Keep the college search student-centered. Consider interests, strengths, and values, and reflect on what truly matters to you—academic programs, campus atmosphere, available support and resources, and extracurricular activities that align with your goals for personal and professional growth.

Explore colleges where you can connect with classmates and faculty and engage in high-impact educational experiences that empower you to shape your future.

Focusing on what inspires and motivates you will help you find college communities where you will thrive.

Ten years after Loren Pope uplifted 40 liberal arts colleges and a student-centered college admission search in his groundbreaking book and eight years after those colleges started traveling together to carry his message and share what makes their institutions distinctly different to an expanded audience, Colleges That Change Lives, the organization, was incorporated.

We are so excited to celebrate our 20th anniversary in 2026 and to continue our work into a third decade.

This milestone is more than a celebration of longevity. It is evidence that CTCL’s founding commitments to thoughtful college choice, transformative education, and institutions that see and support the whole student continue to meet a real and growing need.

Thanks to artist Emma Lorenz, Millsaps College Class of 2024, for creating this graphic highlighting the current member institutions!

Congratulations to the 2026 CTCL Scholars!

Belle Leal is a graduate of the Academy of Our Lady of Mercy – Lauralton Hall from Stratford, Connecticut. She will join the Class of 2030 at Clark University!

Escarle Lora de León is a graduate of Instituto Politécnico El Ave María from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. She will join the Class of 2030 at Lawrence University!

Belle and Escarle join 25 previous CTCL Scholarship winners who are currently attending or have earned degrees from 18 different CTCL Member Institutions.

To honor the 20th anniversary of the publication of the first edition of Loren Pope’s classic book and the 10th anniversary of the non-profit organization, Colleges That Change Lives established a scholarship for students who enroll at a CTCL member institutions. The first awards were given in 2016.