Many colleges and universities have similarities. Many people think DePauw has a near-twin — Denison University.
"Everything else to me is eerily similar in terms of academics, and quality of faculty and feeling of the school and facilities," said Mike Hills, senior associate director of admissions at Denison.
Hills said Denison and DePauw are both reputable liberal arts colleges that compete in admissions, and DePauw is so similar to Denison he feels comfortable having his daughter apply to DePauw and "hopefully attend."
But Denison isn't the only institution that DePauw compares itself with — many liberal arts colleges possess programs DePauw uses as benchmarks for comparison or aspiration. These peer institutions help to inform the decisions universities make.
What it means to be a peer
DePauw, according to President Brian Casey, determines its peer institutions through research on peer analysis done by a board of representatives. Casey explained that the schools considered to be peers of DePauw include the 13 schools of the Great Lakes Colleges Association, which includes small liberal arts schools in Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, and the 14 schools in the Associated Colleges of the Midwest, which includes similar schools in Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Colorado. Casey said that because of their similar size and value of liberal arts education, the 27 institutions might be seen as DePauw's closest peers, especially those in the GLCA.
Certain institutions are closer peers to DePauw as they have greater similarities, Casey said, while others share only the liberal arts ideals.
"You have multiple institutions that engage in the act of education with their own idiosyncratic, unique ways of doing it. They are constantly challenging each other, but from different angles," Casey said.
Dan Meyer, vice president for admissions and financial aid at DePauw, said DePauw emphasizes a liberal arts education in peer institutions, and peer institutions should also be similarly sized and in a similar setting as DePauw's. He specifically pointed out the importance of learning not only about a major a student studies, but about all aspects of life.
"For the schools who truly are our peers probably the biggest thing we share with them is to educate the whole person … to give you an education that touches the mind, the soul and the heart," Meyer said.
By Meyer's standards DePauw's peer institutions are few compared to Casey's list. Meyer named Denison University, Kenyon College, College of Wooster, Grinnell College and Macalester College as DePauw's real peer institutions. He mentioned that some peers could be considered "aspirant" while others are considered "true" peers to DePauw.
Grinnell and Macalester, according to Meyer, are schools DePauw aspires to be like while Wooster, Kenyon, and Denison are considered "true" peers in that they are similar to DePauw as it is now.
Meyer sees both sets of peer institutions as valuable resources in helping DePauw grow and change. He and Casey both recognized that, while an institution may be an "aspirant" peer, DePauw hopes to maintain its unique identity when it changes to emulate Grinnell or Macalester's successes.
"Shouldn't DePauw learn from the Grinnells, the Macalesters, the Williamses, but say, ‘OK, we're going to do this in our particular way. We're going to do this in a DePauw way,''' Casey said.
Those who consider DePauw a peer
Though Casey and Meyer view many other institutions as peers of DePauw, not necessarily all of those institutions view DePauw in the same light.
While institutions like Wabash College and Denison consider DePauw to be a peer, other ACM and GLCA institutions including Kenyon and Macalester view DePauw as a peer only in that it is a liberal arts school belonging to one of the two consortiums.
Anne Walsh, Macalester's associate director of admissions, did not immediately recognize DePauw as a university and said the two share few qualities aside from attracting similar students.
"It's a liberal arts college, yes, that attracts bright talented students, in that regard it is a peer institution, but aside from that I really don't think we cross paths at all," Walsh said.
Travis Culver, director of multicultural recruitment and senior assistant director of admissions at Kenyon, said that aside from belonging to the GLCA, the two schools didn't seem to have much in common and had very little overlap as far as student applications.
"DePauw is not in our top-20 overlap schools and I think that's because, yeah there are similarities, but overall other schools in the GLCA are more similar to us than DePauw," Culver said.
The real competition for admissions
Though Casey and Meyer consider various schools to be DePauw's peer institutions, very few of those pose competition for admissions. Meyer explained that DePauw's greatest competitors instead are schools such as Indiana University, Butler University, Wabash College, Valparaiso University and Purdue University, often due to proximity to home. Meyer also explained that for many students larger institutions are appealing because of their low costs and name recognition.
"In the Midwest, there's the large flagship institution … and they tend to have parents aspire to send their son or daughter there, longstanding tradition, that kind of stuff," Meyer said. "Some of those Big Ten institutions arguably are world-renowned research institutions and so families think those are the place to go."
Meyer mentioned Butler, Wabash and Denison as the institutions most similar to DePauw in the top-ten overlapping schools for admission. He said that Butler attracts a similar group of students because it is a smaller school in Indiana, while Wabash attracts men primarily from Indiana. Meyer saw the greatest similarity and competition for admission from a peer institution from Denison.
"I'll pick on Denison since we get compared to them a lot: They are similar size-wise, similar location, clearly a liberal arts institution, they're actually going to be in the conference next year so it makes sense that a student would look at both," Meyer said.
One of those students is Sam Waller, of Granville, Ohio, whose dad teaches at Denison. Waller said he looked at various GLCA schools including Wooster, Denison and Allegheny College, but recognizes few look only at such similar schools.
Waller said he receives financial benefits from institutions in the GLCA because of his father's position, and that helped drive his search. Waller's father supports his desire to attend DePauw and says it's better that his son attend DePauw than be around him for four years at Denison.
Great Lakes Colleges Association
The GLCA aims to promote opportunities that institutions may not have on their own and simultaneously creates a group of peer institutions for each college or university involved.
Chip Timmons, the associate director of admissions at Wabash College, said Wabash determines its peer institutions largely based on the members of the GLCA.
"Anybody in that consortium (GLCA) we would consider a peer institution. There are others, you don't have to be in that consortium to be our peer, but the type of institutions, those member schools have similar goals as far as [a committment] to liberal arts education," Timmons said.
Charla White, the external relations and events coordinator for the GLCA, said while institutions in the consortium may find peers in the GLCA they're able to highlight differences as well.
"Each of the schools have a uniqueness about them and I'm sure they do compete with one another, but their uniqueness draws the students to the individual schools," White said.
Culver agreed, pointing out that being in a consortium with 12 other liberal arts institutions provides an opportunity to stand out for each institution.
"When you get a group of us into a room on the surface all of our colleges will seem similar, but if you begin to talk to the representatives you will find that they are very different," Culver said.
More than anything, Casey said, DePauw's development is driven by the institution's strengths and traditions and not just trends in the field.
"It's really interesting when you hear schools say, ‘we want to be another school.' DPU's been here 175 years," he said. "It has very localized idiosyncracies, strengths, characteristics, and has a rich and meaningful history."
— Andrew Maddocks contributed to this story.