SCHOOL for TOMORROW

Since opening in 2009, we’ve antic­i­pated, for a number of compelling reasons, that SFT students who apply to college will be more attrac­tive to college admis­sions offi­cers than compa­rable students applying from tradi­tional private and public schools. While it will be years until we have a large enough sample size to defin­i­tively prove that applying to college from SFT is a signif­i­cant advan­tage, the early indi­ca­tions are very encour­aging. SFT has now had seven students apply to college, and they have gained admis­sion to a variety of outstanding insti­tu­tions including:

Bates College – ranked by U.S. News & World Report as one of the Top 25 National Liberal Arts Colleges;  ranked as one of “America’s Top Colleges” by Forbes Maga­zine; named one of the Top 150 “Best Value Colleges” by The Princeton Review.

Bennington College — ranked by Unigo as one of the Top 10 Brainiest Colleges in the country; ranked as one of the Top 20 colleges in five different cate­gories by The Princeton Review; ranked as one of the Top 12 Non-​​Traditional Colleges by The Huff­in­gton Post; ranked by U.S. News & World Report as one of the Top 100 National Liberals Arts Colleges .

Bradley Univer­sity — ranked by U.S. News & World Report as one of the Top 10 univer­si­ties in the Midwest; named as one of the Top 100 “Best Values in Private Colleges” by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance ; under­grad­uate entre­pre­neur­ship program ranked among the Top 20 in the nation by both Entre­pre­neur maga­zine and The Princeton Review .

Clark Univer­sity – recog­nized as one of the nation’s 40 Colleges That Change Lives ; ranked by U.S. News & World Report as one of the Top 75 National Univer­si­ties;  ranked as one of “America’s Top Colleges” by Forbes Maga­zine; named as one of the Top 50 “Best Values in Private Colleges” by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance.

College of Wooster — recog­nized as one of the nation’s 40 Colleges That Change Lives ; one of only two schools (Princeton Univer­sity being the other) named 10 years in a row by U.S. News & World Report as having both outstanding under­grad­uate research oppor­tu­ni­ties and stellar senior capstone projects; ranked No. 64 among “Best Values in Liberal Arts Colleges” by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance .

Creighton Univer­sity — ranked as one of the Top 400 univer­si­ties in the world by The Times Higher Educa­tion World Univer­sity Rank­ings ; ranked by U.S. News & World Report as the No. 1 “Best Value” and No. 2 “Up-​​and-​​Coming” univer­sity in the Midwest; named one of the nation’s “Best Colleges” by The Princeton Review .

Denison Univer­sity – recog­nized as one of the nation’s 40 Colleges That Change Lives ; ranked by U.S. News & World Report as one of the Top 50 national liberal arts college; ranked No. 21 among “Best Values in Liberal Arts Colleges” by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance; named one of the Top 150 “Best Value Colleges” by The Princeton Review.

Eckerd College – recog­nized as one of the nation’s 40 Colleges That Change Lives ; ranked in the first tier of national liberal arts colleges by U.S. News & World Report; selected as one of the nation’s top 13 “Insti­tu­tions of Excel­lence in the First College Year” by the Policy Center on the First Year of College; one of the youngest colleges in the country to be awarded a Phi Beta Kappa chapter.

Franklin & Marshall College – ranked by U.S. News & World Report as one of the Top 50 National Liberal Arts Colleges; ranked as one of “America’s Top Colleges” by Forbes Maga­zine; named a “Best North­eastern College” by the Princeton Review.

Gettys­burg College – ranked by U.S. News & World Report as one of the Top 50 National Liberal Arts Colleges;  ranked as one of “America’s Top Colleges” by Forbes Maga­zine; named one of the Top 150 “Best Value Colleges” by The Princeton Review.

Goucher College – recog­nized as one of the nation’s 40 Colleges That Change Lives ; ranked in the first tier of national liberal arts colleges by U.S. News & World Report ; ranked as one of “America’s Top Colleges” by Forbes Maga­zine; ranked as having the No. 2 “Most Popular Study Abroad Program” by The Princeton Review .

Juniata College – recog­nized as one of the nation’s 40 Colleges That Change Lives ; named as one of the Top 100 liberal arts colleges in the nation by U.S. News & World Report and the Wash­ington Monthly; ranked as one of “America’s Top Colleges” by Forbes Maga­zine .

Maryville Univer­sity – ranked by U.S. News & World Report in the first tier of national univer­si­ties and as the No. 1 over-​​performing univer­sity in the nation; ranked among the 100 best values in private univer­si­ties by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance.

McDaniel College — recog­nized as one of the nation’s 40 Colleges That Change Lives ; ranked in the first tier of national liberal arts colleges by U.S. News & World Report ; named one of the Top 200 “Best Values in Private Colleges” by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance .

Muhlen­berg College – ranked by U.S. News & World Report as one of the Top 100 National Liberal Arts Colleges;  ranked as one of “America’s Top Colleges” by Forbes Maga­zine; named one of the Top 20  “Best College Theater” programs by The Princeton Review.

Ohio Wesleyan Univer­sity — recog­nized as one of the nation’s 40 Colleges That Change Lives ; ranked in the first tier of national liberal arts colleges by U.S. News & World Report ; ranked  No. 51 in the Wash­ington Monthly liberal arts college rankings.

Pacific Univer­sity — ranked in the first tier of national univer­si­ties by U.S. News & World Report ; ranked as one of “America’s Top Colleges” by Forbes Maga­zine ; named a “Best Western College” by The Princeton Review .

Reed College — ranked the No. 1 Brainiest College in the country by Unigo ; ranked No. 1 in the county for “Best Class­room Expe­ri­ence” by The Princeton Review ; recog­nized as one of the nation’s 40 Colleges That Change Lives ; named one of the Top 150 “Best Value Colleges” by The Princeton Review.

St. Mary’s College of Mary­land — ranked by U.S. News & World Report as one of the Top 5 public liberal arts colleges in the nation; named one of the Top 150 “Best Value Colleges” by The Princeton Review ; named one of the Top 100 “Best Values in Public Colleges” by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance .

Sarah Lawrence College — ranked No. 1 in the country for its faculty by The Princeton Review ; ranked by Unigo as one of the Top 10 Brainiest Colleges in the country; ranked as one of the Top 12 Non-​​Traditional Colleges by The Huff­in­gton Post.

Skid­more College – ranked by U.S. News & World Report as one of the Top 50 National Liberal Arts Colleges;  ranked as one of “America’s Top Colleges” by Forbes Maga­zine; named one of the Top 150 “Best Value Colleges” by The Princeton Review.

Temple Univer­sity – ranked by U.S. News & World Report as one of the Top 150 National Univer­si­ties;  ranked as one of “America’s Top Colleges” by Forbes Maga­zine; under­grad­uate entre­pre­neur­ship program ranked among the Top 20 in the nation by both Entre­pre­neur maga­zine and The Princeton Review .

Univer­sity of Miami — ranked as one of the Top 200 univer­si­ties in the world by The Times Higher Educa­tion World Univer­sity Rank­ings ; ranked among the Top 50 national univer­si­ties by U.S. News & World Report; ranked in the Top 10 nation­ally for “Race/​Class Inter­ac­tion” by The Princeton Review .

Univer­sity of Port­land — the top producer of Fulbright Scholars nation­wide for three straight years; ranked by U.S. News & World Report as a Top 10 univer­sity in the West for 18 straight years; ranked No. 3 in the nation for its commit­ment to commu­nity service by Wash­ington Monthly .

Univer­sity of Rochester – ranked as one of the Top 200 univer­si­ties in the world by The Times Higher Educa­tion World Univer­sity Rank­ings ; ranked among the Top 50 national univer­si­ties by U.S. News & World Report; named one of the Top 50 “Best Values in Private Colleges” by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance.

Univer­sity of San Fran­cisco – ranked among the country’s Top 50 univer­si­ties by Wash­ington Monthly ; ranked among the Top 25 most entre­pre­neurial campuses by Forbes Maga­zine and The Princeton Review ; named a “Best Western College” by The Princeton Review .

Univer­sity of Vermont – iden­ti­fied as among “The 10 Best Places to Go to College” by the Huff­in­gton Post ; named one of the Top 100 “Best Values in Public Colleges” by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance; ranked by Sierra maga­zine as among the “Top 20 Coolest Schools” for commit­ment to the environment.

Ursinus College — recog­nized as one of the nation’s 40 Colleges That Change Lives ; included in the first tier of national liberal arts colleges and named the No. 2 “Up-​​and-​​Coming” national liberal arts college by U.S. News & World Report ; named one of the Top 200 “Best Values in Private Colleges” by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance ; ranked as one of “America’s Top Colleges” by Forbes Maga­zine .

Xavier Univer­sity – ranked by U.S. News & World Report as the No. 4 univer­sity and the No. 2 “Up-​​and-​​Coming” school in the Midwest; ranked among the 100 best values in private univer­si­ties by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance ; ranked as one of “America’s Top Colleges” by Forbes Maga­zine .

More­over, our students have received offers of merit-​​based schol­ar­ships ranging from $44,000 to $84,000 .

Notes

1. The college rank­ings refer­enced above should be taken with a giant grain of salt. College rank­ings are highly subjec­tive, unsci­en­tific, and gener­al­ized, and they indi­cate only a small part of what a given college may offer its students. In contrast to secondary schools, there are a wide variety of colleges in this country from which to choose, with greatly varying char­ac­ter­is­tics, strengths, and weak­nesses. Our aim at SFT is, for each of our students, to iden­tify the college(s) most likely to best meet his or her pref­er­ences, needs, and goals.
2. There are over 2,700 four-​​year colleges and univer­si­ties in this country, and over 1,700 two-​​year insti­tu­tions. About 1,000 of the four-​​year insti­tu­tions are consid­ered to have selec­tive or at least moder­ately diffi­cult admis­sions criteria. Based on recent history and trends, only about 40% of students who begin a four-​​year U.S. college next year will grad­uate within four years , and only about 60% will grad­uate within six years . At even very selec­tive colleges, the six-​​year rate is only about 70%, and for the 50 or so most selec­tive colleges in the country about 88%. ( Four-​​year grad­u­a­tion rates at U.S. colleges include: 74% at Amer­ican Univer­sity; 85% at Columbia U.; 75% at G.W.U.; 87% at Harvard U.; 88% at Haver­ford College; 82% at Johns Hopkins U.; 85% at M.I.T.; 79% at N.Y.U.; 70% at St. Mary’s College of Md.; 62% at U. of Delaware; 63% at U. of Md., College Park; 69% at U. of Miami; 72% at U. of Michigan; 85% at U. of Virginia; 50% at the U. of Wisconsin; 84% at Wellesley College.)