Located about 30 miles north of Clemente in Chicago’s North Shore suburbs, Lake Forest College is a four-year private liberal arts college. The campus is an hour drive from the city, and the Metra rail line is a short walk from campus. In 1857, Presbyterian ministers formed Lind University as a Presbyterian alternative to Northwestern University (which was a Methodist school). Lind University became Lake Forest University in 1865. The university became co-ed in 1876 was renamed Lake Forest College in 1965. In total, Lake Forest has roughly 1,600 students on campus, including students from 47 different states and 81 countries. Approximately 86% of these students live on the tree-filled 107-acre campus. Lake Forest has 30 undergraduate major and minor programs to choose from, including programs in humanities, social science, natural science, communication, business, finance, and computer science, as well as pre-law and pre-medicine programs.
The average class size at Lake Forest is 19 students, and the student-to-professor ratio is 13:1. Unlike some universities, all classes are taught by professors, not by teaching assistants. All 178 members of Lake Forest’s faculty are required to hold a minimum of a doctorate (or equivalent). The professors regularly utilize undergraduate students in their studies and research projects. There are numerous active student groups on campus, including the student-run radio station (WMXM), the student government, the PRIDE organization (LGBT), and SPARK, which organizes entertainment and events on campus. There are also five sororities (Alpha Phi, Delta Delta Delta, Delta Gamma, Kappa Alpha Theta, and Alpha Kappa Alpha) and two fraternities (Delta Chi and Lambda Chi Alpha) on campus.