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June 03, 2008

Interesting in a 4.0 Kind of Way

Rick forwarded me a very interesting article about Colorado College (my alma as well as my mater) and its apparent descension into an elite nerd haven.

A few choice quotes from the piece follow:

Between the fall of 2006 and the fall of 2007, 16 freshmen out of a class of 493 dropped out.

While top administrators say those numbers speak to the school's excellence, some faculty members and even a vice president worry that a 97 percent retention rate could be a signal they are not taking enough "risks" with their admissions.

"Even though we're getting students on paper who are better on test scores, a lot of us miss what we used to call the quirky student," said Claire Garcia, an English professor. "We're seeing fewer and fewer of those."

***

At least on paper, CC students have become more impressive. One-fourth of the students admitted for the fall of 2008 were in the top 1 percent of their high school class. Four years ago, 19 percent were in the top 1 percent.

***

"I'm definitely afraid that the student body is becoming more homogenized and a little boring," said Tomi-Ann Roberts, a psychology professor who has worked at CC for 15 years. It is "really . . . a country-club atmosphere."

***

I had the best time of my life at that school, and credit about 99-percent of it to the friends I made and the people I met. Because I'm a fascinating conversationalist, I always say that the strength of CC rested in its students; kids who didn't care about going to a "name" school on the east coast, kids who didn't necessarily achieve the highest marks in school but who had the most fun and rewarding times in high school, and kids who looked at education as but one way in which to create a fulfilling life. Many of us went against our family's wishes - and our peers' trajectories - to travel thousands of miles to be there. In fact, I was one of THREE kids in my high school class (Hi Danny! Hi Brooke!) who left the Northeast for college, and many of those at CC could boast similar statistics. The totally individualized and rampant successes that my friends have made out of their post-grad careers - and their post-grad lives - speak to this kind of attitude. I mean, look at me! I have a BLOG, for Chrissake! Now if that's not original...

I hope that CC figures this one out. I have such pride for that school, and such respect for the work that is achieved there, that I would hate to see it lose itself in cultural and intellectual whitebreadness. Sad to say that in an e-mail chain amongst my friends this morning, most of us are saying we wouldn't be able to get in to the school anymore. Jungle Wing REEEEVOLT. Form of: bucket of bongwater.

Posted by Bree at June 3, 2008 11:48 AM

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