We knew why she focused on these state schools. Her friends were talking about them. We happen to live in California, where, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education, 84% of students end up at state
institutions. It’s only natural then that teenagers and their parents initially focus on the most prestigious of the bunch.
Californians aren’t any different from families in much of the rest of the country. For most teenagers, public schools are the obvious choice. In Texas, 87% of college students attend public institutions.
The numbers are also high in the state of Washington (85%), Michigan
(80%), Louisiana (92%), Virginia (80%), New Mexico (92%), and
frankly just about every other state except a few that are huddled
primarily in the Northeast.
We figured Caitlin would end up at a large state school, but that
was before someone suggested reading a book entitled Colleges That
Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About
Colleges, by Loren Pope, a former education editor of The New York
Times. Pope eventually became an independent college counselor and
an unabashed and tireless supporter of liberal arts colleges.
Frankly, it had never occurred to my daughter or me to look at
small colleges, but after reading Pope’s book we were curious. Ultimately
we visited 12 liberal arts colleges located in the Pacific Northwest
and on the East Coast, as well as a handful of universities. We
discovered some lovely liberal arts schools, such as Muhlenberg
College in Allentown, Pennsylvania; University of Puget Sound in
Tacoma, Washington; Willamette University in Salem, Oregon;
Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania; Ursinus
College in Collegeville, Pennsylvania; Reed College in Portland,
Oregon; Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York; Goucher
College in Baltimore, Maryland; and Whitman College in Walla Walla,
Washington.
After our travels, my daughter’s desire to share a school with tens
of thousands of classmates evaporated. In fact, by the time she was a
senior in high school, she had zero interest in attending any state
school in California. Before we let her bail on the cheaper state universities,
however, we told her that she had to earn a merit award to
defray the extra cost of any private college she selected. And she did.
Five of the eight schools where she applied kicked in cash, and she
narrowed her final list down to Juniata College and Dickinson
College, which are located 84 miles away from each other in central
Pennsylvania. She is currently a happy camper at Juniata.
Of course, liberal arts schools aren’t for everybody. It won’t be a fit
for the teenager who would become claustrophobic attending a school
with just 1,000 to 2,000 students. It won’t be a suitable choice for many
kids, who expect to major in fields beyond the liberal arts sphere of the
sciences, math, psychology, English, history, fine arts, and other
humanities. Only a tiny number of liberal arts colleges, for instance,
offer engineering degrees. And these intimate academic outposts
might not be satisfactory for students eager to see their school compete
in a bowl game or during March Madness.
Even after eliminating all these square pegs, however, plenty of
students remain who could become captivated by small schools if they
bothered to look. And here are reasons why:
Small classes. At liberal arts colleges, you’re not going to get
stuck in a lecture hall that requires TV monitors to see the professor,
who is hugging the lectern. A few large introductory courses might
contain 40 or 50 kids, but many classes contain two dozen students or
less. When touring Willamette University, for instance, the tour guide
proudly showed us the largest classroom on the campus—it held only
35 kids. In my daughter’s first semester at Juniata, her conversational
Spanish professor thought too many kids had enrolled in the class. The
original class contained just 16 students! He split the class in half and
taught back-to-back sessions just so his students could get more time
speaking Spanish.
Student focused. The rap against universities is that too many
professors are more interested in their research than their students.
This phenomenon is understandable because universities don’t reward
professors for their teaching prowess. Pulling in research grants
and publishing in peer-reviewed journals are what helps win tenure.
With professors occupied with their own projects, teaching assistants
are often relied on to grade papers and even teach classes. Another
huge focus for professors at research institutions is grooming their
graduate students.
At liberal arts colleges, professors aren’t distracted by graduate
students’ needs because there usually aren’t any. The primary focus of
teachers on these campuses is teaching undergraduates, and research
comes second.
Preparation for graduate school. At small schools, there are
often more chances for students to work directly with professors in research
projects. What’s more, assignments can be more meaningful.
Professors, for instance, would be more inclined to assign a paper on
the symbolism in a Franz Kafka novel if they had to grade only 20 papers
rather than 500. In fact, some liberal arts colleges pride themselves
on the writing-intensive nature of their classes. With fewer
students, professors can be less likely to rely heavily on impersonal
lectures that lead to rote learning and a lot of multiple choice tests.
The rigor of the curriculum and the extra attention can more than prepare
students for graduate or professional schools.
It’s a fallacy that you’ve got a better chance of getting into grad
school if you attend a state research institution as a undergraduate. In
fact, on a per capita basis, liberal arts colleges produce twice as many
students who earn a PhD in science than other institutions. What’s
more, small schools dominate the list of the top 10 institutions that
produce the most students who ultimately earn doctorate degrees.
Endless examples exist that illustrate how liberal arts schools serve
as staging grounds for graduate educations. Reed College, for instance,
ranks in the top three of all U.S. colleges and universities for
the percentage of graduates who earn PhD’s in all fields. Pomona College
in Claremont, California, sent a higher percentage of its graduates
to Harvard Law School during a recent year than Brown or Duke
universities. A higher percentage of students at Grinnell College in
Iowa receive PhD’s than Harvard and Yale alumni. Graduates at my
daughter’s college enjoy a 95% acceptance rate at all postgraduate
programs including medicine, dental, and law schools.
Cost. On the surface, private schools are more expensive. But, as
mentioned elsewhere in the book, sticker prices are often a joke. Unlike
many public universities, plenty of private schools have deeper institutional
pockets to hand out cash. If a private school covets your
child, it can make a generous offer. In fact, thanks to financial aid
grants and/or merit awards, it’s possible to spend less money attending
an expensive private school than a state institution that appears on
the surface to be a bargain.
What’s also overlooked by those who believe that only public
schools are affordable is the cost of delays. The four-year graduation
rates at many private colleges are significantly more impressive than
at many public schools. When comparing the costs of a public and a
private school, be realistic about how soon your child can graduate. Attending
a public university for five or six years can cost the same or be
more expensive than graduating from a private college in four years.
That’s especially true when you add in the lost financial opportunity
your child will experience if he or she must delay the start of a career
by one or two years.
Finding liberal arts schools. Small schools are scattered around
the country. You’ll find an instant list by visiting the Web site of the
Annapolis Group, which is an organization of leading liberal arts colleges
(www.collegenews.org/theannapolisgroup.xml). You can find
more names by reading Loren Pope’s book.
Action Plan
Don’t overlook liberal arts colleges when exploring your options.
These small schools can provide an excellent education while being
just as affordable as a public university.
Source: The College Solution: A Guide for Everyone Looking for the Right School at the Right Price
