By John Raftrey And Lori McCormick
E-mail John Raftrey And Lori McCormick
About this blog: We are writing this blog to give practical advice to students and parents, to reflect on issues affecting college admissions, and to provide a platform for a robust community discussion on post-secondary choices. We occasionally f...
(More)About this blog: We are writing this blog to give practical advice to students and parents, to reflect on issues affecting college admissions, and to provide a platform for a robust community discussion on post-secondary choices. We occasionally feature "guest? bloggers and invite other college counselors to join the blog team. We are members of the Higher Education Consultants Association (HECA) and the Western Association for College Admissions Counseling (WACAC).
Lori McCormick: I began my college advising career in 2006 at Notre Dame de Namur in Transfer Admissions. Since then, I have worked at San Jose State in the Career Center, for a local independent college advising firm, and for BUILD a college access program for underrepresented youth. I graduated with a BA in Sociology from UCSB and a MA in Psychology with a concentration in Career Counseling from Antioch University. I am an active volunteer with The Parent?s Club of the Peninsula (PAMP), the Palo Alto Community Child Care (PACCC) and I am a seasonal application reader for the
Maisin Scholar Award. I reside in Palo Alto with my husband and two sons.
John Raftrey: I have been advising students for the last three admission cycles. I regularly attend conferences, tour colleges, and keep up with the changing landscape of college admissions. I'll share what I learn and throw in a few opinions along the way. I moved to Palo Alto in 1991. My three sons are all veterans of PAUSD and graduated from Paly. I graduated from the University of Michigan, earned an MBA at Columbia University and hold a certificate in College Counseling from UC San Diego. In my past life I worked in TV news and high tech marketing.
(Hide)View all posts from John Raftrey And Lori McCormick
(Written by John Raftrey)
The Colleges That Change Lives, ctcl.org, schools will be hosting a college fair Monday July 27th at the Santa Clara Convention Center, Mission City Ballroom at 7pm. Pre-registration is not required.
If you are even thinking about attending a small liberal arts and sciences college, you should attend this event which will feature about 40 colleges.
This group was identified by New York Times education writer Loren Pope in 1996 in his book, "Colleges That Change Lives." He wanted to identify colleges that were unheralded, but provided great educations for their students. These colleges have professors who want to teach. Their students have excellent results from both a personal growth standpoint as well as outcomes regarding medical, law and graduate school matriculation.
Loren Pope died in 2008, but his book is updated every few years by his editor Hilary Masell Oswald. Recently west coast schools, St Mary's of California, University of Puget Sound, and Willamette University were added, joining the other west coast schools, Evergreen State, Reed College, and Whitman College.
The following CTCL schools rank in the top 50 schools whose students go on to earn PhD's in science and engineering as measured by percentage of total graduates: Beloit, Earlham, Hampshire, Hendrix, Kalamazoo, Lawrence, St. Johns (Maryland), and Whitman College.
When a student wants to attend a small liberal arts and sciences school, most college counselors I know start with this list of 44 schools for their students.
I hope to see you there on Monday.
A word about our blog: Lori and I recently celebrated our first year of writing, "Thinking About College." Thanks to all of you for your comments and support. This year we are aiming to write shorter, more news oriented posts on a more frequent basis. We will still do longer pieces on admissions strategies and our college tours. We suggest you subscribe to our blog, by filling out the "Follow This Blogger" form at the bottom of this post so you don't miss anything!
