Lake Forest College is a
private
Private or privates may refer to:
Music
* " In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation''
* Private (band), a Denmark-based band
* "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorde ...
liberal arts college
A liberal arts college or liberal arts institution of higher education is a college with an emphasis on undergraduate study in liberal arts and sciences. Such colleges aim to impart a broad general knowledge and develop general intellectual capac ...
in
Lake Forest, Illinois
Lake Forest is a city located in Lake County, Illinois, United States. Per the 2020 census, the population was 19,367. The city is along the shore of Lake Michigan, and is a part of the Chicago metropolitan area and the North Shore. Lake Forest ...
. Founded in 1857 as Lind University by a group of Presbyterian ministers, the college has been coeducational since 1876 and an undergraduate-focused liberal arts institution since 1903.
Lake Forest enrolls approximately 1,500 students representing 43 states and 80 countries.
Lake Forest offers 32 undergraduate major and minor programs in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences, and features programs of study in pre-law, pre-medicine, communication, business, finance, and computer science.
The majority of students live on the college's wooded 107-acre campus located a half-mile from the
Lake Michigan
Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is the second-largest of the Great Lakes by volume () and the third-largest by surface area (), after Lake Superior and Lake Huron. To the east, its basin is conjoined with that o ...
shore.
Lake Forest is affiliated with the
Associated Colleges of the Midwest Associated Colleges of the Midwest (ACM) is a consortium of 14 private liberal arts colleges, primarily in the Midwestern United States. The 14 colleges are located in five states (Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Colorado). The ACM was es ...
. The college has 23 varsity teams which compete in the
NCAA Division III
NCAA Division III (D-III) is a division of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States. D-III consists of athletic programs at colleges and universities that choose not to offer athletic scholarships to their stu ...
Midwest Conference
The Midwest Conference (MWC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division III. Member institutions are located in the Midwestern United States in the states of Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin. The Midwest Conference was c ...
.
History
Lake Forest College was founded in 1857 by Reverend Robert W. Patterson as a Presbyterian alternative to the Methodist
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world.
Charte ...
in
Evanston. It was originally named Lind University after Sylvester Lind, who had given $80,000 to launch the school.
Patterson and his fellow Chicago Presbyterians established the town of Lake Forest and the university roughly halfway between Evanston and
Waukegan
''(Fortress or Trading Post)''
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two years after the
Chicago and Milwaukee Railway The Chicago and Milwaukee Railway was a predecessor of the Chicago and North Western Railway (C&NW) in the U.S. states of Illinois and Wisconsin.
The Illinois portion was chartered on February 17, 1851, as the Illinois Parallel Railroad. Its charte ...
began service from Chicago. They hired St. Louis landscape architect Almerin Hotchkiss to design the town of Lake Forest with a university park at its center. Hotchkiss used the area's wooded ravines and forest as guidelines to plat a park-like, curvilinear layout for the town.
Lake Forest Academy
Lake Forest Academy (also known as LFA) is a co-educational college preparatory school for boarding and day students in grades 9 through 12. The school is located on the North Shore in Lake Forest, Illinois, United States, about 30 miles north o ...
, a boys' preparatory school and the first project of the university, began offering classes in 1858; collegiate-level courses began in 1860. By the mid-1860s, a small
New England
New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...
-style village had been established with an academy building, a Presbyterian church and several homes. The school had a medical college from 1859 to 1863, which later split off and eventually became part of Northwestern University, now known as the Northwestern University
Feinberg School of Medicine
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine is the medical school of Northwestern University and is located in the Streeterville neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 1859, Feinberg offers a full-time Doctor of Medicine degree p ...
.
In 1865, the name became Lake Forest University. In 1869
Ferry Hall, a girls' preparatory school and junior college, opened as a division of the university.
It later merged with Lake Forest Academy in 1974.
In 1876 Mary Eveline Smith Farwell started Lake Forest College, a coeducational division of the university, under the leadership of the Reverend Patterson. In 1878, College Hall (now Young Hall) was built following a fire that destroyed the former hotel being used for classes.
The Reverend James Gore King McClure arrived in Lake Forest in 1881 as the pastor of the Presbyterian Church. Under his influence over the next 50 years, the college experienced a large transition "from a pluralistic graduate and professional emphasis to a singular undergraduate liberal arts focus," says Lake Forest College archivist Art Miller, who co-wrote ''30 Miles North: A History of Lake Forest College, Its Town, and Its City of Chicago''.
During this time, the college's theater group, the Garrick Players, the yearbook, and student newspaper, ''The Stentor'', were all formed.
In 1890 Lake Forest established a relationship with the
Chicago College of Dental Surgery
The Chicago Dental Infirmary was the first dental school in Chicago. It only accepted students that already possessed Doctor of Medicine degrees, making it a post-doctorate school. Training consisted of two courses of lectures in dentistry. A year ...
, Chicago's first dental school, to serve as its dental department. This affiliation ended in 1902.
The Lake Forest School of Music opened as a division of the university in 1916, incorporating and extending the courses in music hitherto given in other departments. A summer school of landscape architecture was instituted in 1916.
[
By 1925, Lake Forest College split from Lake Forest Academy, and the school's only focus was on undergraduate liberal arts. Following ]World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, the college experienced further growth, taking control of what is now South Campus and constructing the Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse.
In 1960, William Graham Cole, from Williams College
Williams College is a Private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams, a col ...
, took over as president and brought with him Eastern faculty and students, further diversifying the campus. During his time as president, in 1965, the school's name was officially changed to Lake Forest College. In March 2010, the college received $7 million from alumna Grace Groner.
Faculty
The teaching faculty consists of 181 members. Lake Forest has a student-to-professor ratio of 12:1, and the average class size is 19. No classes at Lake Forest are taught by teaching assistants
A teaching assistant or teacher's aide (TA) or education assistant (EA) or team teacher (TT) is an individual who assists a teacher with instructional responsibilities. TAs include ''graduate teaching assistants'' (GTAs), who are graduate stude ...
. Ninety-six percent of faculty hold a doctorate or equivalent degree. See list of Lake Forest College people for notable faculty. Lake Forest professors regularly include undergraduates in their primary research and supervise independent research projects.
Faculty members receive fellowships and grants from such notable organizations as the Fulbright Program
The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people of ...
, National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National I ...
, National Institutes of Health
The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...
, National Endowment for the Humanities
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...
, Freeman Foundation, Mellon Foundation
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation of New York City in the United States, simply known as Mellon Foundation, is a private foundation with five core areas of interest, and endowed with wealth accumulated by Andrew Mellon of the Mellon family of Pitts ...
, MacArthur Foundation
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is a private foundation that makes grants and impact investments to support non-profit organizations in approximately 50 countries around the world. It has an endowment of $7.0 billion and p ...
, Getty Trust
The J. Paul Getty Trust is the world's wealthiest art institution, with an estimated endowment of US$7.7 billion in 2020. Based in Los Angeles, California, it operates the J. Paul Getty Museum, which has two locations—the Getty Center in the B ...
, Goldsmith Foundation, and Kemper Foundation
Kemper may refer to:
Buildings
* Kemper Arena, in Kansas City, Missouri
* Kemper Building (Chicago), a skyscraper in Chicago, Illinois
* Kemper Hall, a 1911 mansion in Kenosha, Wisconsin
* Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, in Kansas City, Missou ...
.
Academics
Rankings
* ''The Princeton Review
The Princeton Review is an education services company providing tutoring, test preparation and admission resources for students. It was founded in 1981. and since that time has worked with over 400 million students. Services are delivered by 4,0 ...
''
** 2021: #4 "Best Science Lab Facilities," #9 "Best Counseling Services," #9 "Best Health Services," #14 "Top 20 Best Schools for Internships (Private Schools)"
** 2019: #9 "Best Colleges for Internships," #12 "Best Alumni Network," #20 "Most Popular Study Abroad Program," #20 "Best College Library"
*'' U.S. News & World Report''
** 2021: #2 "Top Performers on Social Mobility," #33 "Best Value Schools," #84 "National Liberal Arts Colleges"
** 2019: #45 "Best Value School"
*''Washington Monthly
''Washington Monthly'' is a bimonthly, nonprofit magazine of United States politics and government that is based in Washington, D.C. The magazine is known for its annual ranking of American colleges and universities, which serves as an alternat ...
''
** 2020: #15 "Best Bang for the Buck," #37 "Best Liberal Arts Colleges"
**2019: #39 "Best Bang for the Buck," #52 "Liberal Arts"
Admission
According to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (CFAT) is a U.S.-based education policy and research center. It was founded by Andrew Carnegie in 1905 and chartered in 1906 by an act of the United States Congress. Among its most nota ...
and U.S. News & World Report, Lake Forest is considered to be a "more selective" institution, with a lower rate of transfer-in students.
Lake Forest College's admissions selectivity rank according to The Princeton Review
The Princeton Review is an education services company providing tutoring, test preparation and admission resources for students. It was founded in 1981. and since that time has worked with over 400 million students. Services are delivered by 4,0 ...
is 88 out of 99. This ranking is determined by several institutionally-reported factors, including: the class rank, average standardized test scores, and average high school GPA of entering freshmen; the percentage of students who come from out-of-state; and the percentage of applicants accepted.
The acceptance rate for the Class of 2023 was 55% from a total applicant pool of 4,482, yielding a class of 400 students.
Student life
Approximately 1,500 students attend the college, and about 75% live on campus in one of the eleven residence halls. Lake Forest has more than 80 clubs and organizations, the largest and most active being: the student radio station (WMXM), Student Government, PRIDE (LGBTQ+), Student Programming Board (SPB) (organizes on-campus entertainment) and the Greek organizations.
Located 30 miles north of Chicago, Lake Forest College is roughly an hour's commute from the city. The Metra rail line, located in downtown Lake Forest, is a 15-minute walk from campus, where trains run approximately 25 times per day.
About 86% of students participate in off-campus internships and 40% participate in a study abroad program.
Center for Chicago Programs
At the Center for Chicago Programs, students can learn about events in the city and surrounding suburbs, get guidance on transportation to the city, and suggestions of where to go when they get there. The center also brings notable Chicago-area speakers, artists, and performers to campus.
Publications and media
There are six media organizations on campus:
* '' The Stentor'' is the school-sponsored student-run newspaper
::''The Stentor'' is published weekly and has been in publication since 1886.[ Online archives for twelve issues exist for the year 2011/2012.][
* ''Tusitala'', first printed in 1935, is the college's annual literary magazine
* ''Collage'' is a magazine featuring works primarily written in foreign languages
* ''Eukaryon'' is a life-science research journal publishing student work
* WMXM is a student-run radio station providing an alternative to mainstream radio
* ''Spectrum'' is a publication for faculty, staff, students, alumni and friends
]
Sororities
* Alpha Phi
Alpha Phi International Women's Fraternity (, also known as APhi) is an international sorority with 172 active chapters and over 250,000 initiated members.
Founded at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York on September 18, 1872, it is the fou ...
, Delta Delta Delta
Delta Delta Delta (), also known as Tri Delta, is an international women's fraternity founded on November 27, 1888 at Boston University by Sarah Ida Shaw, Eleanor Dorcas Pond, Isabel Morgan Breed, and Florence Isabelle Stewart.
Tri Delta part ...
, Delta Gamma
Delta Gamma (), commonly known as DG, is a women's fraternity in the United States and Canada with over 250,000 initiated members. It has 150 collegiate chapters and more than 200 alumnae groups. The organization's executive office is in Columbus ...
, Kappa Alpha Theta
Kappa Alpha Theta (), also known simply as Theta, is an international women’s fraternity founded on January 27, 1870, at DePauw University, formerly Indiana Asbury. It was the first Greek-letter fraternity established for women. The main arch ...
, Alpha Kappa Alpha
Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. () is the first intercollegiate historically African American sorority. The sorority was founded on January 15, 1908, at the historically black Howard University in Washington, D.C., by a group of sixteen stud ...
and Gamma Phi Omega
The National Association of Latino Fraternal Organizations (NALFO) is an umbrella council for 16 Latino Greek Letter Organizations (GLOs) established in 1998. The purpose of NALFO is to promote and foster positive interfraternal relations, commun ...
Fraternities
* Delta Chi
Delta Chi () is an international Fraternities and sororities, Greek letter collegiate social fraternity formed on October 13, 1890, at Cornell University, initially as a professional fraternity for law students. On April 30, 1922, Delta Chi be ...
, Lambda Chi Alpha
Lambda Chi Alpha (), commonly known as Lambda Chi, is a college fraternity in North America which was founded at Boston University in 1909. It is one of the largest social fraternities in North America, with more than 300,000 lifetime members a ...
, Phi Beta Sigma
Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. () is a historically African American fraternity. It was founded at Howard University in Washington, D.C. on January 9, 1914, by three young African-American male students with nine other Howard students as char ...
and Alpha Tau Omega
Alpha Tau Omega (), commonly known as ATO, is an American social fraternity founded at the Virginia Military Institute in 1865 by Otis Allan Glazebrook. The fraternity has around 250 active and inactive chapters and colonies in the United Stat ...
Athletics
Lake Forest competes in Division III (except handball) and offers 23 varsity sports, 12 women's (basketball, cross country, distance indoor track, distance outdoor track, handball, ice hockey, soccer, softball, swimming and diving, tennis, golf, and volleyball) and 11 men's (basketball, cross country, distance indoor track, distance outdoor track, football, handball, ice hockey, soccer, swimming and diving, golf and tennis). The handball teams have won 49 national championships and have received national media attention. The handball team competes in Division I through USHA (not NCAA).
Lake Forest College has been a member of the Midwest Conference
The Midwest Conference (MWC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division III. Member institutions are located in the Midwestern United States in the states of Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin. The Midwest Conference was c ...
since 1974. It was a member of the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin
The College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW) is a college athletic conference which competes in the Division III level of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).
CCIW schools have accounted for 50 national championships i ...
from 1946 to 1963, and of the Illinois Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
The Interstate Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (IIAC) was a college athletic conference that existed from 1908 to 1970 in the United States.
At one time the Illinois Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, or IIAC, was a robust league that clai ...
from 1919 to 1937. Lake Forest College was present at the 1895 meeting that formed the now Division I Big Ten Conference
The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...
, but did not join the conference.
The Sports Center, originally constructed in 1968, has long been home to Forester Athletics. But after the completion of a $17-million, recreation and fitness addition, the building was renamed the Lake Forest College Sports and Recreation Center.
Outside of collegiate athletics, the campus is home to the original Halas Hall, the practice and front office facility for the NFL
The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the major ...
's Chicago Bears
The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) North division. The Bears have won nine NF ...
from 1977 until 1997. When the team built a new facility with the same name four miles to the west, the building was renovated into offices for the athletic department, while retaining the Halas Hall name. The practice field was renamed Farwell Field and serves as the main field for Foresters football and soccer.
Notable people
See also
*
*
References
Further reading
* Ebner, Michael H. "North Shore Town and Gown", ''Chicago History'', Summer 2007, pp. 4–29
* Reed, Christopher and Arthur Miller. eds. ''Lake Forest College: A Guide to the Campus''. Lake Forest College, 2007
bkstr.com
*
External links
*
Official athletics website
*
{{authority control
1857 establishments in Illinois
Buildings and structures in Lake County, Illinois
Education in Lake County, Illinois
Educational institutions established in 1857
Lake Forest, Illinois
Liberal arts colleges in Illinois
Universities and colleges affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA)
Private universities and colleges in Illinois