Lynchburg College is one of only two colleges in Virginia and 40 nationwide featured in a brand new edition of Colleges That Change Lives by Loren Pope, former education editor of The New York Times. In an era when college rankings and name-brand recognition often drive the search process, Pope says that the college search should be focused on each student’s individual learning style and interests rather than on magazine rankings.
According to Pope, who also wrote Looking Beyond the Ivy League, the colleges profiled are a well-kept secret in higher education. The book profiles 40 colleges that excel at developing potential, values, initiative, and risk-taking in a wide range of students.
“All of the students I talked to said Lynchburg was a place where you felt you should be involved. … More than one of them said the whole attitude of the place had fostered independence and built their self-confidence,” Loren Pope says in the guide.
One alumna who says that Lynchburg College changed her life is Catherine German West, a 1982 graduate. One of the youngest executives to be named to Fortune magazine’s list of the Fifty Most Powerful Women in Business, she has also been designated one of the Washington area’s 100 most powerful women by the Washingtonian magazine.
“I went in as a young girl, and Lynchburg touched my soul for four years,” she told the Washingtonian. “I came out a confident woman.”
Rita Detwiler, vice president for enrollment at Lynchburg College, said many families come to campus with Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change The Way You Think About College in hand. “This is a book that has a great deal of credibility,” she said. About 5 percent of the freshmen class that enters Lynchburg College each fall cite the guidebook as one of the reasons they first considered LC.
Lynchburg College is among 11 institutions from the South listed in the book. Emory and Henry College is the other Virginia college that is included.
More than 100,000 copies of the 1996 edition of Colleges That Change Lives have been sold. The new guide, which costs $15, is published by Penguin. For more information about Colleges That Change Lives, check www.ctcl.com.
For more information about Lynchburg College, contact Shannon Brennan at 434/544-8609.
8/1/06
Edited: 7/2/07