RELEASED: July 7, 2005

DANVILLE, KY—What's an Elevator Speech?

Members of the Centre College community are sometimes asked, "What's the College like?" Here are 10 paragraphs that describe Centre succinctly. (It's called an elevator speech because you're supposed to be able to deliver it in the time it takes an elevator to go from the top floor to the ground floor—okay, in this case it's a tall building with a slow elevator, but it does fit on one page.) The speech provides ready responses when someone says, "Tell me about Centre."

The Elevator Speech
Centre was established in 1819 and has a current enrollment of around 1,100. We're a liberal arts college with a clear mission: to prepare students for lives of learning, leadership, and service in a global society. Centre's record of achievement ranges from producing two vice presidents, a chief justice and a justice of the Supreme Court, and seven Rhodes scholars; to upsetting five-year national champion Harvard in football in 1921; to hosting the only vice presidential debate in the 2000 general election; to leading the nation in the annual percentage of alumni giving.

The College is located in Danville, a town of 18,000 widely recognized for its high quality of life. It's within easy driving distance of Lexington, Louisville, and Cincinnati.

Centre is a U.S. News top-50 national liberal arts college (the highest ranking of any Kentucky institution). Centre's four-year graduation rate of around 78 percent is the highest of any Kentucky college or university. (In comparison, the four-year graduation rate at the state's flagship university is 27 percent, and the six-year rate for all schools nationwide is 56 percent.) The National Survey of Student Engagement finds our students among the most "educationally engaged" in the country in measures such as level of academic challenge, interaction with faculty members, and enriching educational experiences.

The foundation of Centre's academic quality is our faculty, 97 percent of whom hold the Ph.D. or equivalent. Although active in research, their top priority is the academic and personal growth of their students.

Centre's personal education enables students to excel as undergraduates and achieve extraordinary success in advanced study and careers. They win the world's most prestigious national awards, including the Rhodes, Fulbright (22 in the last 10 years), Goldwater, Truman, and English-Speaking Union scholarships. Within nine months of graduation, 96 percent are either employed or engaged in advanced study.

We reinforce our results-oriented approach with the "Centre Commitment": students who meet the College's academic and social expectations are guaranteed 1) an internship, 2) study abroad, and 3) graduation in four years—or we provide up to a year of additional study tuition-free.

The emphasis on international study reflects the global component of our mission. Three-quarters of Centre students study abroad, among the top 10 in the country and the highest percentage of any Kentucky institution.

The College's Norton Center for the Arts is central to campus life. One of America's finest arts facilities, the Norton Center showcases performers and performances—such as cellist Yo-Yo Ma, the Warsaw Philharmonic and the Broadway musical Cats—that are tops in their fields. Centre students attend most of these events free of charge.

Our transforming education combined with a surprisingly low cost means Centre is widely recognized (by Fiske, U.S. News, Consumers Digest, and others) as one of the outstanding values in higher learning. It's the most affordable of the U.S. News top 50 national liberal arts colleges.

We're obviously proud of our institution and eager to talk about it. But the best way to understand Centre is to come to our beautiful campus (where we have just finished construction on The College Centre, a state-of-the-art academic/athletic complex) and experience it for yourself. You have a standing invitation to come to Danville, tour the campus, eat in our dining commons, and talk with the faculty members and students who are the core of our extraordinary education.

Click here for pdf.

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Founded in 1819, Centre College is ranked among the U.S. News top 50 national liberal arts colleges. Centre alumni, known for their nation-leading loyalty in annual financial support, include two U.S. vice presidents and two Supreme Court justices. For more, visit http://www.centre.edu/web/elevatorspeech/

For news archives go to http://www.centre.edu/web/news/newsarchive.html.

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