While attending the Colleges That Change Lives membership meeting yesterday, I learned of the passing of Loren Pope.  His books changed and will continue to change (for the better) the way families engage in the college selecetion process.  

Of course, Loren was an advocate for the liberal arts schools featured in his book, but he thought highly of Wabash.  He did some private college counseling and often sent in the names of young men he believed to be a good match for Wabash.  In fact, Mike Reidy visited with Loren at his home to discuss one such students a few years ago.  

The following was posted on the CTCL website on Wednesday.

"Colleges That Change Lives, Inc. mourns the passing of our mentor, colleague and dear friend, Loren Pope. We remember and celebrate his life and all that he stood for as he became known as the “Ralph Nader of college admissions”. Long before others criticized the rankings industry, Loren Pope was gathering data to make the case for the success of the lesser known colleges where students were competing and excelling along side their Ivy and Name Brand counterparts.  His signature books “Looking Beyond the Ivy League: Finding the College That’s Right for You” and three editions of “Colleges That Change Lives” helped change the way students, parents and counselors viewed the college search process. He served as a role model for college admission counseling, instead of recruiting and for conducting the application review using a holistic approach, with a critical eye toward the place of standardized testing as part of the process.

He made a difference in the lives of thousands of students as he counseled them to choose a college for fit, not rank and to “look beyond the ivy league” to find faculty who would were not just teachers but mentors for life. Many of the parents he worked with exclaimed that he not only helped their children find a college, he helped save their marriages in the process! His thoughtful, humorous and sometimes unorthodox approach to college counseling, earned him the respect and admiration of generations of college bound students and their parents as well as his colleagues in the college admission profession.

We will miss this great man and we are proud to carry on his message through the work of the non-profit organization, Colleges That Change Lives, founded as a result of his example of what collaboration not competition, in education and in life can accomplish."