Mathews’ Harvard Schmarvard as a highly-underrated school that’s been a well-kept secret for too long. Good choice for pre-med and business students. Also recommended by John Palladino. Deadline May 1st

Winthrop: A small public school in South Carolina that’s often cited as exceptional. John Palladino gives it high praise as an affordable school good for students interested in both pre-professional and liberal arts tracks. Deadline May 1st.

This is baffling. Sure there are colleges that might or might not belong in a guide to the top schools, but Rochester is not one of those. By most measures, Rochester is a top 100 school, let alone top 368. I'm curious if there was some fall-out between the two. In the 2005 edition there were some things said about Tufts that I found mildly objectionable, so it's not beyond all possibility that Rochester has some problems with Princeton Review. Hope there's a reasonable explanation and that things resolve themselves. I'll probably review the 2009 Princeton Review guide in the near future.

School to check out: (Can you guess?) U. Rochester

Princeton Review does a more thorough job with investigating financial aid than the other guide books, so I would think they are reliable when they choose the schools that are good values.

Their full list is here. I'm not the least bit surprised that my alma mater, Bonkley-Foible, did not make the list. To be fair, their major rivals also weren't to be found. According to USA Today, the selections were made based on a combination of academic ratings (based on student surveys on professor availability and engagement, class size, prevalence of teaching assistants) and their record with providing generous financial aid packages. Some very expensive schools (University of Richmond) made this list, but this is exactly the point from the last post. A lot of schools with hefty price tags can actually be affordable once you see the aid packages they'll offer. Just be sure to have a financial safety school.

Some thoughts on the schools:

SCAC schools on the list!

Yep, my favorite collection of colleges was represented by Colorado College, Centre College,Rhodes,and Sewanee. Past years have included Birmingham-Southern and Southwestern University (and I think Austin College). All excellent schools to explore.

Other favorite top colleges of mine on the list

There are many others, but I wanted to point out Bates, Bryn Mawr, Carleton, Davidson, Elon, Furman, Grinnell, Hamilton, Lafayette, Oberlin, Pomona, Reed, Rice, Smith, Swarthmore, Trinity College (CT), Vassar, and Whitman.

I mentioned the importance of small public colleges a few posts ago, and Princeton Review, like Kiplinger, backs that up. Small publics may not have the big football games, but generally they do a better job of educating. Here are some important small public schools on the list:

New College of Florida, Georgia College and State University, St. Mary's College of Maryland, UNC/Asheville,College of New Jersey, University of Mary Washington

Some other institutions on the list that I have a lot of respect for include
SUNY Binghamton (where I almost went to school), University of Tulsa (very underrated), and College of William & Mary (for a major university, it does a ton for undergraduates.)

There were minor problems with the list in my unprofessional opinion. They divided the list into 50 public and 50 private schools. That's a little too convenient. I'm sure there should have been either some private schools that were good enough values considering their academics or public schools with low enough tuition to ensure that an honest list wouldn't be completely balanced.

Secondly, the armed forces academies should be disqualified, and maybe the Olin School of Engineering should be, too. I think free schools should be mentioned, but in a separate category. By including them, you're comparing apples and oranges. I noticed they didn't include Berea or College of the Ozarks, and if you're including free colleges, Berea, in particular, should have been at the very top. If it's excluded because it's only available to people with very low incomes, I think I would still mention the school. It's absolutely a place that people who need help financing college should hear about.

Third, Texas A&M??? Students are certainly happy there, but as a disciple of Loren Pope, I bet he would tell you that, in this instance, happy doesn't necessarily equal well-educated. Graduate programs at this school are usually amazing, but overcrowding at the undergraduate level has been a big problem the last few years. I've heard students say the school is practically hoping freshmen will fail out. (This is not entirely Texas A&M's fault. The top 10% law is making UT/Austin and Texas A&M have to accept more students than they can handle. I'll talk more about this in a different post.)

School for you to investigate: Davidson College

School for me to investigate: Salisbury University (another excellent public school in Maryland)

Yes, there possibly is. In this post I'll go over the concepts of gapping, preferential packaging and financial safety schools.

Math is something I'm terrible at, so I'll try to make this as simple as possible. Joe applied to three schools, King University (a reach school), Prince College (a target) and Baronet State (a financial safety). We'll say that total cost at King is 40,000 per year, 30,000 at Prince and 15,000 at Baronet State. So far it looks like Baronet State is the clear choice.

However, Joe's family filled out the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid)and they found out that their EFC (Expected Family Contribution) is $10,000. It often happens that the most prestigious schools are also the richest, so King University can meet 100% of Joe's need. So King will spot him the $30,000 and he'll only pay the EFC of $10,000. Prince College is not quite as rich, but they can meet 80% of his need. So if Prince costs $30,000 and Joe's EFC is $10,000, that means Prince is supposed to come up with the other $20,000. Since they can only meet 80%, they offer $16,000. Thus Joe will have to pay his $10,000 but he's also been gapped an additional $4000 because Prince couldn't meet his full need. So at Prince he'd pay $14,000. Public schools are rather underfunded these days, so it's not unrealistic to say that Baronet State could only meet 50% of Joe's need. So Joe has to pay the $10,000 EFC plus the $2500 (50% of the remaining $5000 is $2500) he's been gapped for a total of $12500. So in this scenario, the top school is cheapest.

Now let's introduce preferential packaging. Preferential packaging is a way for schools that are fairly rich to get around need-blind admissions and fight for the students they really want by using merit scholarships. Let's say Joe scored a 600 Reading and a 600 Math on the SAT. And we'll say that's about average for King University so those aren't scores King would get excited about. So he still would have to pay $10,000. Meanwhile Prince College's medians are about 550 CR and 550 M, so having Joe would help their freshmen class profile. Even though in the last scenario they gapped him $4000, now that they've looked at his scores, they are willing to fight harder for him and offer a $5000 merit scholarship. So even if Prince can't offer to increase their amount of need based aid, with their merit based assistance, Prince now only costs $9000 a year. Baronet State can't afford to mess around with preferential packaging so in this scenario, it would still cost $12500. A lot of extremely good schools use merit scholarships but a number at the very top only have need-based aid.

Now then, in a third scenario let's say that King and Prince didn't come through with strong aid packages or the packages they received were largely loans. This is why you need a financial safety (such as Baronet State) -- a school that's affordable if all else fails.

Schools for you to investigate:

Awesome schools that sometimes fight for students with merit aid:

Grinnell College
Trinity University (San Antonio)

Some terrific public schools: (Not going to label them financial "safeties" because obviously it depends on your achievements if they're safe bets or not)

SUNY Geneseo (the honors college in New York state)
UNC/Asheville (a great public liberal arts college)
Truman State University (one of the best public schools in the Midwest)

This is a good competitor to the Fiske and Princeton Review guides to colleges. While the experts say Fiske is best (and Fiske is my favorite), I know many students (and probably parents) see the Fiske entries and think "I have to read ALL THAT?" Thus, they go to the much briefer overviews in Princeton Review which probably don't give enough information, but will at least provide the gist of what life is like at each institution. The Sparknotes guide is in the middle although it's closer to Princeton Review than Fiske. It's also a bit less openly subjective than Princeton Review which likes to quote students' catchy sound bites. In some instances, the Sparknotes entries say nothing negative, but you will sometimes see things such as "artsy students would be happier at another school than Auburn" or "Some students complain faculty members are too focused on their research" at Texas A&M. This lets the reader know that Sparknotes isn't merely an advertisement for all the various colleges. Furthermore, in this age of increased political polarization, Sparknotes was wise to note if a school is especially conservative or liberal.

Sparknotes gives a number of helpful statistics including acceptance rate, four and six-year graduation rates, and endowments (be cautious if you're thinking of a private school with less than 20 million). It also lists some other aspects such as famous alumni and total annual cost, both items I think are overlooked by the other books.

On the other hand, they have SAT "averages" instead of median ranges which is not as helpful. Seeing that Trinity College has an average of 649 CR and 658 M sounds a lot more daunting than the profile in Princeton Review which says their median range is 600-690 CR and 610-690 M. Princeton Review also is more thorough with financial aid statistics and analysis.

One thing that separates Sparknotes is a quiz that may help identify which schools will appeal to a student and which won’t. The quiz is a bit simplistic and the categories (such as “Big Job” to indicate that a school encourages internships or co-op programs or “Big Perspective” to show that a school emphasizes a well-rounded curriculum) are fairly generalized. I think looking at the schools that the quiz results show a student will like is a smart idea, but I would hesitate to rule out any schools based on such a small set of questions.

Sparknotes chose a very good collection of colleges overall, but there are a few such as Centre College, McDaniel, Millsaps, New College of Florida and Gustavus Adolphus that it omitted. I suspect in future additions they may add a few more schools. While Fiske is more informative, and Princeton Review does a better job with financial aid info, the Sparknotes guide is a good compromise as it has slightly more info on the schools than Princeton Review while maintaining the brevity that makes research more appealing to busy students and parents.

This guide is not bad, but if you're looking for a guide that will give you thorough descriptions of the top colleges, this is definitely not it. Kaplan used to have a guide similar to Fiske or Princeton Review, but they've changed their area of coverage. Now the book is much more useful as a guide to majors and career paths, and this particular edition discusses the importance of "green" eco-employment. However, the guide takes the environmentalism too far. Yes, it's extremely important, but that can't be the only factor when choosing a college, and they spend pages and pages on a very small number (25) of "green" schools, and then give very short, unhelpful capsules about 365 other institutions. This frustrating section runs a 198 pages including the section on the green schools. It probably would have been much better to have page-long profiles on 198 (or so) schools that include a bit on each college's environmentalist efforts or lack thereof.

Another problem with the book is that useful information is scattered haphazardly in the midst of the college capsules. Interested in schools that are strong in finance or business? They list a few top schools such as NYU and Dartmouth on page 155 - the page for the Universities of Iowa and Kansas. You saw a similar short list of schools that were great with financial aid but you don't remember what page it was on? Good luck finding it again. These lists should have been collected in one separate section.

On the other hand, the back section has a long series of in-depth interviews with professionals in a wide variety of fields. The answers aren't always perfect (for example, when asked "what schools are the strongest in major X" at least one person said "I don't know") but they are very good. Overall they will give students an excellent idea of what is entailed in each line of work. Really, with the current cost of college, students probably should know now whether their career plans are likely to require graduate school, and these interviews can help. Here, the book's emphasis on environmental careers should be very much appreciated as it explains the path to careers that are both likely to be widely available in the future as well as highly needed.

Overall I wouldn't use this as a guide to colleges to replace Fiske or Princeton Review, but I do think the book is worth looking at to see if the careers you (or your child) are interested in are discussed because the interviews are helpful and informative, especially if environmentalism is a turn-on.

Which colleges are most suitable for a pre-law student? Meet Colby D., an A student in Sacramento, CA with a 630 CR, 610 M, and a 650 Writing. Colby wants to avoid the huge public schools that are prevalent in California and is interested in pre-law. However he’s restricted to Western schools because his family wants him within a one to two day drive. Colby had trouble finding schools using CollegeBoard.com. The problem was Colby thought he needed a school that had a major in pre-law studies. Actually, he doesn't. Instead, he needs a school with pre-law advising. If a school has a major in philosophy, economics, political science, or rhetoric, a student will be well-prepared for law school. (Note that is not necessarily true for criminal justice majors as they tend to do poorly on the LSAT.) A pre-law advisor should be able to find a combination of courses in these majors that will best suit the student's needs. Colby should do some more soul-searching to figure out what type of law he might want to go into (or what post-law school career) as that could affect what other courses he should consider.

Here’s a list of schools for Colby:

Reaches: (I would choose just one of the two. I don’t like the idea of applying to more than one school that has higher SAT medians than a student’s scores.)

Reed is one of the best liberal arts college in the country, Reed would ensure that Colby is politically aware and more than prepared for the rigors of law school. They offer majors he might need like econ, poli. sci, or philosophy. The city of Portland might be able to provide useful internships.

Whitman is Reed’s slightly more traditional rival. Although considered to be lower stress than Reed, the school is still very challenging. It has the right majors, a pre-law society and one of its alumni was a Supreme Court justice.

Targets:

Colorado College has the needed majors and something called the “block plan” which helps students focus on one subject at a time. This is particularly useful for courses with a lot of reading such as economics, and students get to know their professors very well in this kind of system. (Don’t forget most law schools require recommendations.)

Occidental has econ, poli sci, philosophy, and a beautiful campus. Located in Los Angeles, it’s an ideal place for a student heading toward entertainment law. A search of the website for “pre-law” shows that they indeed have pre-law advising through a Ms. Valerie Savior. If Colby were interested in “Oxy,” he might want to contact Ms. Savior and ask what percentage of students go on to law school and what career paths do they often choose.

Lewis & Clark, like Reed, is also in Portland. It has smart majors like philosophy, economics, political science, and rhetoric. The liberal “hippie” environment might suit Colby if he’s interested in advocacy for ACLU causes or for work with Amnesty International.

Safeties:

Pitzer College is in the Los Angeles area, has the philosophy, econ, and poli sci programs and offers the additional strengths of nearby powerhouses Pomona, Scripps, and Claremont McKenna if a course isn’t available at Pitzer. Pitzer’s multidisciplinary approach helps students become more analytical, something rather important when working as a trial attorney. Do they have pre-law advising? Most certainly.

Evergreen State is a financial safety (a public school that’s a good bet for admission as well as relatively cheap in case the private schools don’t come through with good aid packages) in Olympia, Washington. It does not have majors per se, but he could study philosophy, rhetoric, or poli sci here. Through the state’s PERL program he could do a summer residence course specifically coordinated for students interested in pre-law studies. Also, “green” careers are heating up, so this would be an excellent jumping off point for Colby if he was interested in environmental law.

Here's a grouping of schools that should be within reach of students who score 590 CR 590 M on down, presuming their grades are decent. I know that people say SAT's aren't everything, but for a student who doesn't stand out in some way such as a debate champion or a young entrepreneurs whiz, it really isn't easy to get into a school whose scores you don't beat. Still, these schools are amazing and many of them have such strong reputations that you can certainly brag about getting in, and they're all known to be places where students are engaged in class and are successful in the workforce or graduate school.



Rhodes College is maybe the toughest of the bunch at 590-690CR, 590-690M, but rigorous standards don't end at the admissions office. This is a school where students work very hard, usually with the goal of going to graduate school. Like most of the SCAC schools, there's heavy emphasis on learning to write well. (SCAC is the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference, a grouping based on academic quality similar to the Little Ivies' conference, the NESCAC.) Rhodes combines its powerhouse academics with the entertainment opportunities of Memphis. Really, all you can say is wow.

Furman University is South Carolina's premier school and often mentioned together with Duke, Vanderbilt and Emory as one of the South's finest institutions. Like Rhodes, its SAT scores are also currently at 590-690CR, 590-690M. Furman is a more conservative atmosphere than Rhodes, but students are just as industrious. While no longer a Baptist institution, many Furman students are religious, although some do like to party. A good place for sweet-natured Southerners willing to work hard.

Union College in a venerable institution in upstate New York. In fact, it's older than some of the Ivies. It's a mixture of engineering and liberal arts in a small environment. Among US News & World Report's top 50 National Liberal Arts Colleges, this is the one with perhaps the lowest SAT range at a still very respectable 560-660CR, 590-680M. Possibly what's going on is that students find Schenectady, NY less than a fun town so this wonderful school is a bit easier to get into than it should be, thus providing students with an amazing opportunity to go to a school that would normally be beyond their reach. Again, what makes it special is the personal attention, highly qualified and personable professors, and ambitious, hard-working students. Financial aid is stronger at Union than many liberal arts colleges.

Kalamazoo College is a new entrant to the 590/590 and under group and may not stay there, although as Michigan is hurting economically, many of the state's top students may be headed to public schools. However, at 580-690V and 570-680M, this school is a major prize. Like the other schools mentioned so far, academics are amazing. There are few complaints about how well Kalamazoo prepares students for real life or allows for a rich array of study abroad options, but there are some about how hard students must work. It may seem odd, but Kzoo requires students to attend 25 concerts or cultural events before they graduate, showing how dedicated they are to broadening horizons.

Centre College is Kentucky's premiere school, and if you want to be guaranteed you'll be done in four years, something that fewer and fewer students accomplish - particularly at large public schools, this is the place to do it. This is another SCAC school with emphasis on writing and close student-faculty relationships. At 560-700CR and 570-670M, Centre is a major rival to Rhodes and University of the South for the region's best students. Another school with strong work ethics and friendly students

University of the South is one of the more traditional members of the SCAC with students sometimes wearing academic gowns to class, although it seems like the practice is waning. AT 570-680CR and 560-650M, "Sewanee" is slightly easier to get into than Wake Forest or Furman, but with the same powerhouse academics found at most SCAC institutions. Parents love Sewanee for how safe and protected they feel their kids are at this rural campus with a watchful administration. Like Rhodes and Centre, fun often centers on the Greek system, but schoolwork is the main priority. It seems like the guidebooks view Sewanee's faculty as a bit more prim and conservative than Rhodes or Centre. On the other hand, financial aid is among the best.

Wofford College is another South Carolina powerhouse. Right now its scores are at 560-680CR and 570-680M. Like Furman, academics are rigorous and students are conservative. Wofford parties a little harder, possibly, and its scrappy athletic teams compete as the smallest school in NCAA Division I.

Southwestern University is my favorite school. It's definitely a place for students who love to learn. This strikes me as a great place to go for an undergraduate degree if you want to become a college professor because it's that scholarly. Still it can be a fun place as it's just outside Austin, Texas. Current scores at this SCAC institution are 560-680CR and 570-660M. Not as conservative as many on this list, and for a Texas school, a bit liberal, although middle-of-the-road by many standards. Financial aid is stronger than most schools.

DePauw University is the Midwestern equivalent of all of these southern schools. Its scores are currently 560-660CR and 570-660M. A number of these schools, DePauw included, are known for a combination of liberal arts with managerial skills needed in a corporate environment. The reason this is the best combination is that managers who can write well and speak well often come out of liberal arts backgrounds, and the ones who can write and give speeches are usually the ones promoted and the last ones fired. DePauw is another preppy and conservative school where Greek life is the main social outlet.

Elon University is one that everyone has been talking about including Time Magazine and The New York Times. Along with Guilford, Elon has been a leader in surveys of student engagement, which is another way of saying that students get more out of their education than their counterparts at other schools. At 560-650CR and 570-660M, Elon is a bit harder to get into. It's also a bit larger at 4500 students, a size that Elon feels is ideal. Here's a school that's not predominantly conservative.

Austin College is just north of Dallas, and is another fantastic school in the SCAC. It's one of those amazing places that manages to offer the opportunities of a large university with the personal attention of a small liberal arts school. At 560-670CR and 560-660M, Austin College, along with Trinity University, is Southwestern's main rival in the western part of the SCAC. Like DePauw, there are a lot of pre-professional students here all headed to bright futures, but AC is much more liberal environment. Financial aid is very strong here as well.

Hendrix College is another of the best schools in the deep south. The only reason this SCAC gem is moderately easy to get into (560-670CR 550-660M) is because it's in Arkansas. But, really, all you New Yorkers, for the personal attention and rigorous but enjoyable classes, this is worth the long trip. While a lot of students keep Hendrix in their back pockets as a safety in case their other schools don't pan out, and they need a top school with rolling admissions, its wonderful faculty and excellent facilities should make Hendrix the first choice of many high school seniors.

Earlham College is possibly the polar opposite of DePauw -- another Midwestern school with strong academics, but with a lefty tilt. At 570-690CR and 550-650M, Earlham is often a backup for Grinnell, Oberlin and Macalester. It provides a friendly and skilled faculty with the open-mindedness that comes with Quaker heritage.

University of Dallas is the Catholic school on this list, and it's one of the top Catholic schools west of the Mississippi. It is dedicated to rigorous intellectual inquiry. Individuals come out of here with a greater appreciation of politics, culture, philosophy and economics. At 550-680CR and 550-650M, it's a bit easier to get into than the Catholic Big Four -- Georgetown, Notre Dame, Boston College, and Holy Cross, but most experts say you'll come out with a larger skill set here than at the schools where basketball or football is king.

Rochester Institute of Technology is the pre-professional candidate amidst all of the liberal arts colleges. Known worldwide for its photography department, RIT is also a hot spot for engineering and fine arts. While some eastern tech schools like Clarkson seem to be declining, RIT retains its vitality and offers an excellent alternative to stress boxes like Carnegie-Mellon and Cornell. And at 530-630CR and 560-670M, it's an excellent choice for hard-working, tech-oriented students who didn't cream the SAT's.

Millsaps College is another tough southern college (Mississippi) that takes rigorous academics and make them into an experience that students love. At 550-670CR and 540-650M, this SCAC school competes heavily with Hendrix, Rhodes, Sewanee and Birmingham-Southern. Like Sewanee, it's a bastion of intellectual conservatism mixed with a heavy dose of Greek life and athleticism. Like most of the other SCAC schools, learning to write well is of utmost importance.

Birmingham-Southern College is currently low man on the SCAC totem pole (520-640CR and 520-650M) with the exception of Oglethorpe in Georgia. BSC has a sterling reputation in business and pre-professional programs even though it's a liberal arts college. With the emphasis on personal attention, this is a school that can help a student who didn't excel in high school turn himself around.

Eckerd College in Florida has earned a top reputation with write-ups from Loren Pope and Jay Mathews. If you need a school that might accept less than top scores (Eckerd is currently at 510-610 CR and 500-610M), this is one of the most prestigious. While known for its marine biology program, Eckerd is also considered a nurturing environment for students in general.

McDaniel College (500-610CR and 500-630M) in Maryland is one of the best "easy" schools to get into in the country. Featured in Loren Pope's Schools That Change Lives, McDaniel has recently switched classifications from national liberal arts college to regional baccalaureate college. Because of that, it's now highly ranked. The sciences are very strong here, and it has a better record of getting students into med school than many much better-known colleges. Their SAT medians may be deceptively low because, if I remember correctly, their stronger candidates with higher grades are not required to take the SAT.

Guilford College (490-630CR and 500-610M) in North Carolina is a fantastic option for students, even ones that could get into tougher schools. In recent years, North Carolina schools like Duke, Wake Forest and Davidson have all received massive amounts of applicants and in the midst of all the hubbub, schools like Elon and Guilford have been discovered as hidden gems, so they may not remain as easy to get into as they have been. Although knocked for less than tasty campus food, Guilford is a very friendly (Quaker), liberal and globally-focused campus. Like Southwestern, Earlham or Birmingham-Southern, this is a school where people who want to do good for the planet will thrive.

According to the authors of Admissions Matters, no, you shouldn't, at least for your top choices. They indicate that it shows more interest in a school if you go to the trouble of using their own form, and therefore is more likely to make a strong impression. However, to save you time and stress, if you want to use the Common Ap for schools that are good bets to admit you, then go ahead. (By the way, there are a number of schools that use the Common Ap exclusively.) To that logic, I'd add one thought. If none of the essays on the school's application strike you as ones you could write well, and you feel you could make an excellent impression with the choices available on the Common Ap, then make the jump. Of course, you might want to ask yourself what it means that you're applying to a school that only asks questions you don't have good answers for.

For always asking at least one very fun essay question on their application, your school to check out today is: St. Edward's University

In the current economic crisis, public schools are bound to be more popular than ever. The monstrous flagship schools are good choices for smart, assertive, mature, independent students who won't be distracted by the tons of parties, sporting events and social activities. However, most eighteen-year-olds need at least some nurturing and guidance. Thus, more and more families are turning to public liberal arts colleges or other small public schools. The best ones will have smaller class sizes than the flagship schools as well as fewer graduate programs which means that professors will have more time to teach and mentor undergraduate students and fewer classes will be taught by teaching assistants. In the past few years, certain states like New York and Florida have made the small public schools into their honors colleges, and each year they become more and more selective. Here's a list of of the country's top public liberal arts colleges and small universities, more or less in order of selectivity


1. New College of Florida
2. SUNY Geneseo (NY)
3. College of New Jersey
4. College of Charleston (SC)
5. University of Mary Washington (VA)
6. St. Mary's College of Maryland
7. Truman State (MO)
8. U. Minnesota/Morris
9. Ramapo College (NJ)
10. Christopher Newport University (VA)
11. UNC/Asheville
12. Georgia College and State University
13. Salisbury University (MD)
14. Rowan University (NJ)
15. Evergreen State University (WA)
16. Murray State University (KY)
17. SUNY Brockport(NY)
18. Winthrop University (SC)
19. University of Texas/Tyler
20. University of Montevallo (AL)

Colleges for you to investigate: Georgia College and State University, College of Charleston, New College of Florida

College for me to investigate: Rowan University

Here's something close to free that I've found. There is a website, www.freeuniv.com. It's deliberately not a fancy site for the sake of easy loading on less than powerful computers. The site offers a large array of self-study courses, often using texts that are available for free online. These courses are largely geared towards passing a CLEP exam, thereby receiving college credit! It also lists free courses available online at colleges throughout the country.

How does this help you get an accredited degree? The site has links to three bricks and mortar colleges, all accredited, that may accept credits from freeuniv.com with exams. The process is not free, but it's probably the closest to free you can find. The colleges, Thomas Edison State College in Jersey, Charter Oak State College in Connecticut, and Excelsior College in New York all do their best to help students use life experience such as FreeUniv.Com to complete a degree. You'll need to do some work not available at FreeUniv.com if you want more than an Associate's Degree, but Thomas Edison and Charter Oak in particular offer online credits at rates that are very affordable, especially when compared to what is typical these days.

What you need now is the motivation to stick to your studies. :-)


Schools for you to check out: Charter Oak State College, Thomas Edison State College, Excelsior College

One thing that saddened a lot of people was Randolph College's decision to go coed. Maybe I'm wrong, but I actually think the college didn't want to make the change, but had to for economic reasons. It's one thing to decide coeducation is right for a school's future, and another to be forced into it.

If you look at the website for Georgian Court University (a Catholic women's college in New Jersey), you'll see the basic philosophy of attending a women-only institution. It's a fact that women who go to these schools have a greater chance of being in an executive or leadership position. It's a fact that women that go to these schools pursue a wider variety of interests including the sciences and engineering, fields usually dominated by men.

Here's another consideration: The lack of popularity (at least for the moment) of single-sex education means that the top women's colleges have to be less selective than they used to. So a strong, motivated student who didn't happen to blow the SAT's completely out of the water may still have a shot at Smith, Bryn Mawr or Mount Holyoke. This could be your best chance at an incredible, world class education. Of course, you still have to work very hard, but just by looking at their lists of famous alumnae you'll know what kind of opportunities await you.


Schools for you to investigate: Mount Holyoke, Bryn Mawr, Wellesley, Barnard, Smith, Scripps
(If you're male, investigate Wabash)

Schools for me to investigate: Pine Manor, Georgian Court, Hollins, Simmons

You know, Forbes' picks are mostly not surprises. Similar to what experts like Loren Pope have always said, with a few exceptions, small colleges are better choices. I'm sure he felt vindicated that Centre College was right up there. With the exception of UVA and William & Mary, I don't think any public flagships made the list. Again, not that surprised. (And note that the Virginia schools are much smaller than most flagship campuses.)

The one that did surprise me was Westminster College in Missouri. I've barely heard of it. I imagine the mention from Forbes will do wonders for the school.

School for you to investigate: Centre College
School for me to investigate: Westminster College

Radar Magazine just came out with their worst schools.  I was not surprised to see University of Bridgeport as their worst pick, although I honestly did not know about the Moonie connection.  I had a classmate who went to UB and told me it was very dangerous.  At the time the school was basically a home base for Mafia children. 

I was surprised that my alma mater, Bonkley-Foible wasn't listed as Biggest Rip Off or Most Shallow, but I'm probably being unfair.  Bonkley does offer a lot of opportunities in some majors, and there are some very good professors   It's just way too expensive. 

 I'm not sure I agree that Hampshire is a bad school, but I do think it's quite possible for unmotivated students to take advantage of the Hampshire system and get away with doing very little.  Similar to Antioch, you have to be engaged and mature to get the most out of what they offer.   I have less faith in Bennington's ability to provide an intellectually stimulating atmosphere, but that's based on hearsay.  Hampshire is known for unusual innovation.  Bennington is known for spoiled underachievers.   But Bennington is not a school I've studied closely. 

Some of my personal least favorite schools include Lamar University, Auburn, Texas A&M, San Diego State (which Radar included), and NYU.  At a lot of big public schools, you spend four (or more) years being ignored and learning less than enough.    Lamar is just lackluster in nearly every category (except deaf education), Auburn has too many teachers and too many departments that let a lot of students coast so athletes can compete, and Texas A&M is so overcrowded that they practically hope freshmen will fail out.  Overcrowding and indifference is epidemic at many huge state schools, but NYU is private and rich, so they have no excuse for all the red tape and bureaucratic bad attitude.   On the other hand,  for certain majors and certain personalities, NYU  is probably a very good match, and on the graduate school level, A&M professors DO  have the time to work closely with students, often with exceptional technology at their disposal. 

Today's school for you to investigate: Guilford College
Today's school for ME to investigate: Bennington College

Yes, I know.  There are eight.  Can you name them?  I think about 80% of the people who think you have to go to an Ivy League school to be successful can't name all eight.  They'll say Stanford or NYU or Duke.   They'll think the University of Pennsylvania is public or they'll say Cornell shouldn't get to be an Ivy since it's so much less competitive.

It's only an athletic conference. 

Well, an athletic conference of amazing schools.  But here is my grouping of 100 schools that deserve the Ivy Tag of Quality.  (actually, it's ridiculous to exclude top notch schools just to have a nice, comfy number like 100.  It will probably be a bit over 100.)

I'm going to try to do this from memory.  Let's see how I do:

The Official Ivy League: 

Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, U. Penn, Yale

Now, Tiffany Amber, why are you only applying to these instutions?    If it's reputation that's important, they're actually a bit uneven in selectivity.  It doesn't really make sense to apply to all these schools simply because they're Ivies.  Brown has more in common with Bowdoin and Oberlin.  Penn has more in common with Carnegie-Mellon and NYU. 

 

The Little Ivies:

 

Amherst, Bates, Bowdoin, Colby, Connecticut College, Hamilton, Haverford, Middlebury, Swarthmore, Trinity College, Wesleyan, Williams  

 

Little Ivies are liberal arts colleges with pretty much the same powerhouse reputation as Ivy League universities.  Note that originally there are only 3 "Little Ivies" (Amherst, Williams, and Wesleyan) and that the other schools either are considered Little Ivies because they are members of NESCAC (New England Small College Athletic Conference) which is one of the few conferences formed on the basis of strong academics or in the case of Haverford and Swarthmore, through frequent association.

 

The Seven Sisters (and their cousin):

 

Barnard, Bryn Mawr, Mount Holyoke, (Radcliffe), Scripps (sort of), Smith, Vassar, Wellesley

 

The Seven Sisters are the Ivy League equivalents for women although Vassar has gone coed and Radcliffe merged with Harvard years ago.   Scripps is a West Coast women's school of similar selectivity as the Seven Sisters, but it is not a traditional member of the group.

The Northeastern Elites:

 
Bard, Brandeis, Colgate, Hampshire, Tufts, Union, University of Rochester, Wheaton

(Honorable Mentions:  Sarah Lawrence, Skidmore) 

These are other top schools that are nearly as competitive as the Little Ivies, and in a few instances, more so.  I’ll probably say this several times:   Just because these schools are grouped together doesn’t mean they’re similar enough that if you like one you’ll like another.  Bard aficionados would be more apt to appreciate Wheaton or Brown than Colgate or Union. 

 

Big Urbans:

 

Boston University, George Washington University, New York University

 (Honorable Mention:  University of Miami)

This is pretty self-explanatory.  You’ll probably find larger classes and more red tape, but you’ll also find high- achieving students and world-class professors.   NYU is a fair amount more selective than the other two.

 

Catholic Ivies:

 

Boston College, College of the Holy Cross, Georgetown, University of Notre Dame

(Honorable Mention:  Villanova)

Now in this case there is a lot of overlap although, again, if you like one, you might not like the other as the socio-political atmosphere can vary. 

 

Atlantic Ivies:

 

Bucknell, Carnegie Mellon, Dickinson, Gettysburg, Franklin & Marshall, Lafayette, Lehigh, Johns Hopkins, St. John’s College

 

Some of these aren’t household names, but beware, schools in this region are tougher to get into than one would imagine, even with the abundance of regional competition.  St. John’s is the odd duck here as it’s a small, intellectual campus focused on the Great Books.  It’s refusal to cooperate with US News and World Report has hurt its ranking, but most college experts are aware that it’s Ivy quality. 

 

Southern Ivies:

 

Davidson, Duke, Emory, Furman, Tulane, Rice, University of Richmond, Vanderbilt, Wake Forest, Washington and Lee

 

These are generally considered the most prestigious schools in the South, although it’s a mixture of major research universities and little liberal arts colleges.  Here again, this group can have very different personalities.   Liberal or middle-of-the-road students might be better off at Rice, Tulane or Emory while conservative students will be more at home at Furman or Wake Forest.   

 

Southern Little Ivies/The Junior League

 

Austin College, Birmingham-Southern, Centre, DePauw, Hendrix, Millsaps, Rhodes, Southwestern University, Trinity University, University of the South (Sewanee), Wofford

 

Most of these schools are in the SCAC (Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference) which, like the NESCAC, is structured on academic quality.  (This is why DePauw is listed here even though it’s in Indiana.)  These are schools that B students should keep a close eye on because they are among the very few among Ivy quality institutions where they have a chance, although Trinity University, Rhodes and Sewanee may still be too tough.   I think many counselors would argue that a few of these schools, particularly Birmingham-Southern and Millsaps, aren’t nearly as selective as the other schools in this list of "Ivies".   They’re right.  However, experts such as Jay Mathews and Loren Pope both believe these schools offer some of the highest quality educations in the nation.  Yet again, there’s a big range. Liberal students would probably prefer Hendrix or Austin College while conservative kids would like Sewanee, Birmingham-Southern or Wofford.

 

Public Ivies

 

College of William and Mary, Georgia Tech, New College of Florida, SUNY Geneseo, UC/Berkeley, UCLA, University of Michigan, UNC/Chapel Hill,  University of Virginia

 (Honorable Mentions:  University of Illinois, University of Maryland, University of Wisconsin)

This one opens a big can of worms because there are many other very fine universities that are close in competitiveness, if not equal, to these.  There are a number of well-publicized lists of public ivies and many of them also include the University of Wisconsin, the University of Illinois, SUNY Binghamton and so forth.  I’ll note that most lists DO NOT include SUNY Geneseo or New College of Florida as those are a new breed of public liberal arts colleges which are becoming very popular with parents who want their kids to have the personal attention students receive at small private schools at a public school price.   Other public liberal arts colleges which are often considered academic powerhouses include St. Mary’s College of Maryland and University of Mary Washington

 

Tech Ivies

 

Cal Tech, Franklin Olin, Harvey Mudd, M.I.T., Rensselaer Polytechnic, Rose-Hulman, Worcester Polytechnic   

 
These schools have high overlap although some are much more competitive than others.  Olin is a brand new school that attracts students of the same caliber as M.I.T., Harvey Mudd and CalTech.  Why?  Because it’s free and the education is top-notch. 

 

Midwestern Ivies

 

Carleton, Case Western Reserve, Grinnell, Kalamazoo, Kenyon, Lawrence, Macalester, Northwestern, Oberlin, University of Chicago, Washington University of St. Louis  

 

Here’s another mixture of liberal arts colleges and research universities.   Most of these are fairly liberal institutions.  Like Duke and Stanford, Washington University is harder to get into than several of the official Ivies.  I'm tempted to step out on a limb and include Hillsdale.  It's  about as competitive as many of the other schools on this list, but  there isn't much written about the school.  It's hard to know what the experts  think of it. 

 
 

Western Ivies:

 
Claremont McKenna, Colorado College, Occidental, Pomona, Reed, Stanford, University of Southern California, Whitman 

 

These are mostly small liberal arts colleges with the exception of Stanford and USC, which has a lot in common with the Big Urbans. 

I think that was about 107.  Hopefully that broadens your scope so instead of thinking "there are only eight colleges worth going to," you're now saying "there are 107 schools worth a look."   The next step is (usually) to look even further beyond prestige to find your best fit.