'Colleges that Change Lives' author Loren Pope passes

RELEASED: September 29, 2008

DANVILLE, KY—Colleges That Change Lives, Inc. and others across the country mourn the recent passing of mentor, colleague and friend, Loren Pope, the man who became known as the "Ralph Nader of college admissions." Long before others criticized the rankings industry, Pope was gathering data to make the case for the success of the sometimes 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 officers—counselor first, recruiter second. Likewise, he challenged institutions to conduct holistic application reviews, where the focus was on the "whole" student, not just a few numbers.

Centre President John A. Roush comments: “Loren Pope’s work as an educator was profound, though his name might not be one called off by a great many students and families. His book of Colleges That Change Lives became a staple for young people and their families who cared about choosing a college that, by the character of the institution, would prepare them for lives of work and service."

He continues, "Centre College was fortunate to be included in Mr. Pope's listings from the start. We count it a blessing that he elected to identify Centre as one of those special places.”

In his book, Pope hails the transformative power of Centre's faculty: "No university faculty compares with Centre's in the impact it has on the growth of young minds and personalities. Its faculty is earnestly committed to and excels at the art of teaching."

Says J. Carey Thompson, VP for Enrollment and Student Planning Services at Centre, "While clearly a leader and one of the best thinkers in college admission, Loren was also a dear man with a big heart for students. He was an icon in the field and will be deeply missed by his friends and admirers."

Pope was a Washington newspaperman who became concerned with the lack of consumer information on colleges and the resulting disastrous choices, which ultimately have led to extremely high dropout, transfer and failure rates on U.S. college and university campuses.

Pope started an education column for the Gannett Newspapers in 1952, which led to the education editorship of The New York Times. He opened College Placement Bureau in 1965 to provide counseling and the consumer information that would help students make fruitful choices.

Pope’s first book, The Right College: How to Get In, Stay In, Get Back In (Macmillan, 1970) and several magazine articles followed, including the nationally syndicated “Twenty Myths That Can Jinx Your College Choice,” first published in The Washington Post Magazine and later as “Facts to Know in Picking a College” by Readers’ Digest.

A second book, Looking Beyond the Ivy League, Finding the College That’s Right for You, (Penguin, 1995) was praised by Dr. David Breneman, retired dean of the University of Virginia’s Curry School of Education, as “the best discussion of the liberal arts with which I am familiar.” It is a companion to Colleges That Change Lives (Penguin 1996, 2000, 2006), which profiles 40 colleges “that will do as much, and usually far more, than any status school to give you the rich, full life.” The updated 2006 edition features a “Ten Years Later” section after each profile to testify to each school’s continuing power to transform.

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Founded in 1819, Centre College is ranked among the U.S. News top 50 national liberal arts colleges. Consumers Digest ranks Centre No. 1 in educational value among all U.S. 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/

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