Colleges that change lives

A popular college guide is  Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About College, by retired New York Times education editor Loren Pope. Churchill alumni attend several of these colleges, including Clark University, Hampshire College, Goucher College and McDaniel College.

Based on his years of research as a journalist, as well as his direct interaction with students at hundreds of schools during numerous campus visits, Pope dismisses magazine rankings based on test scores and alumni giving. Instead, he used the following criteria:

• Admission is holistic and the focus campus wide is on the transformation between orientation and graduation, rather than on the accomplishment of admitted students 
•  Learning is collaborative, not competitive 
• There is a discussion of values in the classrooms and elsewhere on campus

• There is a sense of community and connection that goes well beyond 4 years of attendance

• Students are there to learn, not to just get a degree

• Students want to tell the story about how the college has changed them