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Many of these colleges have "32" links with universities, notably in engineering. A student takes three years at a college, two at a University, emerges with a B.A. plus a B.S. About one-quarter of the colleges are also in American University's "Washington Semester" plan, which gives able political science majors one term in the nation's capital, where they watch politicians in action, and usually (80%) get stirred to go to graduate school.
Most smaller colleges now try to attract students from a wider geographic area, notably from the big Eastern cities and suburbs. Says Kalamazoo's Princeton-educated President Weimer K. Hicks: "The sooner people in the East lose their provincial outlook on college education, the sooner we can ease up the so-called admissions jam." Pittsburgh's Chatham College prides itself on nurturing diversity and "intelligent nonconformity" among students; President Edward D. Eddy Jr. suggests that a student candidate's having backed some "unpopular but worthwhile cause" is a good qualification for admission.
High Scenery. Many of the small colleges boast magnificent surroundings. Colorado is in the shadow of Pikes Peak. Washington State's Whitman (fine pre-med training) thrives near wheat fields and ski slopes. Other "unknown" colleges are in lively U.S. cities: New Orleans' Sophie Newcomb is the women's branch of Tulane University; and Washington. D.C.'s Trinity is a topflight Roman Catholic girls' school that emphasizes science and languages, including Russian and Chinese. New York City's Wagner College has a double feature: a hilltop rural campus on Staten Island with a sweeping view of passing ocean liners and easy access (by a 5¢ ferry ride past the Statue of Liberty) to the cultural riches of Manhattan.
President Hicks's Kalamazoo boasts everything from a fine tennis team to useful lab training at the nearby Upjohn Co.; the school ranks third nationally in percentage of science majors who go on to earn doctorates. Through a special trust fund, half its freshman class will spend a summer of study in Europe before they graduate.
Africans & Astronomers. Michigan's Hope College, long a school for students of Dutch origin, now has a summer branch in Vienna. Ohio's Heidelberg College sends 15 to 20 juniors each year to its namesake university in Germany. At Ohio's Western College for Women, launched originally as a "western" Mt. Holyoke College, students focus each year on a different area of the world, spend the summer touring it. Western also specializes in Afro-Asian students, currently has the first Sudanese woman to study in the U.S.